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I revived her, and now I will cherish her.

“T-too tight,” she squeaked.

He compressed her just a little more, before loosening his hold.

With his hand supporting her arse and the rest of his arm locking her to him, he dug the claws of his free hand into her hair when he cupped the side of her face. He didn’t realise he’d been trembling until he tried to stroke her freckled, smooth cheek with his thumb.

Her blue eyes dilated and flicked between his bright-pink orbs, as her expression twisted into a mingle of joy and sadness all rolled into one at seeing them.

She reached up to hold one side of his jaw, like she wanted to hold him still. The openness of just a simple, subtle gesture of her delicate, soft palm, was enough to quench every bit of longing he’d had for her.

“So beautiful,” he firmly stated, before pressing the crown of his bony forehead against hers. “You are mine now, my little bride.” He trailed the tip of his claw behind the shell of her ear, enjoying that she shivered in reaction for him. “And you will not spend a moment apart from me. I have already proven that I will travel across existences to obtain you, rescue you, and keep you, and not even the afterworld can hide you from me. You aremine.”

“Thank you for coming to get me, Ingram,” she whispered with her eyes closed and twisting her head side to side so that the tip of her nose would brush the base of his beak. “Thank you for wanting to.”

He pulled back so he could look upon her fully. Even though she had taken this leap with him, he didn’t understand why she still had fears.

“Why would I not want to, Emerie?” he asked, simply so he could get to the root of her insecurities and pluck them from her.

“I’m not perfect,” she muttered while turning her gaze away, only for him to direct her back to him. “I’m a flawed person.”

She was perfect to him, and he would spend their entire lives together showing her this.

However, he decided to come at this from a different way, trying to use a piece of Emerie against herself by deflecting. To be cunning in the way she often was.

“I am also flawed,” he said, tipping his head. “So let us be flawed together.”

When she nibbled at her lips as though unconvinced, he had an urge to lean forward and lick across them to still her.

“You aretendertowards me, Emerie. You are stern when you need to be, and correct me when I need it, but you still give me the freedom to make up my own mind about the world and the decisions I have made. You aided me through a time in which I was very lost and confused, and helped me to see the world in a warm and colourful way again, when all I saw was blue and red, when all I felt were the emotions that go with them. You have shown me so much and have been patient and forgiving.” Then Ingram drew his claw from the back of her ear, down the side of her neck, so he could graze it down her chest. “And you are beautiful and sensual in ways that I had never imagined possible.”

To finish off his words, he circled his claw around her exposed, scar-marred nipple. She shivered for him, and it hardened from his caress.

She gasped, covering her chest as she shot her gaze around them. “Holy shit, I didn’t realise I was fucking naked!” Since she’d accidentally squished his hand against her bare breast, he gave it a knead before sliding his palm to her back. “Where are we?”

“We are in the Veil,” he answered, noticing that they were still in the safety of the sun by her orange hair glowing. It appeared silkier than ever. “But you will always be safe with me now,” he reassured, since she had a light fear scent.

It didn’t stir hunger in him like it had once before, only worry for her comfort.She no longer needs to fear me.And he no longer needed to fearhimself.

“I guess that’s true,” she grumbled, before lifting her arms to look at herself. She blushed, as she had the entire night, day, and then the following night she had been bared to him. “Why am I naked though? Is it because the blast destroyed my clothes?”

“You are asking the wrong person, little butterfly,” he said with a chuckle.

For once, she reminded him of Aleron from when they would both, foolishly, ask each other questions about the situation they had both been a part of. He found it quite humorous coming from her.

Instead of trailing just one finger over her, Ingram tickled all the claws of his free hand from the soft curves of her arse, all the way up the indents of her spine. She twitched and shivered while letting out a cute, raspy moan.

Even though her scent had turned tangy with light arousal just from the simple touch, Ingram felt no desire to have her mount him other than a singular throb behind his seam.

All he sought in that moment was her embrace. Her warmth, her scent, the soft outline of her body. Just Emerie and her essence up against his own.

He wanted to view her at his leisure so he could take in her supple skin, and the little dark-brown freckles that were scattered across it. The many white scars of claws that she had bravely survived, which allowed her to be in this moment with him. The burn scars that ran down the left side of her, that didn’t make her more or less, but were just part of what made Emerie, Emerie.

He touched every inch of her, satisfying his craving to brush either his claws, the pads of fingers, the backs of his knuckles, or his palms over her softness, her silkiness, and know that it all belonged to him. Just as every one of his scales belonged to her and would always welcome her gentle caress – or the scrape of her nails in their moments of sexual intimacy.

Even the tips of her hair were played with as he twirled his fingers around the ends to tangle himself in their trappings. All the while, her icy-blue eyes stayed on him, and he would occasionally peer into them so he could lose himself in their mesmerising depths.

His heart was overfilled with adoration for the female who was letting him touch how he wanted to, how he needed to.