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He curses, low and sharp, and the next thrust is brutal. His rhythm falters—just a second—but then he’s burying himself as deep as he can go, his whole body tensing. And he breaks. He comes inside me with a groan that sounds like it’s been trapped in his chest for centuries, hips jerking against mine, his cock pulsing as he spills into me—hot, thick, endless. I feel owned by it. Ruined. Marked from the inside out.

We’re still connected.

Still moving.

His cock softening slightly but not leaving me, not yet. His hands grip my hips, his forehead pressed to mine, both of us shaking.

And then his voice—quiet. Reverent. Honest.

“You’re mine now,” he says. “And I’m yours.”

Lucien

I wake mid-dream—or maybe mid-death. The burn in my lungs is so sharp, so visceral, it feels like something clawed its way into my chest and stitched fire through every vein. I sit up fast, gasping like I’ve been drowning, my hands white-knuckled in the sheets, chest heaving. The shadows in the room haven’t moved. The moonlight still cuts the same silver line across the floor. Nothing’s changed.

Excepteverythinghas. I know what this is. I fuckingknow.

Orin bonded with her.

And my body—this cursed, loyal, traitorous thing—recognizes it like a blade to the heart. I can feel it in the raw hollowness of my chest, the gravitational pull to her like it’s no longer suggestion but command. And I’ve never—never—felt anything like this. Not in the blood-soaked thrill of war. Not even in the high of Dominion.

This isn’t want. It’sneed.

Primal. Inescapable. And it has claws.

My legs swing off the bed before I’ve even registered it. My body moves toward her on instinct alone, like there’s a magnet somewhere inside my spine and she’s the only thing that will stop the ache.

No. No.

I sit back down so fast it rattles the frame. Fist clenched in the sheets, sweat bleeding down my temples, heart ricochetingagainst my ribs like it’s trying to break out and go to her without me. I drag in a breath, and another, but they don’t calm me.

I’m not supposed to feel this.Not like this. I’ve been in control for centuries. I trained myself to hold back, to wait, to deny the hunger, the bond,her. I let the others fall. Let them bind to her like fools with their hands outstretched for fire, and I stayed back because someone had to lead. Someone had to remain sovereign, detached, sane.

But sanity doesn’t feel like this.

This is desperation.

This ismine, something inside me howls. Something old. Something buried.

I clench my teeth, grinding them until my jaw aches. My fingers twitch. My Dominion wants out, wants to reach for her,call her, even now, across distance and stone and skin. But I can’t do that. I won’t.

If I find her now, I won’t be able to stop myself.

Because the truth I’ve buried for months is suddenly awake, prowling through my blood like it’s been waiting. Iwanther. I want to claim her, anchor her to me so no one else gets a piece I don’t own. I want her on her knees whispering my name, and I want her curled against me in the quiet just after, mine in every way that matters. I want her bonded to me because shechoosesit—and not because I couldn’t hold back.

But gods, it would be so easy.

One word. One brush of my power.

And she’dsay yes.

I press my hands to my thighs, shaking. My breathing comes shallow now. My body ishardwiredto find her. And the bond she gave to Orin—freely, deliberately—has triggered something older than any of us. Something even I can't command.

I grit out her name, low and ruined, and bury my head in my hands. I’m angry. No—furious.

Orin—Orin—didn’t warn me. He could’ve said something. A nod. A glance. A single fucking word. I would’ve prepared. I would’ve fortified the walls in my mind, wrapped my control tight like a noose and pulled. Gods, I probably would’ve run. Straight into the woods. Or into the Void. Anywhere buthere.

But I’m here.