I felt it happen. Felt the orgasm crash through her, felt her body clench around me, felt her pleasure cascade until I couldn’t tell whose sensation was whose. She cried out my name, her nails digging into my shoulders, her whole body shaking.
And I followed.
The climax tore through me with a force that whited out my vision. I spilled into her with a sound that was half roar and half sob, my hips jerking, my wings snapping wide. The bond blazed between us, golden light pouring from my skin, from her skin, turning the nest into something holy.
I felt something lock into place.
Not just physical. Not just the pleasure still pulsing through both of us. Something deeper. Something permanent. A thread connecting my heart to hers, unbreakable, eternal.
The mate bond.
Complete.
The light faded slowly. The pleasure ebbed. I became aware of my body again: the sweat cooling on my skin, the sweet ache in muscles I’d pushed too hard, the woman beneath me still trembling with aftershocks.
I was crushing her.
The thought penetrated the haze, and I shifted my weight, tried to roll off her. She made a sound of protest and pulled me back.
“Stay.” Her voice was wrecked. Hoarse. Beautiful. “Don’t you dare move.”
“Heavy.”
“Don’t care.” Her arms tightened around my neck. “Stay.”
I compromised. Shifted to the side just enough to take most of my weight off her, but kept myself half-covering her, one wing draped across us both like a blanket.
We lay there. Breathing. Coming back to ourselves.
I could still feel her, the warm glow of her satisfaction. The drowsy contentment settling over her thoughts.
I never wanted to move again.
“Hi,” she said after a long moment. Her voice was soft. Almost shy. As if we hadn’t just done what we’d done.
I laughed. Rough. Wondering. I hadn’t laughed in days.
“Hi.”
She turned her head to look at me. Her cheeks were flushed. Her hair was tangled. Her eyes were bright with tears she hadn’t quite shed.
“You came back.”
“You called me.” I caught her hand, brought it to my lips, pressed a kiss to her palm. “I will always come back when you call.”
“I thought...” She swallowed. “On the balcony. You weren’t breathing right. Your heart was stopping. I thought I’d lost you.”
“You saved me.”
“I didn’t know if it would work. The books said the bond required both parties to be, to be conscious, to consent, and you were barely there, and I just...” She was crying now. Quiet tears sliding down her temples into her hair. “I couldn’t lose you. Icouldn’t. So I just decided it would work and I wouldn’t accept any other outcome.”
That was so perfectly her. My practical, stubborn, magnificent mate. Deciding that the rules didn’t apply to her because she refused to let them.
“Wren.” I brushed the tears from her cheeks. “It worked. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” I kissed her forehead. Her closed eyes. The tip of her nose. “The bond is complete. You’re stuck with me now. For the rest of our lives, however long that is.”
