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He didn’t linger.He pulled away slowly, rising with that same silent grace.I lay there, gasping, slick and spent and trembling, my body marked and stretched, but still aching for more.
Garrett waited at the edge of the room.
He hadn’t touched me all night, but he’d seen everything.The way he watched me now—tense, reverent, starving—told me this was never just sex for him.This was something else entirely.A ritual.The final bond.
The bear.The leader.The one who had carried centuries of pain on his shoulders.Now he approached, and something in his eyes cracked me wide open.
He knelt between my thighs, hands planted on either side of my waist.His chest gleamed with sweat, muscles flexing with each breath, old scars catching the firelight like pale lightning.“Tell me it’s still what you want,” he said, voice hoarse, rough with something deeper than need.
“I’ve never wanted anything more,” I whispered, my voice shaking with exhaustion and love.
He didn’t move right away.Just looked at me like he needed to memorize this… me, before everything changed again.Then he pulled me toward him.His cock pressed against my entrance, already thick, already leaking.The moment he pushed inside, I gasped.My head fell back.My legs locked around his waist.He filled me completely, perfectly, like he was made for me.His rhythm was slow.Deep.Measured.Each thrust carved into me like a vow.
His hand tangled in my hair.He kissed me… soft, possessive, endless.His lips traced down to my heart, where he whispered, “Lunara… my light.Our salvation.”
Every stroke of his cock sent pleasure flaring through me, a current of heat and magic and something more.The others gathered around us, their eyes glowing, their bond pulsing like a second heartbeat through my body.Garrett’s pace stayed steady, but the world shifted around us.The air thickened.The energy changed.Magic built.Pleasure climbed.
I came first… shuddering, gasping, legs pulling him closer as I clenched around him.Garrett followed with a roar that rattled the windows.His body surged against mine as he came, cock twitching, spilling deep inside me.
And then he didn’t move.
We stayed locked together, my arms wrapped around his shoulders, his forehead pressed to mine.The others closed the circle around us, their bond surging between us like lightning.
For a moment… I felt it.The magic.The air shimmered.Something inside the curse trembled.The seven looked at each other, hope dawning in eyes that hadn’t seen it in centuries.
Then the sun rose.
The light crept through the cabin window.And the snarls returned.
Garrett lurched away from me with a roar, falling to his hands as the curse slammed into him.Bones cracked.Skin split.Fur spilled across his back like a wave.I scrambled back, sobbing as one by one, they changed.
Nikolai’s skin shimmered, turning to scales.Cassian’s body twisted, shrinking as fox fur overtook him.Leif screamed as wings tore through his shoulders.Evander dropped to his knees, antlers erupting from his skull.Ronan howled as fur spread across his chest.Kade melted into sleek shadow, becoming a panther before my eyes.
And Garrett.My Garrett.He swelled, his roar turning into a growl, his human eyes the last thing to vanish as the bear took over.
“No…” I whispered.“No, no, no.”
We’d bonded.I’d given myself to all of them.It should have worked.
Garrett’s voice broke through the change, barely human.“We took her.We bonded.We have her heart.”
He collapsed to all fours.Fur overtook the last of his form.
“Why,” he growled, the word shattering in his mouth, “are we still cursed?”
Seven beasts stood before me.Seven pairs of eyes stared into mine, still them… and not.
I reached for Garrett, my fingers trembling as they sank into thick fur.“I’m sorry,” I sobbed.“I thought I could save you.”
The bear leaned into my touch.A low, mournful rumble echoed from his chest.The curse had not lifted.
But something inside me hardened.
I wasn’t going to give up.
Not now.
Not ever.