Page 14

The stars were foreign here, a scattered pattern I couldn’t read.

I leaned against the rough stone wall, my claws tracing absently along the weathered surface as I kept watch.

Behind me, Everly’s soft breathing was the metronome that kept my heart steady.

Her scent—sweet, intoxicating—mingled with Khaaz’s more feral musk.

The combination should have raised my hackles. Instead, I found it oddly…right.

Today had been a revelation. Khaaz and I had moved around Everly like twin satellites, anticipating each other’s movements, covering blind spots, communicating with barely a glance.

There had been no awkward collisions, no stepping on each other’s tails.

It was as if we had trained together for decades.

I rubbed my thumb over the hilt of my blade, the worn leather familiar against my pad. The synchronicity shouldn’t have been possible. Rodinians were territorial by nature, especially when it came to potential mates. Yet here we were, two predators circling the same prey, and somehow coexisting.

Multiple heart mates weren’t unheard of in Rodinian society. Some females took two or even three companions, especially in the outlying colonies where females were scarce. But heart mates were a choice—a conscious decision to build a life together. Fate mates were something else entirely.

I closed my eyes, letting my other senses take over. The night creatures chittered and called around us, a symphony of life that masked our presence. I couldn’t recall a single tale, not even from the ancient histories, of a female with two fate mates.

And yet, the unity dreams didn’t lie. Everly called to both of us, her soul a beacon that had pulled us across the stars. Both of us.

I glanced at Khaaz’s silent form, his scarred body coiled tension ready to spring on any intruders. We were more alike than I’d initially wanted to admit. Both of us killers. Both of us lost in our own ways. Both of us finding our center in her.

The Legion had taught me structure, discipline, a code to live by when the universe offered none. Khaaz had never had that. His life had been a series of cages and labs, scalpels and pain. I wondered if that made him stronger or weaker than me. Perhaps neither. Perhaps just different.

Khaaz treated the situation with a cavalier attitude, resigned in the belief that Everly would not choose him over me.

But I knew better. I had seen warriors fall to the deliria amoranta.

Had watched as proud, disciplined Rodinians devolved into feral shells of themselves, their minds consumed by the pain of rejection.

They became weapons, nothing more—sent to the most desperate fronts, used until they broke or died. Usually both.

I wouldn’t condemn Khaaz to that fate. Despite our differences, despite the primitive territorial instinct that sometimes urged me to tear his throat out, I wouldn’t leave him to that darkness.

My claws extended reflexively at the thought, scraping against stone with a soft screech. I forced them to retract, focusing on my breathing.

The truth that Khaaz seemed unwilling to acknowledge was that Everly hadn’t been given a proper choice.

Events had moved too quickly—escape, survival, the constant threat of pursuit.

She had fallen into our arms out of necessity as much as desire.

She deserved the dignity of a true choice, made without the pressure of imminent death hanging over her.

A choice that Khaaz saw as binary: him or me.

But my years in the Legion had taught me to see beyond the obvious tactical solutions.

I had watched societies across the stars, studied their customs, learned their ways.

Not all cultures shared the Rodinian exclusivity when it came to mating.

Some embraced more...complex arrangements.

And wasn’t that the solution staring us in the face? Everly could choose both of us. The thought should have repulsed me, should have triggered every territorial instinct bred into my genes. Instead, it settled in my mind with unexpected comfort, like a weapon perfectly balanced for my hand.

Khaaz stilled, his iridescent eyes catching the moonlight as they flicked toward me. Even now, he had sensed a change in the air, in me, that he responded to. He assessed the surroundings in a heartbeat before his gaze settled on me.

“All quiet?” he asked, his voice a low rumble that wouldn’t disturb Everly.

I nodded. “No sign of pursuit. Rest. I’ll take first watch.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, reading something in my stance or scent. “You need rest too.”

“Later,” I said, my tone making it clear this wasn’t a suggestion but an order.

He hesitated, glancing down at Everly’s sleeping form. I knew what he was thinking—that I was trying to separate them, assert dominance, stake my claim while he slept.

“She’s safe with me,” I said softly. “As are you.”

Surprise flickered across his scarred features. Then, slowly, he nodded and settled down beside Everly, curving his body around her smaller one. His arm draped protectively over her waist, but his posture had relaxed.

I returned to my vigil, my back to the wall, facing the darkness beyond our small sanctuary. My thoughts circled back to the revelation that had settled in my mind: Everly could choose us both. It wasn’t a compromise. It was a solution. Maybe the only one that wouldn’t end in blood and grief.

I let the night sounds wash over me, my senses alert for any disturbance, any scent or sound that didn’t belong. Behind me, my fate mate slept in the arms of another male who was, against all odds, becoming something other than my enemy. Something I didn’t yet have a name for.

The dream came like a storm—sudden, powerful, overwhelming.

Everly lay before us, her body bare and perfect, stretched between Khaaz and me like an offering.

Her sun-darkened skin gleamed with a soft light that seemed to emanate from within, highlighting the curves and valleys of her form.

Her black hair spilled across the surface beneath her, her eyes half-lidded with desire as she gazed up at us.

My body responded instantly, primal and hungry, as I lowered myself between her thighs.

Her scent was intoxicating, more potent here in the dreamscape than in waking life.

I inhaled deeply, letting it flood my senses until I could taste her on my tongue before I’d even touched her.

When I finally did, pressing my mouth against the slick heat of her core, she arched beneath me with a gasp that sent lightning down my spine.

I savored her, my tongue tracing every fold, every secret place, mapping her pleasure with deliberate precision.

Above me, Khaaz had claimed her upper body, his scarred hands cupping her breasts, weighing them, his thumbs brushing over her nipples until they peaked hard against his rough pads.

His mouth followed, teeth grazing the sensitive buds before his tongue flicked across them, drawing another cry from Everly’s throat.

I watched them through hooded eyes as I continued my assault on her senses.

Khaaz’s shimmering gaze met mine over the expanse of her body.

There was no challenge there, no territorial warning.

Instead, I saw a reflection of my own hunger, my own need.

We were mirrors, he and I, reflecting the same desire from different angles.

Everly’s thighs trembled against my shoulders, her hips lifting to press harder against my mouth.

I gripped them firmly, holding her in place as I drove my tongue deeper, tasting her essence, drowning in it.

Her hands clutched at the surface beneath her, her back arching as her first climax washed over her.

I didn’t let up, working her through it, prolonging the pleasure until she was gasping, begging in broken syllables.

Only then did I rise, positioning myself between her legs, the head of my cock pressing against her entrance. I was painfully hard, throbbing with need, but I held myself back, savoring the moment of anticipation.

“Please,” she whispered, her eyes locking with mine, then shifting to Khaaz. “Both of you. I need you both.”

That was all it took. I drove forward, burying myself to the hilt in a single powerful thrust. She was tight, wet, perfect—her body gripping mine like she was made for me.

For us. Her cry of pleasure echoed in the dreamspace, resonating through me, through Khaaz, binding us together in her response.

I established a rhythm, deep and steady, each thrust sending waves of pleasure through all three of us.

In this shared dream, the boundaries between our sensations blurred.

I could feel my own penetration and simultaneously experience her reception of it—the stretch, the fullness, the exquisite pressure against her most sensitive spots.

Khaaz continued his attention to her breasts, his mouth alternating between them, his hands holding her steady against my increasingly forceful thrusts. Her body was a bridge between us, connecting us in ways I’d never imagined possible.

Without conscious thought, I reached forward, threading my fingers into Khaaz’s dark mane.

His fur was coarser than Everly’s hair, thicker, but no less pleasing to touch.

I tightened my grip, tugging him upward, away from Everly’s breasts.

He growled low in his throat, the sound vibrating against my palm.

Our eyes met, gold against silver, predator to predator.

Then I pulled him closer, closing the distance between us, my mouth claiming his with the same possessive hunger I’d shown Everly.

Our teeth clashed, sharp fangs scraping against each other, drawing pinpricks of blood that mingled on our tongues.

The taste was electric—copper and musk and something uniquely his.