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CHAPTER TWENTY

To say they woke with a bang would be an understatement, the new couple’s attraction leading to some incredibly satisfying morning sex as their bodies moved together almost on instinct while their senses were still fuzzy from sleep.

It had started slow and cozy, Zepharos’s morning wood pressing against Maria’s ass as she nestled up close against him. Which one of them shifted position was anyone’s guess, but they both welcomed the slow, churning intensity their bodies had settled into of their own accord.

The way they moved, his arms around her, hands on her breasts, holding her tight as she ground and gyrated on his cock, was different from the prior day’s frantic and almost bestial acts.

This was so close. So intimate and safe that both felt an emotional build up as well as a physical one, the mental guardrails and barriers of waking hours still down from their disarming sleep time.

When they came it was together, a rhythm they had fallen into as naturally as breathing, their bodies in tune with one another, sharing the moment and experiencing its peaks in unison. It was incredible, and more than that, it was a kind of closeness neither had ever experienced before.

They were on the run, living as fugitives on a long escape from an unknown number of pursuers, but their morning was spent almost like a honeymoon of sorts, eating a casual breakfast, enjoying each other’s proximity as they started their day.

Then came the taking down of the hammock and loading up of their gear.

Maria slowed their progress slightly, pausing to spend a few minutes scratching the animals’ heads and flanks before they started their day’s trek.

The beasts of burden were starting to really like their new human friend, and the attention she paid to them daily only served to strengthen their affections, much to Zepharos’s delight.

“They are really growing fond of you. Usually, they take some time to warm to a new person. I take that as a good sign of your character.”

She chuckled and walked over to her man, running her hand across his firm chest. “I think it’s a little late to be relying on that to color your opinion of me. You’re stuck with me, Mister, like it or not.”

“Like,” replied, a smoldering look igniting in his gaze that they both knew could easily threaten to derail their departure.

Zepharos shook it off, stepping back, his duty to her safety more important than other matters of a more enjoyable manner.

“I’ll check the snares and take down the tripwire alarms.”

“I’ll come with.”

“You don’t have to.”

“No, but I want to. I like to learn.”

“Very well,” he said, his heart warming at her reply. “Follow me.”

They walked the perimeter, carefully unhooking trigger points and tripwires, most laid out high enough to signal an alarm that would notify them if anyone person-sized came near while not being tripped by smaller animals. They did, however, come across one small creature caught in a snare.

It was no bigger than a large cat, or maybe a pudgy raccoon, and like the latter, it had a sort of mask pattern to its fur, though that was of a blue and green variety. Zepharos crouched down, speaking in a low, soothing tone.

“You’re okay, little guy. Just relax. I’ll get you out of there.”

He made quick work of the snare, detaching it from its anchor points and gently releasing the animal’s trapped legs. Freed, it bolted into the brush in a flash.

“You’re welcome,” he called after it with a laugh.

He turned to Maria, noting her questioning look.

“We did not need it for food,” he explained.

“And even if we did, it is a juvenile. Two bedrock rules of the Oraku are never take what you do not need, and never harm the young. To do so is cruel and wasteful, and the land will curse you for it.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in all that mystical stuff.”

“I don’t. But that bit always resonated with me.”

She wrapped him up in a warm hug. “And you say you had a reputation as an asshole.”

“Not my exact wording, but yes, I suppose so.”

“Well, I wholeheartedly disagree.”

“And I’m glad for it. But you didn’t know me before. I was not always the best person. And this was not so long ago.”

“Maybe you weren’t, but people change, and I’m quite fond of who you are now.”

“And I am very fond of you too,” he said, punctuating his words with a kiss.

A strange tingle and a faint glow surged in both of their chests, their runes flaring in unison.

“What is that? Do you feel that too? I noticed it the other night, and it’s super weird. Not bad weird. Just different, ya know?”

He just stared at her, tears threatening to well up in his eyes, a look of utter happiness and disbelief on his face.

“What is it?”

“I–it’s just?—”

“What is it, Zeph?”

“It’s our Infalas,” he said, a single tear escaping the corner of his eye.

“I experienced this feeling once before, but for the briefest of times. It was the most incredible of things, but my last Infala bond was broken, and quite violently at that. I didn’t think it would be possible for me ever again. ”

Concern mixed with Maria’s loving gaze. “What happened?”

He lowered his head slightly, memories, and the shame of them, coloring his mood. “Let’s just say that I have come to realize that no matter how terrible a moment in my life it was, I deserved it.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.

It hurt, yes. Hurt terribly. So bad I wanted to die at times.

But that ordeal made me look at my life.

I mean really look at it. Reassess everything.

And I realized then that there was a different path.

A new direction I could take, if I could manage it.

A whole new way to go through life. And the power of being bonded, no matter how briefly, is what set me straight. ”

“But the pain you suffered?—”

“Made me the man I am today. And it brought us together. It made this possible.”

Maria’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you saying we are bonding? Like, Infala bonding the way Darla and Shalia did with their partners?”

He lifted her shirt, exposing her breasts, and, more importantly, her Infala rune, the design alive with power, changing into something new.

He ran his fingers over it, sending a jolt of something quite new through her body, her nipples hardening to diamonds.

But it wasn’t just sexual. Not simple arousal.

This was deeper. A connection. Something far more intense than she’d imagined when the others had described the sensations.

He lifted his own top, showing her his Infala as well. Where it had formerly been dark and still, new life had sprung forth. It was active, and it was faintly glowing in unison with hers, changing slowly into a new design.

“We are not there yet,” he said, lowering their clothing, his hand moving lovingly to her cheek. “But it is undeniable. Though in the earliest of stages, and incredible as it seems, we are Infala bonding.”

Maria felt her legs wobble at the sheer magnitude of what this meant. The others had given her lengthy and sometimes graphic details about their own unions, and now? Now it looked like she was going to join the club. And from what they’d said, it would be incredible.

But they weren’t there yet. It would still take time.

Whether days, weeks, or months, no one could say.

Zepharos’s rune had been thought dead, and there was no telling how long it might take for it to fully heal and morph to match hers.

But they were on that path, and there was no going back.

And truth be told, Maria didn’t want to, crazy as it would have sounded not long ago.

“So, we’re bonding,” she murmured, pressing her cheek into his chest and holding him tight. “And then what?”

“Then? I really don’t know. But we will both learn together.”