Page 15 of Lord of the Lone Wolf (Bonded Hearts #3)
Sephen
“ A nd how does one know they’ve reached this stage?” Sephen asked, clenching around Kisano’s length to test his mate’s scholarly composure.
Kisano’s eyes fluttered closed, his lecture interrupted by a soft groan. “The Order identified several markers, such as a dissolution of the perceived boundary between self and other, along with the sense of knowledge flowing between bodies without the mediation of language.”
To illustrate his point, Kisano rolled his hips in a slow, deliberate motion that made Sephen gasp with delight. Their mating bond flared to life, creating an intense circle of sensation that deepened with each movement.
“I feel that,” Sephen gasped, his hands sliding up Kisano’s arms to grip his shoulders. “Your pleasure is becoming mine, and mine is yours.”
Kisano established a measured rhythm that seemed calculated to maintain their ability to speak. “The mating bond facilitates this stage by allowing for the direct transmission of experience between bondmates.”
Sephen wrapped his legs more firmly around Kisano’s waist, changing the angle of penetration. “So, in a trinity bond,” he theorized, his scholarly mind still engaged despite his body’s distraction, “this stage would be more intense? With three minds and bodies sharing sensations?”
A deep thrust from Kisano answered the question, a clear sign that the idea struck him as powerfully as it had Sephen. “According to the Order’s records, trinity bonds create a resonance chamber of sensation, where pleasure echoes and intensifies between all three participants.”
An image flooded Sephen’s mind of himself and Kisano joined as they were now, but with Liros there as well.
What would it be like to have his legendary intellect focused on their ecstasy?
He imagined Liros capturing his mouth in a heated kiss while Kisano moved inside him, or perhaps guiding Kisano’s movements, teaching him new ways to bring Sephen pleasure.
“You’re thinking about him again,” Kisano observed, his voice rough with a combination of exertion and arousal. “I can feel it through our bond.”
Sephen didn’t bother denying it. “I can’t help it,” he admitted, his hands gliding down Kisano’s sweat-slicked back to grip his hips, urging him deeper. “Your descriptions make me imagine how he would experience the stages and what he would teach us.”
“And what do you see?”
“I think your methodology would fascinate him,” Sephen said, his voice catching as Kisano adjusted his angle. “But I think he’d challenge some of your assertions to create a dialogue between your perspectives.”
“A scholarly debate as foreplay?” Kisano asked with a breathless laugh. “That would appeal to his nature.”
“And ours,” Sephen agreed, his laughter transforming into a moan as Kisano’s next thrust hit deeper. “He’d have his own theory about these stages. Maybe additional ones the Order never documented, or that were lost to time.”
The fantasy expanded between them, transmitted through their bond without words as Liros moved behind Kisano, who was buried in Sephen, creating a perfect circle of connection.
Sephen whimpered at the thought of Liros whispering arcane knowledge against his skin while his hands explored Kisano’s body with the precision of someone who had studied pleasure for millennia.
“‘Transcendent Understanding’ is the sixth stage,” Kisano said, pulling Sephen back to the present moment. His movements slowed to emphasize the importance of the phase. “This is when the wisdom shared transforms both participants.”
Sephen struggled to focus on the words as his body responded to each careful movement. “How does it transform them?”
“The scholars believed that certain knowledge changes us irrevocably once truly understood,” Kisano explained, lifting Sephen’s hips to drive deeper. “We cannot encounter certain truths without being altered by them.”
The shift in position sent a sharper rush of sensation through Sephen, fracturing his scholarly focus. “Like what we’re discovering in this moment, in what we both crave, in what we both see in Liros.”
“Indeed.” Kisano’s thrusts became more forceful, driven by the shared fantasy flowing between them. “Once acknowledged, such desires cannot be unlearned. They become part of us.”
Sephen closed his eyes, absorbed in the dual experience of physical connection and intellectual stimulation.
“In this stage,” Kisano continued, his voice growing strained, “the Order believed that both teacher and student are equally transformed because you learn when you teach.”
Sephen opened his eyes to find Kisano watching him with wonder and hunger. “What are you learning from me?”
“That your mind is even more beautiful than I realized,” Kisano answered. “Your curiosity knows no bounds. You see possibilities where others see only limitations.”
There was something profoundly intimate to Sephen about having his intellectual capabilities recognized and desired as much as his physical body.
“The scholars claimed during this stage, the physical act of love rewires our minds to accommodate new understanding.”
“We’re changing each other’s brains right now?” Sephen questioned with a breathy snicker. “Creating new connections?”
“With every touch and sensation we share,” Kisano confirmed, sliding a hand between their bodies to wrap around Sephen’s neglected arousal.
The direct stimulation made Sephen arch his back, seeking more contact. He bit his lip, fighting to maintain focus despite his rising pleasure, determined to complete his lesson. “And the seventh stage?”
“‘Unified Transcendence,’ when the boundaries between bodies and minds dissolve, creating a temporary state of perfect union.”
His strokes matched the rhythm of his thrusts, bringing Sephen closer to completion. “The Order thought this was when it was possible to glimpse the divine consciousness, when we transcend our individual limitations and experience something greater than ourselves.”
Their mating bond pulsed between them, growing stronger with each shared breath and synchronized movement.
“But there is more,” Kisano added. “The other two copies of the text stopped at seven stages, but my copy details the Order’s most secret teachings of an eighth and ninth stage, revealed only to their highest acolytes.”
“Tell me,” Sephen urged, his body hovering on the edge of climax but his mind still hungry for more.
“The eighth stage is ‘Knowledge Expansion,’” Kisano explained. “It occurs when what is shared between partners expands beyond what either possessed individually, creating new insights.”
His free hand came up to cup Sephen’s face, thumb tracing the curve of his cheekbone with tender precision. “The Order argued that true intimacy could generate new knowledge rather than only transferring existing understanding between partners.”
“Like how we’re creating new ideas about trinity bonds together,” Sephen suggested.
Kisano's eyes glowed with approval and desire. “The Order’s philosophy stated that attuned minds could serve as catalysts for one another, generating insights neither could reach alone.”
“Hurry and explain the ninth stage, because I’m only a few thrusts away from covering myself in evidence of how sexy this lesson has been,” Sephen joked, his voice breaking as Kisano’s rhythm intensified again.
“That is ‘Illuminated Totality,’ which represents when knowledge transforms from an abstract concept to lived reality that transcends the need for thought itself.”
His strokes grew faster, matching the increasing urgency of his thrusts.
“The Order considered it to be the ultimate state of consciousness, where the distinction between knower and known vanishes. The scholars described it as ‘wisdom made flesh,’ the crucial moment of enlightenment when truth is not only understood or experienced but becomes the very substance of one’s being. ”
The image of Liros joining them returned to Sephen’s mind, now more vivid.
In his fantasy, the Knowledge Power’s immortal wisdom flowed through them, enhancing every sensation and insight.
Sephen imagined Liros’s lips tracing patterns of sacred wisdom across his skin while Kisano’s pace moved the three of them in perfect harmony.
“Kisano,” Sephen gasped, feeling his control slipping away. “I’m so close.”
“Then find completion. Show me what the ninth stage looks like on you.”
With permission granted, Sephen surrendered to the sensations. His climax came in strong spurts, each one carrying him higher than the last. Through their bond, he could feel Kisano’s echoing ecstasy in response, creating the continuous circle his mate had described earlier.
For a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, Sephen understood what Kisano meant by Complete Integration.
The boundaries between physical and intellectual pleasure disappeared, leaving only pure experience, undiluted by separation or analysis.
He felt their connection, unity, and perfect synthesis between mind and body, between himself and Kisano.
After a few more thrusts, Kisano followed him into completion, his release shooting deep inside Sephen, followed by the distinctive pressure of Kisano’s dragon nature manifesting.
The base of his mate’s shaft swelled to lock them together in the most intimate connection their different physiologies allowed.
Kisano’s knot pressed against sensitive nerves inside him, prolonging his pleasure.
Every subtle change of their position sent aftershocks through Sephen as the knot rubbed against him, making him gasp and cling tighter to his mate.
“Do you think Liros knows what we did?” Sephen wondered when he could speak again, his voice playful despite his exhaustion. “Being the Knowledge Power and all. Does he know when people are discussing him while having mind-blowing sex?”