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Air hissed between my teeth as he sunk deeper, eliciting a moan from me.

My vision clouded as I felt it—our connection. I’d assumed the mating bond was something instantaneous, something that snapped into place the moment it was consummated, but now that I was experiencing it, I could tell it worked another way entirely.

Or perhaps it was just different with a human.

I could feel it growing, strengthening, reaching out for Asher... who didn’t have a connection for it to grasp.

My vision cleared as Asher pulled away only to thrust into me.

I gasped out something incoherent, something that made him let out a husky laugh before he repeated the act. Again, and again, andagain.

My nails dug into his back as he pumped in and out, in and out, our bodies rocking together, our sweat mixing, our scents mingling.

He watched me the entire time, those eyes of his unguarded for once. He looked at me like I would save him, like I was saving him.

“So goddamn beautiful,” he murmured as he stared.

But he was wrong. He was the one who was beautiful, his face, his heart, his soul. I could still feel all that anger in him, caged and locked away at the moment, anger that he had let fester for years. I was sure that if we were together long enough, that if tomorrow didn’t kill us, I would see that anger dissolve away. I would help it dissolve away.

Asher’s hips stirred, and I ceased thinking about anything beyond where our two bodies met. I became almost mindless with ecstasy.

His thrusts quickened, the force of each one bringing me closer and closer to the edge. Our hips met again and again, each one, wondrous.

This was really happening. Us.

Asher knew what sex meant. He knew that a bond came with it. He knew that long before tonight, and still he lay with me.

This was no drunken mistake. He chose me every bit as much as I chose him.

Asher kissed me roughly, passionately, and that was enough.

Pure sensation ripped through me, pulsing again and again.

I cried out, my nails dragging down Asher’s back as I pulled him closer, drawing out my orgasm. I felt him thicken inside me, his swift breaths sounding against my ear. And then he was coming on the heels of my own climax, his body a machine as he drove into me with each wave of his release.

His hips slowed, gentling before I felt him leave me.

My mate.

Mymate.

This was everything I imagined joining to be. Intimate, forbidden, wonderful.

My connection to Asher, though incomplete, had formed, and it felt like a small flame that would grow the longer it lasted. And wrapped up in that bond was the very essence of all things pure and good.

I couldn’t stop my smile from blooming, even as my arms, my body, felt empty. It only lasted a moment. Asher gathered me to him, my body pressed against his.

Almost uncertainly, I placed a hand just below his sternum.

My chest, my man, my mate. A heady combo of happiness and satisfaction unfurled within me.

For better or worse, it was now him and me against worlds.

Chapter 20

Asher

After Lana fellasleep in my arms, I untangled myself from her and swung my legs off the bed to stare at the floor, fingers knotted in my hair. It hurt to breathe, to lay, to think.