“Well, since we know it’s the bonding that triggers your passing out, they decided to leave us alone. That, and because you and I are still knotted.”
Heat flared in my belly as I met his stare. “Which means?”
Xerxes flipped us so I was lying on the bed and he hovered above me, grinding his hips. I sucked in a sharp breath, moaning. “I need you to come at least one more time around me, fated. I need you to milk my cock of everything I have.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be too difficult,” I barely managed, biting my lip. “It won’t take too long, either.”
I had no idea how long I’d been out for, but it mustn’t have been long. Before I knew it, my belly tightened with that familiar feeling of getting closer to the finish, and I knew I wouldn’t need too much more to be taken over the edge.
When Xerxes kissed me, moulding his mouth to mine, I felt my release rush through me. His tongue swept over mine, drowning out my cries. I waited for the darkness to tickle the edges of my vision, but it never came.
Xerxes groaned against my mouth, his thrusts pausing as he came. Again, I felt the hot flood of his release inside me, but with it came the decreasing pressure of his knot.
“You…” He trailed off and pressed his forehead against mine, breathing hard. “My mate.”
I giggled, wrapping my arms around him. “How much, uh, did Imilkyou of?” Because I could feel it dripping out of me, and unlike previous times with my mates, it felt like a lot.
Xerxes stiffened, pulling back enough to meet my stare. “Too much,” he replied, grunting. “If I pull out, you’ll leak everywhere.”
“Sexy.” Pressing my lips together, I kept my arms around him. “Could you carry me to the shower?”
The Primal raised a brow, nostrils flaring. “Are you prepared for what could happen?”
“I think my vagina is closed for duty,” I replied.
He said nothing as he rolled us off the bed, somehow keeping himself seated completely inside me. Sable’s visit in my dream felt far away as I finally got the chance to enjoy the post-bond haze again, even if it could only be brief.
“This world isunlike anything I imagined,” Xerxes said quietly, fingers trailing through my hair softly, “and neither are you.”
I wasn’t sure why that made me flush, but it did. “You aren’t so bad yourself,” I murmured, resting my cheek on his shoulder, splaying my fingers over his chest. “You know, for two people who just bound their lives together, we don’t know much about one another.”
“You’re right.” His hand stopped to cup the back of my neck, but he didn’t move. When I looked up, I found him staring out the window. No surprise, there was another storm, though this one was violent.
Wind howled with the ferocity of a god, tearing at the trees and blowing debris across the island. A branch flewpast the window before crashing into something beyond, while a tree cracked and bent under the force. I couldn’t see the ocean from here, but I had a feeling it was making its wrath known.
Xerxes covered my hand with his own. “What do you wish to know?”
I asked the first question that popped into my mind, which was important for me. “Do you have any family?”
Beneath me, Xerxes stiffened. “Yes,” he replied warily. “And no.”
I pushed onto my elbow to look into his eyes. There was a pain there that made my heart hurt; it was a pain I recognised all too well.
“They aren’t alive anymore, are they?” I asked quietly.
Slowly, my newest bond shook his head. “No. Not for a long time.” He stopped, though he didn’t take his eyes off me. The hand that’d been on my neck shifted to cup my cheek. “I had two mothers. The one who birthed me, and the one who loved me like her own. The male who would have been my father, brother to my second mother, died in athraxattack, so I didn’t know him. My mother died seven winters ago, her mate soon after.”
Tears burned my eyes as I watched the mournful way he gazed at me. “I’m sorry.”
A small smile played at his lips. “They would be proud of me, I hope,” he murmured, brushing his thumb under my eye. “More than that, I think they might be glad I haven’t had the same fate as my father.”
“I’m sure they are.” Leaning into his touch, I kissed the inside of his wrist. “You were a warrior or something, right? Or a guard?”
“Something like that,” he replied, guiding me to rest on his chest again, smoothing his hand down my bare shoulder. After our shower, we hadn’t bothered to get changed and instead were under the blankets together. It was nice, even though we didn’t have much time left.
“We are given options as children as to what we want to be that contributes to our clan. Warrior, midwife, farmer,butcher, storyteller, scholar, trader, healer. There are more, but those are most important,” he explained, tracing circles on my skin. “I wanted to be a farmer.”
I snorted, raising a brow. “Really?”
