Page 15

I lay in Rhaekar’s arms, our bodies still joined, the aftershocks of my release pulsing around him in gentle waves.

His heat radiated through me like a solar flare, burning away any doubt, any hesitation I might have clung to.

The bond between us—this cosmic connection he called fate-marking—throbbed like a living thing, golden threads weaving through my veins, lighting me up from the inside.

And yet, something in me knew we weren’t finished.

This wasn’t complete. The way his eyes tracked my face, pupils still dilated with desire, the tension in his powerful frame—he was holding back.

Still holding back, even after everything we’d shared.

His tail remained wrapped possessively around my ankle, a living tether binding us together.

I shifted slightly, feeling him still thick and hard inside me, the slight swell at his base keeping us locked together.

The sensation was foreign but perfect—like he was made to fit within me, to stay there until I’d taken everything he had to give.

“You’re thinking too loudly,” he murmured, one clawed finger tracing the curve of my cheek with impossible gentleness.

“I’m thinking about you,” I admitted, pressing my palm against the center of his chest where I could feel his heartbeat, strong and steady beneath my touch. Something pulsed there—warmer than the surrounding skin, a spot that seemed to call to me. “About this.”

His eyes darkened, those vertical pupils narrowing to thin slits. “The bond.”

“Yes.” I rolled my hips experimentally, gasping as the movement sent sparks of renewed pleasure shooting through my core. He was still so hard, still so deep. “It’s not finished, is it? There’s more.”

A growl rumbled from deep in his chest, vibrating against my palm. “There is. But you don’t have to?—”

I silenced him with a kiss, soft but insistent. “I want to know. All of it.”

He studied me for a long moment, those alien eyes searching mine for any hint of hesitation. His hand settled on my hip, large and warm, its weight both possessive and steadying.

“The full claiming,” he said finally, voice rough with restraint. “Among my people, fate-mates complete their bond through marking. A physical exchange that seals the connection. Makes it permanent.”

“The bite,” I breathed, remembering fragments from our shared dreams. The way his teeth had grazed my neck, the primal urge I’d felt to sink my own into his skin. “That’s what you’ve been holding back.”

His jaw tightened, muscles flexing beneath his spotted skin. “Yes.”

I traced the pattern of darker spots across his chest, fascinated by their symmetry, the way they seemed to lead me toward that warm pulse-point at his center. “And if we complete it? What happens?”

“We become one,” he said simply, the words heavy with meaning. “Your pleasure becomes mine. Your pain, mine to bear. Your life...” He hesitated, something vulnerable flickering across his face. “Bound to mine. Until death.”

The weight of his words should have terrified me. Should have sent me running for whatever portal had dropped me into this alien world. Instead, they settled into my bones like truth—inevitable, undeniable.

“Show me,” I whispered, shifting my weight, feeling his cock pulse inside me in response. “Show me what it means to be yours.”

His control snapped—just for an instant—his hands gripping my hips hard enough to bruise before he mastered himself again. “What you’re asking for...”

“I know what I’m asking for.” I braced my hands on his chest and lifted myself slowly, feeling him slide almost completely out of me before I sank back down, taking him deep. We both groaned at the sensation. “I’ve known since the first dream.”

Something fierce and primal flashed in his eyes as I began to move, setting a slow, torturous rhythm that had us both panting. His hands came to my waist, supporting but not controlling, letting me take what I wanted at the pace I chose.

I’d never felt power like this—astride this massive alien warrior, his body taut with restraint beneath mine, his eyes burning with need as I took him deeper with each roll of my hips.

He could have overpowered me at any moment, could have flipped me onto my back and taken control.

But he didn’t. He let me lead this dance, his breath coming in sharp bursts as I found an angle that sent sparks of pleasure shooting up my spine.

“You feel...” I gasped, circling my hips, feeling him fill me completely. “So good inside me.”

His claws extended slightly, pricking my skin just enough to make me shiver. “Made for you,” he growled, the words strained. “Kassari.”

The endearment—heart’s match—sent another wave of heat pulsing through me. I leaned down, pressing my body against his, skin to skin, letting my hardened nipples drag against his chest as I continued to ride him. The friction was exquisite, the weight of him inside me almost too much to bear.

“I feel it,” I murmured against his throat, feeling his pulse jump beneath my lips. “The bond. Like golden threads between us.”

His tail tightened around my ankle, his head falling back as I quickened my pace. “It will be stronger,” he promised, voice rough. “When the claiming is complete.”

I wasn’t sure when the line between wanting him and needing him had fully vanished. Maybe it was when he touched me like I was precious. Or maybe it was the moment I saw that flash of restraint in his golden eyes—when he was inside me, holding back even when I begged him not to.

But now?

Now I was riding him, my knees braced against his hips, and he was letting me lead.

His hands gripped my waist, steady and reverent, but his jaw was tight, his body trembling beneath me. It wasn’t because he didn’t want more. It was because he was holding back. For me.

I leaned down and kissed him.

Not like I had before.

I kissed him like he was mine. Like I knew the truth of every dream, every whispered promise, every soft growl he’d ever buried in the back of his throat.

He groaned into my mouth. “Jas...”

“Mark me,” I whispered against his lips. “Now.”

His hands clenched on my hips, but he didn’t move. “You need to be sure. Once it’s done?—”

“I am sure.”

I didn’t wait for his permission. I leaned in, and with a rush of boldness I didn’t even recognize in myself, I pressed my mouth to the thick curve of muscle where his neck met his shoulder—and bit.

Not to hurt him. But enough to say yes.

His breath caught.

And then something changed.

His body snapped beneath me like a cord had been cut. He flipped me gently, cradling me as he moved, and then lowered his mouth to my skin—just above my collarbone.

There was reverence in his eyes. And then heat.

The bite was sharp and deep.

But it wasn’t pain I felt. It was completion.

I cried out, not from the bite but from the sensation that followed—a rush of heat that flooded through my veins like liquid fire, pleasure so intense it bordered on agony.

The connection between us—already strong—burst into something transcendent, golden light pulsing behind my eyelids as I felt him everywhere, in me, around me, part of me.

“Rhaekar,” I gasped, clutching at his shoulders as he moved within me, his rhythm now fierce and claiming.

He withdrew his teeth from my skin, licking the mark he’d left, sealing it with something that felt like magic. His eyes, when they met mine, were wild with need, the vertical pupils fully dilated in a sea of molten gold.

“Mine,” he growled, the word more animal than human. “My kassari. My fate-mate.”

“Yours,” I agreed, wrapping my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper. “And you’re mine.”

The admission seemed to break something loose in both of us.

He drove into me with renewed purpose, each thrust hitting places deep inside that had me seeing stars.

His mouth found mine in a kiss that tasted of copper and desire, his tongue mimicking the rhythm of his cock as he claimed me completely.

I felt him everywhere—not just where our bodies joined, but deeper, in my mind, my soul, my very being. His pleasure fed mine in an endless loop, each sensation doubled, tripled, multiplied until I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began.

And at the base of his shaft, I felt it—the beginning of a swell that hadn’t been there before, pressing against my entrance, stretching me further with each thrust.

“What—” I gasped, the new pressure both alarming and intensely pleasurable.

“My knot,” he growled against my throat, his rhythm faltering slightly. “The claiming is complete. We’ll be locked together until my seed takes root.”

The primal nature of his words should have shocked me.

Instead, they sent another wave of heat crashing through my system.

The idea of being claimed so thoroughly, of being filled with his essence, marked me as his in the most ancient way possible—it triggered something deep and instinctual within me.

“Yes,” I breathed, tilting my hips to take more of him, to accommodate the growing swell. “All of you.”

He roared—a sound of triumph and possession—as his knot fully formed, locking us together completely. The pressure against my most sensitive spots was overwhelming, pushing me toward another peak just as his rhythm became erratic.

“Let go,” he commanded, one hand sliding between us to circle my clit. “Fall with me.”

The dual sensations—his cock buried impossibly deep, his knot pressing against nerves I hadn’t known existed, his fingers working magic against my sensitive flesh—combined with the doubled pleasure flowing through our newly completed bond pushed me over the edge.

I shattered with a cry that tore from the depths of my soul, my body clenching around him in rhythmic pulses that seemed to go on forever.

He followed immediately, his release triggered by mine, hot spurts of his seed filling me as his body jerked against mine. But unlike before, I could feel his pleasure as if it were my own—white-hot and all-consuming, racing through my veins alongside my own release.

The doubled sensations sent me spiraling into another climax, this one even more intense than the last. I clung to him, tears streaming down my face from the overwhelming pleasure, my body wracked with aftershocks that had me trembling in his arms.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured, gathering me close, rolling to his side to avoid crushing me with his weight. We remained locked together, his knot keeping us joined as the bond pulsed and settled between us. “I’ve got you, kassari.”

I buried my face against his chest, overwhelmed by the intensity of what we’d just shared. The mark on my collarbone throbbed, but not with pain—with a pleasant warmth that seemed to echo the one in my chest where my own bond-mark had formed.

“I can feel you,” I whispered, amazed. “Not just…physically. Inside my head. My heart.”

His arms tightened around me, one large hand stroking down my spine with infinite tenderness. “The bond is complete,” he confirmed. “We are one now, in all ways that matter.”

I traced patterns on his chest, fingers lingering over the spot where his bond-mark pulsed in time with mine. The connection between us was tangible now—a golden tether that hummed with energy, binding our souls together across species, across worlds.

“And now?” I asked, looking up at him.

His expression softened, those fierce predator eyes warming as they met mine. “Now we face whatever comes together,” he said simply. “As mates. As equals.”

I nodded, settling against him, feeling the steady thrum of his heart against mine. His knot would keep us joined for some time yet, a physical manifestation of the deeper bond that now linked us across dimensions more profound than mere flesh.

“The desert tech,” I remembered suddenly. “The Legion. Your duty?—”

He silenced me with a gentle kiss. “All secondary to you now,” he murmured against my lips. “You are my primary mission, kassari. My purpose. My home.”

The word—home—settled into my chest like a missing piece falling into place. I hadn’t had a true home in years, had been wandering from assignment to assignment, never putting down roots, never letting myself belong anywhere or to anyone.

Yet somehow, here on this alien world, in the arms of this warrior with his spotted skin and his fierce devotion, I’d found what I’d been searching for without even knowing I was looking.

“Mine to protect,” Rhaekar continued, his voice a low rumble against my ear. “Mine to cherish.”

I smiled against his skin, feeling the tug of sleep at the edges of my consciousness, my body satisfied and replete in a way I’d never imagined possible.

“And I’ll protect you too,” I promised, pressing a kiss to his bond-mark, feeling the answering pulse in my own. “Whatever comes for us in that desert, we face it together.”

His tail tightened around my ankle in silent agreement, his arms cradling me close as our breathing synchronized, our heartbeats finding the same rhythm.

The desert might hold dangers we couldn’t yet name. The Legion might demand answers we weren’t ready to give. The path ahead remained uncertain, fraught with challenges neither of us could foresee.

But we were bonded now—claimed and marked, two souls forged into one by forces older than either of our civilizations. And whatever storms awaited us beyond the shelter’s walls, we would weather them together.

Fate had decreed it. And for once in my life, I was perfectly content to follow the path the universe had laid out for me—so long as it kept me in the arms of my alien warrior, my protector, my heart’s match.

My Rhaekar.