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SERA

H e doesn't speak when I follow him out of the ruined throne room.

And I don't let him.

We move in silence, tension a blade between us, cutting deeper with every step.

He stops in the old war chamber—stone walls, high ceilings, echoes of war still clinging to every surface. We need to talk and this is as far as we can get before everything explodes.

He turns to me.

“You didn’t say why you came back,” he says, voice low, ragged.

I meet his eyes. “You didn’t ask.”

He exhales through his nose, fists clenched at his sides. “I didn’t think I was allowed to.”

My voice is sharp. “You think everything is about permission now? Where was that when you betrayed me?”

The words hit like a slap, but I don’t care. Let it hurt. Let it draw blood.

He steps toward me. “I had to?—”

“You chose to,” I hiss, cutting him off. “Don’t rewrite it.”

His jaw flexes. “And yet you’re here.”

“Do not mistake presence for forgiveness.”

His eyes blaze with pain and longing. “Then what the fuck is this, Sera? What do you want from me? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

Veylan chokes on the last sentence.

“I don’t know !” I shout. “I want to scream at you. I want to hurt you. I want to run—and I want you to chase me and never stop .”

He grabs me. Not harshly. Not gently. Just desperate . Like he's drowning and I’m the air.

I shove him back. “You don’t get to touch me!”

“You came back,” he snarls. “And now you want me to pretend like I don’t fucking ache for you? Every second? You’re in my blood, Sera. You never left.”

His words rip through me.

“I hate that I still want you,” I whisper.

“Then take it out on me,” he growls. “Rage. Bite. Bleed me. But stop pretending this isn’t real.”

I move first.

I slam him into the wall, fisting his collar and crushing my mouth to his. It’s not a kiss. It’s war.

He growls into my mouth, spins me around, pins me to the wall with his hips and kisses me like I’m something he’s waited a thousand years to have again. His hands are everywhere—my jaw, my ribs, my thighs.

“You hate me?” he pants, voice shredded.

“More than anything,” I breathe.

“Then let me feel it.”

Clothes tear. Armor crashes to the floor. His mouth trails fire down my throat as he hoists me up, presses me against the stone, slides inside me with a rough, perfect thrust that knocks the breath from my lungs.

I gasp. My nails rake down his back.

Gods, the pain and pleasure is killing me. He’s wedge in between my legs, hitting places I don’t know exists. My pussy creams, my honey gushing out of my cunt like a torrent. I’ve been keeping my desire in check, but now, it explodes between us.

“Harder,” I snarl as I pull his hair and brought his face closer to mine. Our breaths mingle. “Do me like you need me.”

His hands grip my thighs tighter, his hips slamming into mine, setting a brutal pace that has me seeing orbs of light. My legs tremble, and my toes curl.

“You feel this?” he growls as he surges forward and he hits me deep inside. “This bond? You think it went silent just because you ran?”

I moan, furious at the way my body betrays me. At how right it feels. How good this is.

“Fuck!” I scream as I come, my eyes rolling back as plesure hits me like an earthquake but he grabs my nape and kisses me, silencing my moan.

I bite his lips and we separate. My body’s so sensitive from the orgasm but he’s not done, and I want more.

“I hate you,” I whisper again, even as I roll my hips, meeting his thrusts, chasing that zenith again and again as I come down from the high and rose again.

“No, you don’t,” he growls. “You want me. Say it.”

I bite his shoulder, tasting blood, and he groans, his thrusts becoming even more erratic. My cunt grips him a like a vise, my stomach tightening with every movement. I’m close, so close, and I can feel him unraveling too, his control slipping.

We’re almost there, this time, together.

“I want to ruin you.”

“You already did.”

We fall to the floor—limbs tangled, breathless. He flips me beneath him, thrusts deeper, harder, until my scream shatters the silence. I arch, lost, undone, and when he comes, he curses my name like it’s both salvation and doom.

We lay there—sweat-soaked, silent, broken and open. After all the unforgiving passion subsides, all the emotions I’ve been holding back comes back in full force.

The pain, the anguish… and the love. My heart clenches. It’s not that easy to forget him.

Suddenly, Veylan speaks. Quiet. Hoarse.

“I want to mate with you.”

I go still.

He brushes damp hair from my face, eyes searching mine. His face is a picture of dread, sorrow, and hope. The passion has gone and is replaced by the yearning in his eyes that grabs my heart.

My chest aches.

“I want to make it eternal. Not because of the bond. Because of you,” he says in a voice so soft, I barely hear it.

I stare at him.

I might not have the answer yet, but I no longer run.

“Bring me to my room, Veylan,” I reply, voice hoarse with all that shouting.