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Her eyes, dazed with pleasure and the magical aftermath of our claiming, found mine. The silver of her irises seemed to glowwith an inner light, the first physical manifestation of the power our joining had awakened within her.

"One down," Archer murmured with a wicked grin, his hand still stroking Sierra's throat in a possessive gesture. "Two to go.”

16

Archer

Iwatched as Rowen cradled Sierra against him, their bodies still joined by his slowly receding knot. The sight of them together, my king and our mate, stirred something primal in me. My daggers materialized in my hands without conscious thought, my fingers twirling them restlessly as I waited for my turn.

The air in Callum's sanctuary crackled with magic. The recent earthquake had settled, but the flowers that had bloomed along the walls continued to pulse with an ethereal light. The scent of their nectar mingled with the heady musk of sex and power.

"She's ready for you now," Rowen said, his obsidian eyes meeting mine as he carefully separated himself from Sierra.

Her silver hair clung to her sweat-dampened skin, her chest still heaving from the intensity of her multiple releases. But her eyes—those remarkable silver eyes—found mine with unmistakable hunger.

"Archer." My name on her lips sent a jolt of electricity down my spine.

I banished my daggers with a thought and approached the bed, my gaze fixed on the evidence of Rowen's claim. His seedtrickled from her core, marking her as his in the most primal way—and yet, by the ancient laws that governed our kind, she wasn't fully claimed until all three of us had taken her.

I grinned, a manic edge to my expression that I couldn't suppress. "My turn."

With one fluid movement, I flipped her onto her stomach, reveling in her surprised gasp. My hands slid beneath her hips, pulling her up onto her knees while her upper body remained pressed against the furs. The position displayed her perfectly—vulnerable, open, and slick with Rowen's release.

"Going to fuck his come right back inside you," I growled, positioning myself behind her. "Going to make sure you're filled so completely that you'll never forget who you belong to."

Her response was to push back against me, her body seeking mine with an eagerness that made my cock twitch in anticipation. I wrapped one hand around myself, guiding the head to her entrance, circling it through her folds to gather the slickness there.

My claws extended involuntarily, the sharp tips pressing into the soft flesh of her hips as I lined myself up. Unlike Rowen, I didn't enter her slowly. There was no need for such gentleness now. Her body was ready, prepared by his thorough claiming.

With one savage thrust, I buried myself to the hilt.

"Fuck," I hissed, my head falling back at the sensation. She was hot, wet, and tight around me, her inner walls still spasming from her previous orgasms. The combination of her wetness and Rowen's seed created a slick heat unlike anything I'd experienced before.

Pure ecstasy.

I set a punishing rhythm immediately, my hips snapping forward with enough force to drive her into the furs with each thrust. My claws dug deeper into her flesh, not enough to break skin but enough to leave marks—my marks—alongside Rowen's.

"You feel that?" I demanded, my voice rough with desire. "Feel how deep I am? How perfectly you take me?"

Her answering moan was muffled by the bedding, which wouldn't do at all. I wanted to hear every sound, every gasp, every plea. Maintaining my brutal pace, I reached forward and fisted my hand in her silver hair, pulling her head back and up.

The arch of her spine was exquisite, a perfect curve that pushed her ass higher against me. I used my other hand to circle her throat, applying just enough pressure to make her breathing shallow, to remind her who controlled her pleasure in this moment.

"That's it," I praised as she gasped, her inner walls clenching around me in response to the dominant gesture. "Take every inch of me. Show me how much you need this cock."

Something shifted in me then. A pressure between my shoulder blades that I recognized with dread and excitement in equal measure. I tried to fight it, to suppress the part of my heritage that I'd spent centuries concealing, but the connection forming between Sierra and me was too powerful, too primal to deny.

With a sound that was half-groan, half-snarl, I felt my wings explode from my back, tearing through the skin in a burst of light and power. I gritted my teeth against the sensation. It was always painful, and always unwelcome, but in this moment, somehow right.

The massive wings unfurled behind me, spanning the width of the bed. Unlike the leathery appendages of a full demon like Rowen, mine were feathered. A stark reminder of my angelic mother, of the celestial blood that ran alongside the demonic in my veins.

I'd always hated them. Hated what they represented. A heritage that had seen me bartered away before I was even born, a consequence of my mother's naïveté and my father's treachery.In the underworld, they marked me as different, as other. Not fully demon, not accepted by angels. Trapped between worlds.

But here, in this sacred space, with our fated mate beneath me and my brothers at my side, I couldn't bring myself to hate them. Not when Sierra's eyes widened with wonder as she looked over her shoulder, not when her inner walls clenched around me at the sight.

"Beautiful," she whispered, the word a benediction that soothed something long-wounded inside me.

I felt Callum approach before I saw him. His presence at my side was familiar, comforting in its constancy. His hand reached out, fingers tentatively brushing against my wing. I couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through me at the contact. The feathers were sensitive, rarely touched, and certainly never with such reverence.