He seals his bite and captures my mouth, kissing me deep, letting me taste my own blood on his tongue. His thrusts turn frantic, punishing, and I meet him stroke for stroke, both of us chasing the peak that's building between us.
The bond is a living thing now. Pulsing, growing, connecting us so completely that I can't tell where I end and he begins. A loop that spirals higher and higher until...
We break.
Together.
One orgasm shared between two bodies, so intense I lose myself in it. I feel him spilling inside me, feel his ecstasy crashing through the bond, feel our heartbeats stutter and then synchronize as we fall apart in each other's arms.
For a long moment, neither of us moves. Neither of us can.
He's still inside me, his weight a comfort rather than a burden. Our shared heartbeat pounds between us, gradually slowing from its frantic rhythm.
"I think you killed me," he murmurs against my hair.
"You're already dead."
"More dead, then." He rolls to the side, pulling me with him, keeping us connected. "Twice dead. Extra dead."
I laugh weakly. "That's not a thing."
"It is now." He pulls me closer, tucking me against his chest. "You've invented a whole new category of death."
I press my palm flat against his chest, feeling the heartbeat beneath my hand. Feeling the warmth of the bond mark.
"We have a heartbeat," I say softly.
"We do."
"Why us?"
"I don't know." He's quiet for a moment. He presses a kiss to my forehead. "I've stopped trying to understand it. I'm just grateful for it."
I snuggle closer, letting my eyes drift closed. The bond hums contentedly between us, warm and steady. His emotions settle over me like a blanket. Satisfaction, love, peace.
"We should probably talk," I murmur. "About Konstantin. About the trigger. About what comes next."
"Tomorrow."
"There's a war. And I'm apparently a weapon he can activate whenever he wants."
"The bond provides some protection. And tomorrow, we start figuring out how to remove it entirely." He tightens his arms around me. "Tonight, we rest. We've earned that much."
He's right. We have.
I let myself sink into his embrace, into the bond, into the heartbeat that connects us. Tomorrow there will be plans to make, enemies to face, and a kill switch buried in my blood that we need to find and destroy.
But tonight, I'm exactly where I need to be.
With him. Bonded. Whole.
Alive.
Sleep doesn't come immediately.
We lie tangled together, too sated to move but too wired to rest. The bond pulses between us, soft and steady, a constant reminder that we're connected now in ways that go beyond the physical.
"I can feel you thinking," Maximus says against my hair.
