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“No.” Ryneth sniffed hard, furious. “Fuck you.”
Even half out of it, he was beautiful.
Daven crossed the space between them before he could retreat. He caught Ryneth by the waist, dragged him flush against his chest, and kissed the corner of his mouth. Then his temple.
“Not just the Academy,” he murmured. “Every public screen in Helion. The whole planet saw me claim you.”
Ryneth made a small, wrecked sound and shoved at his chest, but Daven only held him tighter. “You made me stand there while they stared at me.”
“I wanted no confusion about who’s mine.”
“But then why—” Ryneth cleared his throat, looking away. “Why not bring me with you?”
“Because I don’t put what’s mine on display before I can protect it.”
That wasn’t entirely true. He’d spent the entire morning pushing his uncle to let him make the claim. Safety, or the lack of it, had finally tipped the scale, but Ryneth didn’t need to know that.
He had secured the right to claim him in front of the planet, and he had won. Now the man he’d fought for stood in his living room, breathing hard and ready to fight him for every inch.
Ryneth crossed his arms, but when he spoke, the anger in him faltered around the edges. “I couldn’t breathe,” he confessed, still staring somewhere over Daven’s shoulder instead of at him. The words came out rough, dragged up from somewhere deeper than pride.
Daven felt it at once. Ryneth was trying to hold on to the anger, but it was already slipping. What had rattled him wasn’t just the claim. It was being seen. Wanted. Dragged into the open while his own body betrayed him.
“I couldn’t—”
The words broke apart before he could finish. His static erupted instead, bursting from his skin in a sharp crackle. Silver flashed along his forearms. The overhead lights flickered. The glass trembled.
Of course. Cornered enough, frightened enough, and his body reached for the one thing that had always protected him.
“Are you afraid, baby?” Daven took a step forward.
Ryneth pressed his lips into a tight, trembling line, but didn’t answer.
“Are you angry with me?” He took another step, slowly lifting his hands.
“Back off,” Ryneth snarled.
“Oh no. I’m afraid I can’t do that. You’re mine, you see? And after tonight, you won’t be only mine to satisfy, but also mine to protect.”
Daven took a final step. Let the current bite against his chest. Let it crawl along his throat. The Dariux in him stirred in answer, and it was waking the part of him that thrived on control and heat.
His wind rose. It curved outward in a slow, tightening spiral, wrapping around the flare of static and pressing it inward until the energy formed a humming sphere between their bodies.
The energy tightened between them until it became one hard, humming line.
Ryneth’s breath came faster. “You don’t get to decide my life.”
“When your life binds to mine, I do.”
“Who said it binds?”
Daven stepped closer until their heat merged. “Say you don’t feel this.”
Ryneth said nothing, but his pulse beat hard at his throat.
“Say you don’t feel me every time I walk into a room.”
His gaze dropped to Ryneth’s mouth. To the faint mark he’d left there the night before. The memory surged through him. The way Ryneth had trembled when he’d held him close. The way his body had yielded even while his pride fought.
