“You feel that?” I grunt, my pace relentless. “That heat spreading through you? That’s the bond. That’s me. I’m in your blood, in your bones. You’re full of me.”
“I feel it,” she gasps, her head thrashing side to side. Her hands are everywhere, clawing at my back, gripping my arms, fisting in my hair. “It’s… it’s everywhere. Don’t stop.”
I shift my angle, and her eyes fly wide. A broken scream tears from her throat.There.I hammer into that spot again and again, watching her come utterly apart beneath me. Her climax hits her like a seizure, her body clamping down on me in rhythmic, milking pulses that drag a roar from my own chest. The sensation is unbearable, a white-hot pleasure magnified a thousandfold by the bond singing between us.
I’m lost in it, in her. My own control shatters. My thrusts become shorter, harder, desperate. The pressure coils impossibly tight at the base of my spine.
Her nails dig into my back as I drive into her, each thrust deeper, harder, more possessive. She gasps, her legs tightening around my hips, pulling me deeper still. “Gods, Threx, you feel so good inside me,” she moans, her voice trembling with pleasure. “So fucking big, so deep. I can’t—I can’t get enough.”
Her words send a surge of primal satisfaction through me, and I grind into her, savoring the way her body clenches around me. “That’s it,” I rasp, my hands gripping her hips, holding her still as I pound into her. “Take every inch of me. You’re mine now, Elowen. All of you. Every scream, every moan, every drop of pleasure—it’s mine to give you.”
Her head falls back, her breasts heaving as I continue to fuck her with a relentless rhythm. “Yes,” she cries, her voice breaking. “Yours, Threx. All of it. I’m yours.”
I lean down, my lips brushing her ear as I whisper, “Does it feel good, princess? Does it feel good when I fuck you like this?”
Her answer is a cry of raw pleasure, her body trembling beneath me. “Yes,” she sobs. “So good. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”
I grin, a feral, possessive thing, and pick up the pace, driving into her with a force that leaves us both breathless. “You’re mine,” I growl, my voice low and dark. “And I’m never letting you go.”
Her nails rake down my back, and she arches into me, her body tightening around me like a vice. “Threx,” she cries, her voice breaking as she clings to me. “I’m—I’m going to?—”
“Come for me again,” I demand, my voice rough with command. “Come now, Elowen. Show me who you belong to.”
Her scream echoes through the cave as she shatters beneath me, her body convulsing with pleasure. And I’m right there with her.
“Look at me,” I demand, my voice raw. “Look at me when I fill you.”
Her glazed eyes find mine. I plunge into her one last, deep time, and let go. My release crashes through me, wracking my body, and I pump my seed into her depths, claiming her, marking her from the inside out. The bond doesn’t just hum, it sings a note of perfect, terrifying completion.
We collapse together in a heap of sweat-slicked limbs and heaving chests. The hell-born flame dims to a gentle glow, blanketing us. I’m still buried inside her, unwilling to separate, and she makes no move to push me away. Her fingers trace lazy patterns on the sigil over my heart.
“So,” she whispers, her voice hoarse but satisfied. “That’s claiming.”
I nuzzle her hair, inhaling the scent of sex and satisfaction andmate. “That’s only the beginning, princess.”
A quiet laugh escapes her, soft and tired in a way that carries none of the tension that haunted her only hours ago. She shifts slightly, curling closer beneath my arm until her head rests beneath my chin, her fingers tracing idle patterns across my chest as the lingering warmth of the bond hums steadily between us.
The cave is quiet now. The demonic light that once flickered along the stone walls has softened into a gentle glow, responding not to fear but to the slow rhythm of her breathing.
For the first time since the bond formed, the power feels balanced. Stable. Ours.
Elowen’s hand tightens slightly against me as sleep begins to tug at her exhaustion, and I wrap my arm more securely around her without thinking, drawing her closer.
Somewhere between the fire, the chaos, and the quiet strength she carries even now…
I have fallen completely in love with my mate.
25
ELOWEN
Morning arrives slowly in the forest. Soft light filters through the trees beyond the cave entrance, pale gold slipping between branches and moss-covered stone until it reaches the quiet hollow where Threxian and I lie tangled together on the bed of moss. The forest smells of damp earth and pine and the lingering warmth of last night’s firelight, a peaceful contrast to the smoke-filled devastation we left behind in Briarthorn.
For several long moments I remain still, listening. Birdsong drifts faintly through the trees outside the cave, tentative and cautious as though the forest itself is slowly deciding the world has not entirely ended. Somewhere deeper in the woods water moves gently over stone, the quiet trickle of a hidden stream.
And beneath it all I feel the lifeline. It no longer pulses with volatile heat or uneasy tension. Instead it hums softly inside my chest like a heartbeat that no longer threatens to explode. The connection feels calmer now, anchored by something deeper than fear.
Acceptance.
