“I’m not even afraid of the bond anymore.”
“That,” he murmurs, “is more impressive.”
I reach for his hand. His fingers close around mine immediately, warm and strong.
“I’m choosing this,” I say.
The words settle between us with surprising certainty, and I realize they are truer than anything I have spoken since the night the alley changed everything. This is not fear or desperation guiding the decision. It is something steadier than that.
He has been nothing but a shield between me and the chaos that followed that night. When fear threatened to swallow me, he steadied my breathing. When the village turned suspicious and cruel, he stood unseen at my side. When danger came too close, he answered it without hesitation.
And every time I asked him to stop, he listened. The bond warms beneath my ribs as that truth settles into place. Whatever this connection between us may be—dangerous, ancient, incomprehensible—it has never felt like a cage.
If anything, it feels like standing beside someone who refuses to let the world crush me beneath its weight. My fingers tighten slightly around his.
“We work better together,” I add quietly, meeting his gaze. “Every time things spiral out of control, you’re the one helping me find my footing again.”
The faintest spark of surprise passes through his expression before something deeper replaces it.
“And you are the only reason this village still exists,” he murmurs.
The bond ignites. Not the destructive inferno that once answered my fear. This heat is different. Alive.
Threxian exhales slowly as his energy begins to gather around us like a living flame, curling softly through the air without touching the walls of the cottage.
“You have no idea what you are doing to me right now,” he says.
“I suspect I might.”
His laugh is low and dangerous.
“Careful, princess.”
“Why?”
“Because if you keep looking at me like that,” he murmurs, pulling me closer, “I am going to forget every ounce of restraint I have practiced this week.”
My pulse quickens.
“I thought demons were good at temptation.”
“We are.”
“Then stop resisting,” I say, and his control shatters.
His mouth crashes down on mine, a claiming that is all heat and possession. The kiss is deep, hungry, his tongue sweeping into my mouth with a growl that vibrates through my bones. The infernal flames swirling around the cottage roar higher, painting the room in shifting shades of crimson and gold, but the only heat that matters is the one where our bodies meet.
His hands are everywhere at once. One tangles in my hair, tilting my head back to deepen the kiss, while the other slides down my back, gripping my hip hard enough to leave a mark. I can feel the rigid length of him pressing against my stomach, a promise of what is to come, and a fresh wave of slick heat pools between my thighs.
He breaks the kiss, his breath hot against my lips. “You want to understand the bond?” he rasps, his voice thick with desire. “Then feel it.”
In one swift motion, he grips the neckline of my dress and tears it open. The sound of rending fabric is obscenely loud. Coolair hits my skin, followed instantly by the searing heat of his gaze. He looks at my bare breasts like a starved man, his molten gold eyes darkening to a smoldering amber. His arousal makes his eyes, more dark, more prominent.
“Mine,” he growls, the word a primal rumble. He palms my breast, his thumb brushing roughly over my nipple, and I cry out, arching into his touch. The bond is a live wire in my chest, singing with every stroke of his calloused fingers. “Every inch of you. Your skin. Your scent. Your pleasure. Mine.”
He bends his head and takes my nipple into his mouth. The sensation is electric, a sharp, sweet pull that goes straight to my core. He suckles hard, his tongue flicking, his teeth grazing just enough to make me gasp and clutch at his shoulders.
“Threxian,” I pant, my fingers digging into the hard muscle of his back, feeling the powerful shift of his wings as they stretch and flex behind him.
