I still inside her, buried to the hilt, and she makes a sound of protest.
"Knox—why did you stop—"
I brush sweat-damp hair from her face. "I need to ask you something."
Her eyes search mine.
"I want forever." The words scrape out rough. "With you. I want to make you mine in every way that matters to an orc. A claiming bite, stronger than any human marriage."
Her breath catches. "Knox..."
"It's permanent, Sarah. It changes you. Binds us in ways you can't undo." I cup her face in my hands, making sure she sees the weight of what I'm offering. "You'll live as long as I do. A hundred and fifty years, maybe more. You'll heal faster. You'll feel what I feel—my pain, my rage, my grief. If I die, you'll know the moment it happens. If I'm hurt, you'll feel it in your own body."
"I know."
My brow furrows. "What? Who told you?"
"The girls." A small smile curves her lips. "I asked questions, Knox. I wanted to understand what I was getting into. What it would mean to be yours—really yours."
My heart slams against my ribs. "And you still want this? Knowing everything it means?"
"I want YOU." Her hands frame my face, thumbs stroking along my jaw. "I've been yours since that first night on the road, since you put a helmet on my head and told me to hold tight. The bite is just... making it official."
"Sarah—"
"Claim me, Knox." Her voice drops, steady and sure. "Make me yours forever."
I thrust deeper, grinding against her clit. "Come with me. When I bite you, come with me."
Her eyes lock on mine. Trust. Surrender. Forever.
"I love you." I breathe the words against her pulse point. "More than I've ever loved anything. More than the club, more than my freedom, more than the life I built running from my past. You're everything, Sarah. Everything."
"I love you too." Her voice breaks on the words. "Please, Knox. I'm ready."
I bite.
My teeth pierce her skin—not deep, not savage, but enough. Her blood blooms across my tongue, copper, salt and underneath it sweetness, the taste of home. Magic floods through me. Ancient orc magic.
Sarah gasps beneath me. Her eyes fly open—and for one heartbeat, they flash gold.
The bond snaps into place, a cord stretching between her heart and mine, and suddenly I feel her. Not just her body wrapped around my cock, but HER. Her shock. Her wonder. Her love, so bright and fierce it burns through me like sunlight.
I pull back, my mouth still wet with her blood, and watch the mark settle into her skin. It glows faintly for a moment—the magic finding its home—then fades to a permanent scar. My teeth. My claim. Visible to anyone who sees her.
"Knox..." She blinks up at me, dazed. "I felt... I felt your heart."
"That's because it belongs to you." I brush my thumb across the mark.
I move—just a small shift of my hips—and we both gasp.
The sensation hits me twice. My pleasure AND hers, reflected through the bond, amplified and returned. I feel myself inside her—the stretch, the fullness—at the same time I feel her tight heat gripping my cock. Two bodies. One feeling.
"Oh wow." Her nails dig into my shoulders. "Knox, I can feel—I can feel YOU—"
"I know." I thrust again, shallow, testing, and the doubled sensation nearly breaks me. "Fuck. I know."
Nothing in my life has prepared me for this. Every stroke sends pleasure cascading through both of us—mine bleeding into hers, hers flooding back into me, an endless loop that builds and builds with nowhere to go. She feels what I feel when I sink deep inside her. I feel what she feels when I hit that spot that makes her cry out.
