Page 96 of Daman

His heavy-lidded eyes regarded me through pale, icy lashes. Anyone who didn’t know him would mistake his expression for indifference. But I’d learned to read him over the weeks we’d spent together. The tell was in the slight crease of his brow and how his lips softly parted.

I knew he was close to orgasm when his abdomen started to tense.

Fuck. I was close too.

My wings folded around us, holding him. Warrin made a sound deep in his throat, like a crooning whimper. It tugged at my heartstrings.

This beautiful warrior had only known combat and sacrifice for six hundred years, never taking anything for himself. Whereas I’d kept everyone at a distance, never opening up. But I wanted to open up for him. I wanted to love and be loved.

I pressed my face against his neck and knotted my fingers in his silver hair, my release building as we moved together. My teeth throbbed, and my blood raced faster. Hotter. They lightly grazed his throat.

Warrin tipped his head back, exposing more of his neck. “Do it. Please.” He shuddered with the last word. “Make me yours,kotya.”

I bit him. Drawing blood wasn’t needed when marking a mate; the bitemark acted as a warning to anyone nearby that the person was claimed. But I wanted his scent all over me too. I wanted everyone to know who I belonged to.

As the taste of him exploded on my tongue, my orgasm crashed into me. His blood had a subtle sweetness that I couldn’t get enough of. Better than any drug. My head buzzed as his life force flowed into me.

Warrin groaned as I drank from his neck. His cock twitched, and his claws dug into my hips. When his balls drew up, he cried out. I tore from his throat and licked the bite mark, loving the way he shuddered and clung to me like I was the only thing keeping him grounded.

“Daman!” His eyelids fluttered as his thick cock pulsed. His orgasm kept going, drawing from him the sexiest moans. “It… it won’t stop.”

My wings held him closer, and I nuzzled his cheek. “I’ve got you.”

His voice cracked as another body-shaking release slammed into him. He filled me with so much cum it started to drizzle out of me. I’d heard that could happen between mates. Once one claimed the other, the sex was out of this world. Him being in his hybrid form might’ve had something to do with it too. Whatever the reason, I loved it. I loved being the one pleasing him.

As he started to calm, he sucked in a breath and buried his face against my neck. I rubbed his horn before kissing the side of it.

Neither of us spoke for a while, both of us lost in the post-orgasm haze. It was more than that though. We weren’t completely bonded as mates yet—that required a ritual that merged our souls—but still, I felt changed.

“I love you,” Warrin said, meeting my gaze.

“You sure that’s not just the orgasm talking?”

A slow smile spread across his handsome face. “I’m sure.”

I returned his smile. “I love you too.”

We’d done everything backward. Got married before we were even friends and had to learn about each other afterward. Our relationship had been built, stone by stone. Maybe we’d be stronger because of it too.

“We should probably take a shower.” I tucked my wings back into my shoulder blades. “Your cum is dripping out of my ass.”

Warrin blushed. “Apologies.”

“Don’t be sorry, you weirdo. I like it.” I got out of bed and grabbed his hand. “Come on.”

He linked our fingers and walked with me to the connecting bathroom.

After we washed off and changed the sheets, we crawled back into bed. The house was quiet. My brothers must be asleep now. As the wood crackled in the fireplace, I closed my eyes and tucked my head against Warrin’s chest. He kissed my hair and secured me in his strong arms.

I dreamed I was falling.

A silent scream touched my lips as I thrust an arm toward the sky, wind rippling through my clothes as my body neared the ground below. Before I hit the grass, the scene changed. I sat in a dimly lit cave. A dark-haired man with a scar on his face sat in front of me.

“Listen well, boy,” he said. “A great serpent will rise, and with him, an army of darkness.”

“What will he want?”

“You. Me. The entire world at his feet.” The edges of his face blurred, distorted. A flash of silver drew my eye to the necklace around his neck, one that held a glowing white stone. “Seven warriors… brothers… will fall by the serpent’s hand, and darkness will reign with their final breath. A dark night will swallow the world. It begins on a winter’s night many years from now, when snow freezes in the air. A power is awakened. That’s when you must remember this moment and return to the land beyond the forest.”