“My mate can’t be my jailer,” I say, almost choking out the sentence as I hold back another sob. I’m so relieved to see him, so relieved that he is ok, but we still have so much to face, and I can’t do it if I’m shut away. More tears run down my face.
For a heartbeat, his face does something I've seen only once before—the day I refused him in front of his warriors. Rejection. Fury riding in right behind it. His grip on my wrists tightens.
His eyes bore into mine. Then he releases my wrists and steps back.
"All my life, I have led warriors," he says slowly. "Command works on warriors. I give orders. Build cages and walls." His jaw flexes. "You are not one of my warriors. You are my bride. And I have led you like a soldier and guarded you like a treasure. Both have nearly killed you."
"Rythar—"
"I trusted you with less than I trust Drenz." The words come out raw. "You felt the lie in the High Lord’s image with what the Stone gifted you. You felt the wrongness in our connection. Drenz could not have sensed it. And you made the antivenom. Your brilliance with new techniques on a new world saved my life, and the life of my warrior." His eyes drop to the bride mark on my finger. "The Stone did not give the biome lords each a female to keep. It gave us something else. Equals. How, I do not know. I was taught that females are weak. And your bodyisweak." His eyes lift back to mine. "But strip the jungle from me, and I am flesh and bone. You are flesh and bone—and the jungle has begun to pour into you through me. Perhaps that is what the Stone built you for. Not to stand behind me. To stand with me."
He drags a hand down his face, and when it drops, the wrathful warlord is gone. What's left is just him.
“What do you want me to do?” I ask, voice breaking.
"I know how to please you. How to care for your body. How to hold you. But I do not know how to be held by you. I am asking you to teach me."
The mate bond is roaring in my blood, but that’s not why I move closer to him. It’s because he’s taken down the wall.
"I am your mate," he says, and for the first time it doesn't sound like a claim. It sounds like a surrender.
The mate bond burns, pulling me to him. Every nerve is awake, screaming for him. I let it run through me. I grip Rythar’s biceps, and he has me pressed against the wall again, wrists pinned again. But this time, it feels different. Whatever isrunning through me right now, this is the best I’ve ever felt in my life. I want to drown in it. I squirm upward, press my mouth to his, kiss him deeply, give him a bite.
Rythar takes it. Gives it back.
He lets go of my wrists, drops me down, and backs away an inch. I reach up, dig my fingers into his hair, tugging him down to me. I want to crawl into his bones.
He leans against me for a moment. “You’re sharing my energy again,” he breathes.
“Don’t stop,” I plead.
He tears my clothes off like they’re paper, the fabric shredding in his grip. His hands are everywhere, my throat, my waist, my ass. Then his mouth is everywhere as he shreds his own clothes. He lifts me, wraps my legs around his hips, and pushes me back against the stone as his hard cock pushes against my core. I gasp, and he bites my neck, his teeth dragging across my skin.
“This won’t be gentle,” he pants. “Not this time. The jungle is inside me right now, and it wants you rough. If you don’t want this, say it now. Go.” His voice is ragged, almost tortured with the strain of holding back.
I don’t want him to hold back. I’m liquid in his arms. I answer with a moan, rubbing my soaked center against his waist as my legs wrap tighter around him. Being away from him, then together again, then feeling his connection to the jungle has made my need for him a hundred times stronger. Everything sings through me, demanding that I take him in.
He growls, a sound so deep I feel it more than hear it. He grinds his cock against me again, hard and leaking, the head already wet and ridged with the alien texture that will send jolts of pleasure through me with every stroke. He lowers me slightly, and the heat of his root against my core makes me buck against him.
I try to reach between us, but he’s pressed tightly against me. One of his hands slides down, pushing two thick fingers up inside me.
I arch against him, cry out.
"I need—" he starts, and doesn't finish. His fingers curl inside me until I shudder and clench around him. He slides his fingers back out, spins me around, and places me onto the bed on my hands and knees. He covers me, his weight perfect, his hand pressing between my shoulders blades as he lines himself up and drives into me in one deep thrust.
Rythar fills me so completely that I lose my mind for a second and scream in pleasure.
He fucks me like he’s trying to erase the separation from the timeline. Every thrust is a claim, every grunt a promise that I will never be out of his reach again.
His teeth close on the back of my neck as the moss glows around us. The whole cave feels alive, pulsing in time with his rhythm.
He controls it.
The jungle vines move around us, sliding over the two of us, coiling around my arms and legs. They hold me tight as they lift me off the bed until I’m suspended, swinging gently. They’re as gentle as Rythar’s usual touch—soft but firm. But right now I don’t want gentle. I want it harder and faster. Rythar’s eyes darken as he takes in the sight of me, naked and supported by the jungle that obeys him.
He moves closer to me, his cock shining with my slick as he drags the tip against my core.
"I should punish you for your disobedience," he whispers. "But I tried anger, and distance, and talking, and none of it kept you safe. So I will try this instead."
