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She responded instantly, arms twining around my neck, body melting against mine. I growled deep in my throat as her lips parted, inviting me deeper. She tasted of coffee and something sweeter, something essentially Rosie, and I devoured her as a starving man might devour his first meal.

I stood, lifting her with me, her legs instinctively wrapping around my waist. Never breaking the kiss, I carried her the few steps to the nearest tree, pressing her back against the rough bark. She gasped as I pinned her there, the sound sending a fresh surge of desire coursing through my veins.

"Tell me to stop," I rasped against her lips, offering one final chance for retreat, one last opportunity to save herself from what was coming.

Her answer was to roll her hips against mine, drawing a groan from deep in my chest. "Don't you dare," she demanded.

The last tether of my control severed completely.

My hands moved over her body with desperate urgency, tracing the generous curves I'd been admiring since the moment she'd summoned me. I tore my mouth from hers to trail hungry kisses down her throat, savoring the salt of her skin, the thunder of her pulse beneath my lips.

"Aldaine," she moaned, fingers digging into my shoulders, head falling back against the tree to give me better access.

I bunched the fabric of her dress in my fists, dragging it up her thighs, revealing the creamy skin that drove me crazy. She helped me, fumbling with the fastenings of my pants as I pushed her underwear aside, finding her already slick and ready for me.

"Fuck," I hissed against her throat as my fingers explored her wet heat. "So perfect. So ready for me."

"Yes," she gasped, arching into my touch. "Please, Aldaine. I need you now."

I didn't need further invitation. In one powerful thrust, I buried myself inside her, the tight heat of her body nearly bringing me to my knees.

She cried out, a sound of pure pleasure that echoed through the clearing.

I stilled for a moment, giving her time to adjust to the intrusion, fighting against the primal urge to claim, to take, to mark.

"Don't stop," she pleaded, rolling her hips against mine. "Please don't stop."

The last thread of hesitation dissolved.

I began to move, each motion deliberate and consuming.

The ancient oak cradled her back as I pressed forward, my body trembling with barely contained fervor.

Her fingers dug crescents into my shoulders, anchoring herself as we moved together in a rhythm as old as magic itself.

"Mine," I growled, the word erupting from someplace ancient and untamed within me, a truth I'd denied too long.

My forehead pressed against hers, our breath mingling in the narrow space between us.

"You're mine, Rosie," I whispered fiercely, watching her eyes dilate as the words washed over her, feeling her respond with a full-body shudder that echoed through my very core.

"Yes," she agreed breathlessly, her nails digging crescents into my shoulders through my shirt. "Yours, Aldaine. All yours."

The submission in her voice, the willing surrender, pushed me past reason into something primal and possessive.

I felt her body responding to every touch, every motion, a perfect counterpoint to my own.

My entire being focused on this connection between us, this moment where nothing existed beyond Rosie and the ancient magic binding us together.

"I can feel you," I whispered raggedly against her flushed skin. "Feel how close you are."

Her fingers twisted in my hair, pulling almost painfully as she held my gaze. The vulnerability in her eyes stole my breath, trust so complete it humbled me.

"Only with you," she gasped, her confession striking something profound within me. "Never felt this, never wanted like this!"

My rhythm faltered at her words, emotion threatening to overwhelm physical sensation.

I pressed my forehead against hers, breathing her in, feeling her tremble against me.

My teeth ached with the need to mark her, to complete the bond that had begun the moment I'd first touched her, a compulsion as old as my kind.

As her inner muscles tightened around me, as her voice broke into desperate, pleading sounds that echoed through the clearing, I surrendered to the instinct I'd been fighting since I first saw her.

With a reverence that belied my savage need, my teeth found the soft curve where her neck met her shoulder.

I hesitated for just a heartbeat, giving her one last chance to deny me this final claim.

"Yes," she breathed, tilting her head in ancient invitation. "Make me yours. All of me."

My teeth sank into her tender flesh, breaking the skin, the copper-sweet essence of her filling my mouth as the bond between us flared into blinding completion.

The mating bond flared between us, white-hot and overwhelming.

A flash of magic binding us. Rosie screamed, not in pain but in ecstasy, her orgasm crashing through her with a force that triggered my own.

I spilled inside her with a primal roar that tore from the deepest part of my being, my release pulsing in hot waves that seemed endless.

The ancient magic between us intensified every sensation as my essence flooded her womb, marking her from within just as my bite had claimed her from without.

My vision blurred, overwhelmed by the intensity of completion, not just physical, but something far more significant, a binding of souls across lifetimes.

My fingers dug into the soft flesh of her hips, holding her against me as if she might disappear if I loosened my grip. Every muscle in my body trembled with the force of claiming what had always been mine, what would be mine for eternity.

For long moments afterward, we remained locked together, my forehead pressed against the tree beside her head, her legs still wrapped tightly around my waist. Our ragged breathing slowly calmed, though my heart continued to race beneath my ribs.

Gradually, I became aware of the world around us again, the rustle of leaves overhead, the distant call of birds, the warmth of the sun on my back. And Rosie, trembling slightly in my arms, her fingers now gentle as they stroked through my hair.

I pulled back enough to see her face, suddenly terrified of what I might find there. Regret? Fear? Horror at what I'd done?

Instead, her eyes were luminous with wonder, her lips curved in a smile of such open joy that something within me shattered and reformed.

"That was," She trailed off, seemingly unable to find adequate words.

"I hurt you," my gaze dropped to the bite mark on her neck. It was already darkening, the perfect imprint of my teeth stark against her pale skin. A tiny trickle of blood still welled from the deepest punctures.

She touched the mark, wonder blooming across her features as her fingers came away with a smear of red. "No," she contradicted softly. "You marked me."

The simple truth of her statement stunned me into silence.

"I don't know exactly what this means," she continued, eyes searching mine, "but I know it's important. I could feel it, Aldaine. When you bit me, it was like something locked into place. Something that feels right."

I swallowed hard, overcome by the instinct to explain, to confess everything now that the first step had been taken. "Rosie, there's something I need to tell you about demons and.."

Her fingers pressed gently against my lips, stopping the words. "Later. Tell me later. Right now, I just want to feel this. Whatever this is."

I hesitated, uncertainty warring with relief. "You're not afraid?"

Her smile widened, transforming her face into something so beautiful it made my chest ache. "Of you? Never." She leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth. "Whatever this is between us, I want it. I choose it."

I choose it.

Three simple words that changed everything. That made what I'd done not a claiming but an exchange. A mutual surrender.

I kissed her then, softly, reverently, my hands cradling her face as if she were made of the most precious substance in any realm. Because she was. Against her lips, I whispered the truth I could no longer contain.

"I'm yours as much as you're mine, Rosie. Always." I'd tell her after tomorrow's bridal shower before we left this place.