I don't waste another second, and I pull his face down to mine.
"You're mine, and I'm yours," I yell through the explosion of the self-destructing droids behind us before I slam my mouth to his.
Every muscle in his body freezes as we kiss. I slip my tongue between his lips, not knowing if this is what we need to complete the mating ceremony.
Nothing happens, and I kiss him harder.
"Mekkra, come back!" I sob into his mouth.
I can taste the salt of my tears mixing with the coopery tang of his blood.
At first, it's so small I think it's just another explosion behind us. A spark, not outside, but between us.
A heat erupts where our mouths meet, a coal suddenly breathed into life. It sizzles across my tongue, metallic and bright. For a second, I choke on it, thinking it's more blood.
But it isn't a fluid, it isn't really corporal…it's simply light.
It spreads down my throat and into my chest like lightning finding its way into my veins. My lungs seize as something otherworldly rushes down my spine and out my fingertips where I clutch his face.
As I become a beacon, Mekkra jerks. His hands tighten over the bodice of my gown, and a pulse of energy explodes between us.
There's a sound like ice breaking across a frozen lake. My vision floods white, and I gasp as the energy between us grows stronger, hotter, pouring out of me and into him.
Or is it the other way around? I can't tell anymore, it's like I'm caught in the eye of a hurricane.
Strange symbols flash behind my eyes, stars colliding, planets crumbling, then nothing butMekkra. His body shakes, and his fangs scrape over my lip as he draws in a trembling breath.
The light grows until the whole room is a blinding white, and for a heartbeat the exploding droids behind us freeze, metal combusting in air, motionless like they're epoxied in place.
Then the light dives into Mekkra, all of it.
The warlord rips back from the kiss with a yelp, and his blazing eyes snap open. They're clear, burning, and alive. The pupils contract to pinpricks before he grabs me.
"Mine!"
The words rip from his throat as the world speeds back to its regular motion. The clank of metal is all I hear as he kisses me more passionately than I've ever been kissed in my whole life.
When we're forced to breathe, he stares at me like I've just brought him back from the dead—his chest heaving.
"You completed the mating ceremony," he whispers hoarsely. His forehead drops to mine. "I heard you. In the darkness of my mind, I heard you—you should have left."
"I couldn't leave my mate behind."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Mekkra lifts me from behind the crate and throws me over his shoulder. Even though he's injured, he's still so incredibly strong.
"Hey!" I yell.
"My mate," he keeps muttering as he carries me down the corridor. "She's my mate."
He puts me down on the foot of his bed, stomping over the remnants of my ball gown to get us there, and then he takes me all in.
"You're perfect," he breathes, his gaze dragging up my thighs. His eyes are so different now that he's free from the dark parts of his mind, and I feel like he's looking at me for the first time…that he's truly seeing me.
…and I want him to.
I take his hand by the wrist and push it to the apex of my thighs, just under the ripped red ruffle. He sucks in a breath as he feels the heat of me, and I do the same as he spreads my slick folds.
