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“You’re beautiful,” I said, the words inadequate for what stirred within me. “The mate that the universe provided for me.”

Her lips curved into a smile. “Do you know my name, desert cat? Or am I just prey to you?”

I leaned closer, inhaling deeply at the pulse point beneath her jaw where her scent was strongest. “Jasmine,” I breathed, tasting the name on my tongue. It felt right. Familiar. As though I’d been waiting to speak it my entire life.

Surprise flickered across her features. “Not fair. You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

I lowered my body over hers, careful to keep my weight on my forearms as I brought my mouth to the delicate shell of her ear. My tongue traced its curve, enjoying how she shivered despite the heat.

“You already know it,” I whispered, letting my fangs graze her earlobe. “And I’ll make you say it in pleasure.”

Her breath caught, pupils dilating as arousal flooded her scent. “Tell me,” she demanded, hands coming up to tangle in the fur at the back of my neck.

I growled, allowing her to pull me down for a kiss that started gentle but quickly turned hungry. “You will say it.”

“Rhaekar,” she said on a sigh.

Her mouth was sweet, eager, opening to me as I claimed her with lips and tongue and the careful edge of teeth. I tasted her desire, felt it echo in my own body as my cock hardened against the confines of my sleep pants.

I trailed my mouth down the column of her throat, nipping at the sensitive juncture where her shoulder began.

Each bite drew a gasp from her lips, each lick soothed the sting.

I moved lower, tugging at her clothing that melted away as dreams allow, revealing her breasts—full and perfect, nipples pebbled with anticipation.

I took one into my mouth, suckling with deliberate pressure, watching her face contort with pleasure. Her back arched, pressing more of herself against me as my tongue swirled around the tight bud. My hand found her other breast, kneading the soft flesh before rolling her nipple between my fingers.

“Yes,” she hissed, her hips rising to seek friction against mine. “More.”

I obeyed, alternating between her breasts, learning what made her squirm, what made her moan, what made her grab fistfuls of moss beneath her. When I scraped my fangs lightly across one nipple, she cried out, her entire body shuddering.

“So responsive,” I murmured against her skin, working my way down the flat plane of her stomach. “So perfect for me.”

Her thighs parted willingly as I settled between them, my broad shoulders keeping them spread wide. I pressed my face to the junction of her thighs, inhaling deeply, my growl of approval vibrating against her most intimate flesh.

“Please,” she whispered, one hand coming down to tangle in my hair.

I nipped at the tender skin of her inner thigh, marking her with gentle bites that made her whimper. “Please what, Jasmine? Tell me what you want.”

“Your mouth,” she gasped. “Your tongue. Taste me. Please, Rhaekar.”

My name on her lips sent fire racing through my veins. I rewarded her by parting her folds with my thumbs, exposing the glistening pink of her sex to my hungry gaze. She was already wet for me, slick and swollen, her clit peeking from its hood, begging for attention.

I gave it gladly, a broad lick from her entrance to her clit that had her bucking against my face. I held her hips firmly, keeping her in place as I devoured her, alternating between teasing flicks and firm pressure, learning what made her thrash and what made her beg.

When I slipped a finger inside her tight heat, she clenched around it immediately, her inner walls gripping the digit like a vise. I added a second, stretching her gently as I continued to work her clit with my tongue. Her taste was addictive—sweet and tangy and uniquely hers.

“Rhaekar,” she moaned, her hips moving in rhythm with my thrusting fingers. “I need you. Inside me. Now.”

I rose above her, my sleep pants vanishing as dream-logic asserted itself once more. My cock jutted proudly from the nest of coarse fur at my groin, thick and heavy with desire. Her eyes widened, a mixture of awe and trepidation crossing her features.

“I will fit,” I assured her, positioning myself at her entrance. “We are made for each other.”

I pressed forward slowly, watching her face for any sign of discomfort as I stretched her inch by inch. Her wetness eased my way, her body gradually accepting my girth with little gasps and moans that drove me to the edge of my control.

“More,” she demanded, wrapping her legs around my waist to pull me deeper. “Faster.”

But I maintained my pace, refusing to rush this first joining. “Patience, little mate. I want this to last.”

Her frustration manifested in nails digging into my shoulders, in teeth nipping at my collarbone, in increasingly urgent rolls of her hips. “Please, Rhaekar. I need it hard. Fast.”

I chuckled, enjoying her desperation even as it stoked my own. When I was fully seated within her, I stilled, savoring the perfect clutch of her body around mine. “Is this what you want?” I asked, grinding my hips in a slow circle that pressed against her sensitive spots.

“No,” she growled, surprising me with her ferocity. “I want you to fuck me like you mean it.”

Something snapped in me then—the last tether of restraint giving way to primal need.

With a growl that rumbled from deep in my chest, I withdrew almost completely before slamming back into her.

Her cry of pleasure spurred me on, and I set a punishing rhythm that had the moss beneath us compressing with each thrust.

Her climax built quickly under this new assault, her inner walls fluttering around my cock as I drove into her again and again. When she came, her back bowed off the ground, my name tearing from her lips in a hoarse cry that echoed through the oasis.

But I wasn’t finished. Before her spasms had fully subsided, I flipped her onto her stomach, pulling her hips up and back to meet my renewed thrusts. This position allowed me even deeper penetration, and I growled my approval as I slid back into her welcoming heat.

My hand fisted in the tangle of her hair, pulling just enough to arch her back at the perfect angle. She moaned, pushing back against me, meeting each thrust with eager movements of her own.

“Again,” I commanded, reaching around to circle her clit with firm, quick strokes. “Come for me again, Jasmine.”

Her second orgasm hit harder than the first, her entire body convulsing as she cried out wordlessly. The rhythmic clenching of her inner muscles around my cock triggered my own release, and I roared as pleasure crashed through me in waves.

I woke with a jolt, my body still pulsing with the aftershocks of intense pleasure. Jets of my seed pumped onto my abdomen, my fist tangled in the sheets I’d twisted in my sleep. My breath came in ragged pants, my heart hammering against my ribs like a caged animal.

A unity dream. And not just any unity dream—one so powerful, so real, that my body had responded as though she were truly in my arms.

I cleaned myself with quick, efficient movements, my mind racing with the implications. Unity dreams only happened when fate mates were in close proximity. The stronger the dream, the closer the mate.

And this dream had been stronger than any I’d ever heard described.

I strode back to the medical bay, my gaze immediately finding the woman in the pod.

Already the burns on her face had healed, revealing beautiful tanned skin almost as dark as my markings.

A spill of black hair framed features that were exactly as I’d seen in my dream—the full lips I could still feel against mine, the strong line of her jaw, the dark fan of lashes thick and curled.

My fate mate. After years of solitary patrols and empty skies, the universe had delivered her to me—though in a way that had nearly killed her.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, placing my palm against the transparent cover of the pod. “Fate has been unkind in its method of bringing you to me.” I studied the monitor displaying her vitals. They were improving, but slowly. She would need at least a full day to recover before regaining consciousness.

I checked her lines with even greater care now, ensuring the nutrient drips were properly calibrated for her human physiology. I took a deep inhale, committing her scent to memory—no longer just an instinctual attraction but a beacon I would recognize anywhere.

With a final caress along the pod’s surface, directly above her now-healed cheek, I stepped back. “I will meet you again in dreams, Jasmine,” I promised. “And when you wake, I will be here.”

I returned to my sleep cot, which I had pulled into the med bay to remain close to her. As I settled back onto the thin mattress, my body still humming with aftershocks of pleasure, I wondered what she would think when she woke. Would she remember our dream? Would she accept what fate had decreed?

It didn’t matter. She was mine, and I was hers. The universe had spoken. Everything else was just details.