Page 39

THIRTY-NINE

KAEL

T he twin moons hung low by the time they returned to the high chamber—their chamber now.

Selene stepped into the space like she belonged there.

Like she had always belonged there. Her veil-thin gown clung to the curve of her spine, her bare feet silent against the stone floor, her black hair a living thing in the moonlight.

She glanced over her shoulder once, lips parted, breath catching when she saw him standing there, still at the threshold.

He was still in armor. Still holding onto the idea that this wasn’t real. Until she reached for him.

“Kael,” she said, soft but sure.

His name had never sounded like that before. Not from her. Not from anyone.

He shut the door.

The soft thunk of it closing was the sound of the world falling away.

She met him in the center of the room, her fingers finding the clasp of his cloak. He let her undo it, let her tug the leather from his shoulders, every piece of steel and cloth falling away like weight he hadn’t realized he was still carrying.

“You don’t have to—” he started, but she silenced him with a look.

“I’m not doing this because I have to,” she whispered. “I’m doing this because I want you. All of you.”

Kael’s throat worked.

She slid her hands up his chest, over the fresh linen undershirt, then under it. He shivered.

Not because of cold. Because he’d never felt like this before. Like his body belonged to someone else and himself at the same time.

She pressed a kiss over his heart.

He made a sound, low and reverent, and cupped the back of her head.

Her mouth moved to his jaw, then his throat, then lower. Every inch she kissed felt claimed, blessed, ruined.

And then he stopped her. Not with resistance. With need.

He picked her up like she weighed nothing and laid her down across the fur-draped bed. Her eyes were wide, lips parted, and she watched him like he was something sacred. She was bare already—gown pooled at her waist—and he drank her in like the first sunrise after years of night.

“Are you sure?” he asked, voice rough.

She reached for him, eyes never leaving his.

“I’m already yours,” she said.

But he shook his head.

“Not just mine.”

She blinked.

“I’m yours too,” he whispered. “And if we do this— if I mark you tonight—it’s forever.”

“I want forever,” she said without hesitation.

That did him in.

He kissed her then—slow, deep, like he wanted to memorize the taste of this promise. He let his hand trail down her side, her thigh, back up to her ribs where her heart raced like a drum beneath skin.

She moaned softly into his mouth, arching toward him.

“Please, Kael…”

He didn’t make her beg twice.

Kael sheathed himself inside her in one slow, reverent push.

Her back arched off the furs, a gasp catching in her throat as her nails scored his shoulders.

Her heat clenched around him, slick and urgent, and he groaned against the sweat-damp curve of her neck.

“Look at me,” he rasped, thumb brushing the pulse fluttering beneath her jaw. “Look at me when I’m inside you.”

Her eyes opened—dark as the space between stars, pupils blown wide. “You feel…” Her breath hitched as he withdrew almost completely, then thrust deeper, angling his hips to press where she trembled. “ Gods , Kael?—"

“Say it again.” He nipped her earlobe, relishing her shudder. “My name. Like it’s the only word you know.”

She laughed, breathless, hips rolling to meet his next thrust. “Arrogant bastard.”

“Yours,” he corrected, dragging his mouth down her throat.

Her hands fisted in his hair, urging him lower.

He obliged, tongue swirling over a peaked nipple before sucking hard enough to make her cry out.

Her thighs tightened around his hips, heels digging into the small of his back as he set a rhythm that had the bed’s ancient wood creaking.

Every slide of his cock into her molten core drew ragged sounds from them both—half-formed words, bitten-off curses, the raw music of skin meeting skin.

When his teeth grazed her shoulder, she went rigid beneath him. “Do it,” she panted, nails biting crescents into his biceps. “ Now. ”

He sank his canines into the tender junction of her neck, the taste of her blood blooming sharp and metallic on his tongue.

Her climax tore through her like a storm, back bowing as she shattered with a sob.

He drank the salt of her skin, the bond between them flaring white-hot as ancient magic stitched their souls tighter than flesh.

“Mine,” she gasped when he finally lifted his head, thumb smearing blood across her kiss-swollen lips. “You’re mine .”

He captured her mouth, letting her taste herself on him.

“Always.” His thrusts turned erratic, desperate, her inner walls milking him as her aftershocks dragged him over the edge.

He spilled into her with a groan that shook his entire frame, forehead pressed to hers as the world narrowed to the hitch of her breath, the flutter of her lashes against his cheek.

They lay tangled long after, her leg hooked over his hip to keep him buried inside her. Moonlight gilded the sweat-sheened planes of her body as she traced the scar bisecting his ribs. “You’re staring,” she murmured, a smirk playing at her mouth.

“You’re naked.” He nipped her thumb when it brushed his lower lip. “And breathtaking.”

She rolled her eyes, but the blush staining her cheeks betrayed her. “Poetic for a man who growled ‘harder’ three times.”

He flipped her onto her back in one fluid motion, grinning at her yelp. “You liked the growling.”

Her laughter faded as he kissed his way down her stomach. “Kael?—"

“Hmm?” He glanced up, lips hovering over the thatch of dark curls. “Problem, wife?”

Her throat bobbed. “Just… don’t stop.”

He didn’t.

Later, with her marked and sleeping beside him, her scent wrapped in his every breath, Kael stared at the moons above and whispered into the dark:

“She chose me.”

And this time, he chose himself too.