Page 53

Wolf Axis

XANDER

T he Sombra’s Commander prowled from the mess back toward his cabin on the lake, hands buried deep in his jacket pockets.

The simulated evening light on his ship’s arboretum deck glimmered over the water, casting soft reflections of copper and violet across its glassy surface.

Couples strolled hand in hand along the edge of the lake, laughter echoing like distant chimes.

Children chased glowing moths.

Elders sat on benches, speaking in soft tones.

Emotion clenched in Xander’s chest.

For some reason, tonight, a day after his release from the hospital, the loneliness bit deeper.

The woman he missed had been gone too long, even if it had only been a few days.

His boots crunched over the gravel as he rounded the final bend toward the executive quarter, where the lake grew still and the paths emptied.

His private cabin rested in shadow, tucked beneath the boughs of a willow tree, its windows dim.

He was unzipping his jacket as he stepped onto the front porch when he froze.

His neural node fired a warning.

A ripple of heat shivered across his skin.

A signature scent filled his nostrils.

One so familiar and intimate, it jolted him to his core.

His lips curled into a slow, knowing half-smile.

‘Well, well,’ he muttered, pushing the door open with anticipatory ease.

The interior was dark, calm, quiet, fragranced with cedar, clean linen, and her .

He flinched at the sound of a soft click.

A lamp near the hearth blinked on, spilling a halo of light.

She sat in his armchair, legs crossed, her black jacket unzipped just enough to reveal the curve of her breast, a shadow of enticing skin in a deep vee.

Her face, half in luminosity, the rest in silhouette, was unreadable. Her hair coiled over one shoulder.

Her thighs were long and lithe, one knee crossed over another.

However, her eyes burned with sensual heat for him .

‘Took your damn time, soldier.’

Her husky utterance was hoarse and raw, sending shards of need and a wild arc of happiness through his muscled frame.

Still, he kept his face impartial and leaned on the door jamb, cocking his head. ‘Sneaky much?’

‘Only when I miss the love of my life so intensely it makes my chest hurt.’

His lips softened, but his eyes didn’t leave hers. ‘ Naam ?’

‘Yeah.’

A silence stretched between them, taut and fragile, buzzing like a wire drawn too tight.

‘How much?’ he asked, voice rasping.

‘Too much,’ she murmured. ‘Come here, baby.’

His gaze heated, raking over her. ‘That an order?’

She took a trembling inhale. ‘I’m not going to ask again.’

Xander’s eyes flared. ‘Or what?’ he growled.

‘Or you might miss out on some sweet reunion loving.’

He growled and lunged.

He was on her in two strides, scooping her into his arms like she weighed nothing.

Her breath hitched, but she melted into him.

He cradled her face in one hand, thumb grazing her cheek.

‘ Fokk ,’ he breathed, then kissed her.

It wasn’t gentle.

It was the kiss of a man who’d waited too long, nearly lost everything, fought through void and fire, and still found her on the other side.

Their mouths met like a collision, all heat and hunger, her fingers fisting in the front of his shirt, his grip tightening on her waist.

He carried her through the dim cabin, past the quiet flicker of the hearth, into his bedroom.

Where he planned to ravish her as the man who knew down to his bones that she was his.

His axis.

His peace.

His future.

SAVVINE

She knelt on the floor at the edge of the bed, naked, between Xander’s spread thighs, lips, mouth, and hands on her man’s thick, throbbing shaft.

Adoring, loving, stroking it.

Rolling her tongue and circling the jeweled tip, she suckled.

He bucked hard, thrusting deep into her throat.

Which set him off even more as he growled, his spectral apparition bursting from him and around her.

‘ Nada , bella , I’m going to blow.’

He knifed up and slid his palms under her armpits.

He switched their positions with a snarl and a twist of his torso.

Sliding to the rim of the bed, legs apart, with his spiral wolf form hovering over their nudity.

‘Why did you switch us?’ she groused, moaning as he got to his knees and worked his lean fingers over her slit.

‘I’m throbbing so hard I’m going to explode into atoms. But not before you get yours.’

One thumb stroked her pleasure button, while two other fingers glided inside her, pumping.

She succumbed, mewling as he brought her closer to the edge of rapture.

She flung her head forward when he bent his head and suckled her clitoris.

‘Mine,’ he growled, staring at Savvine, daring her to respond.

She leaned back on her elbows, hips thrusting. ‘Yours, baby.’

Moments later he tracked over chest one hand cupping her tit, then lowering his mouth to lash her taut tip.

She clutched his shoulders as his other hand still counted its ministrations.

‘I don’t know how much more I can take.’

He tore his lips off her breast and smirked at her, gazing down at her lust-filled face. ‘A hella lot more, mi cielo .’

With no warning, he reached between their legs, took his pulsating cock in his hand, and eased it into her.

Her breath hitched, and she jolted as his scorching length slipped inside her, almost cleaving her in two.

He lifted a hand to her knee, giving him deeper access.

He kept sliding, and Savvine canted her midsection, to help welcome more of his hard, massive cock.

One of his arms flexed by her head, his sinewed, veined muscles rippling as he worked his pelvis. She moved her hips, swirling under him, driving him to a groaning wreck.

Every so often, he kissed her lips, the switched to her taut nipples and her back to her mouth.

Until she tore from him just as their bliss intensified.

Savvine placed a hand on his chest. ‘Wait, baby.’

‘The fokk ?’ he growled, mid-thrust as his aetheric wolf shimmered above them.

‘Need to do something.’

She reached forward and pulled his head to her mouth.

She blew air into his ear, and he shivered. ‘Savvine?’

‘I’m ready,’ she whispered.

Without warning, she sank her teeth into his lobe.

Hard enough that she broke his skin.

The second she did, he shuddered.

Savvine gasped as Xander’s lycan spirit surged through her, an overwhelming torrent of spectral power that poured into her skin, wrapped around her bones, and flooded her very core.

It wasn’t pain nor pleasure.

It was ascendant, more incandescent than both states, an ancient resonance, a soul-marking that lit her up from the inside out.

She arched against him, glowing, violet and gold light blooming beneath her skin like wildfire made of stars.

On the nape of her neck, the shape of a wolf’s glyph flared into existence, mirrored on Xander’s skin, two radiant marks pulsing in perfect sync.

She reached for it with trembling fingers, grazing her mark and then his.

The moment crackled between them, thick with shared breath, wonder, and the essence of the irrevocable.

Xander’s eyes were ablaze, molten amethyst and gold, suspiciously wet. He cupped her face with a reverence that made her knees weak and pressed a searing kiss to her lips.

‘We’re knotted for life now, mi luna ,’ he whispered against her mouth, his rasp raw with awe. ‘You’ve blessed me for eternity.’

Savvine’s eyes misted. Her voice was soft, but fierce. ‘I never imagined how happy it would make me. I love you so much.’

She gazed up at him, lost in the throes of unimaginable joy as his cock surged into her.

His eyes burned, hell, they flamed, fixed on the juncture of their slamming bodies.

Air worked through his nostrils in harsh inhales, his amethyst hair falling over his ridged brow.

She buried her nose in his nape as his spectral energy flooded her, and the tightening of ecstasy ratcheted all over her body.

She flung her hair back, so gone for him.

Ripples and undulations of euphoria hit hard as she bucked beneath him.

With a soft cry, she twisted her arms around his shoulders.

Moaning into his neck and holding on for dear life as he too rode the same wave to paradise.

They didn’t sleep.

Touch, quiet laughter muffled and muted by kisses, whispered memories, and the slow, reverent chaos of making love again and again pervaded their reunion.

No corner of the cabin got spared; they must have made love in four different spots.

Xander couldn’t stop touching her, didn’t want to, and Savvine let herself be worshiped.

Just before dawn, he pulled her from bed naked.

He led her outside, her hand in his, down to the lake that shimmered silver under the false stars.

The water was mild, a silk wrap sliding over their overheated skin. They drifted into the shallows, moonlight draping their bodies in ghost light.

Weightless and bare, he loved her again, slow and intense, every movement echoing in ripples across the glassy surface.

Afterward, she cuddled into him, her heart pounding against his, and neither spoke for a long time.

They dried off, wrapped in towels on his terrace, their bodies still damp and warm from the lake.

Xander disappeared into the kitchen and returned with two cups of thick kahawa , the scent of cinnamon and heat curling in the morning air.

They rested on the patio swing together, the love chair swaying in the quiet hush of dawn.

Savvine had one thigh flung over his lap, her other bare legs tucked beneath her, his chest against her back.

He nuzzled her shoulder, then kissed the side of her neck.

She tilted her head toward him, one hand tangled in his hair.

Xander murmured, voice hoarse from use and tenderness, ‘ Fokk , I missed you.’

Her fingers slid down his forearm. ‘I realize now I can never be too far from you, baby.’

He inclined to her, arms tightening around her waist. ‘Is that right? How close do you want to be?’

She smiled, her eyes gleaming. ‘Right next to you. Forever.’

A shiver ghosted over her flesh, and he pulled her tighter, kissing behind her ear. She leaned into him, breath catching.

‘Xander. There’s one more thing you need to know.’

He sliced those sexy, aureate eyes to her. ‘ Cuéntame ? Talk to me.’

She took an inhale as her gaze locked onto his. ‘I dreamed of you before I met you. Since the flotilla set out, you’ve walked through my dreams, which started as nightmares with three wolves hunting me down. Each time, you’d save me.’

‘Is that right? he drawled.

She nodded. ‘When I first saw you, I recognized the spectral wolf in you.’

He huffed. ‘Makes sense. My lycan spirit knew all along, then that we were fated. Tis why it fought so hard for you every fokkin ’ time you needed to be rescued like a damsel in distress.’

‘Hey!’

She slapped his forearm lightly in mock annoyance. ‘So we were meant to be, but,’ she added, teasing, ‘I’m not going to be a fokk buddy with no purpose. I must have something to do if I live on your ship.’

He murmured into her nape. ‘I’ve got the perfect job. Chief of our Air Force.’

She twisted to look at him, one brow raised. ‘What now?’

Xander’s expression turned solemn, even as his lips curved.

‘We require structure. Discipline. Our battles aren’t going to be boots-on-deck much longer.

We’re the most dominant merc and para-military faction out here, and we need to get hella more effective in the air.

You’re the best pilot and gunner I’ve seen.

You’ve experienced real combat. If the Eterna allows it, I want someone who flies like you to lead the next evolution of our forces. ’

Savvine mulled it over. ‘Leiko’s been itching for a chance at leading Eterna’s security. I might be persuaded to step aside. Give her the reins.’

Xander’s sensual mouth curved in satisfaction. ‘Perfect. Then take to the skies with the Sombra flight crew. Train a strong fighter response strike team. Help me build a lethal, lasting air force.’

She turned in his lap, straddling him, arms sliding around his neck. ‘I’d welcome the challenge,’ she said, brushing her lips over his.

He met her kiss and murmured, ‘Move in with me?’

She smirked. ‘Do I have a choice?’

‘ Nada .’

She laughed. ‘Pushy as fokk .’

Xander cupped her face, studying her. ‘Have kids with me?’

His utterance caught her by surprise. Her teasing faded, and she sat up, sitting astride him.

‘Hell, why does everyone, including my parents, see me as some baby factory? When I shared about you, it was the first thing they said.’

He lurched. ‘You shared us, mi reina ?’

She took an inhale. ‘I’m so sorry, honey. I forgot to tell you. Naam . I told them about you.’

He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘And?’

She tilted her head, her eyes glinting. ‘They were opinionated to say the least.’

He knifed up. ‘Savvine.’

His growl was a warning, and she bit back a grin at his solemn, worried expression. ‘They think you’re quite something.’

When he snarled, she relented. ‘They respect you, Xander, and the selfless effort you took to save me and the Eterna . My parents are also the most welcoming people on the Wildlight and didn’t care one iota about your lycan abilities. They also can’t wait to meet you.’

His smile softened, and his tense deltoids relaxed, but the longing didn’t leave his eyes.

She caught onto it as her fingers traced his temple and brushed damp hair from his forehead. ‘Back to what you said. You want to be a daddy?’

‘I do,’ he rasped. ‘Especially since meeting you.’

Her throat tightened.

‘I’ve been a badass aunt,’ she declared. ‘I think I’d be a damn good mum too.’

Xander’s eyes lit up. ‘ Fokk ,’ he whispered. ‘I love you.’

He fell silent as if searching for words.

His rasp was raw with emotion when he unearthed his expression once more.

‘I thank the stars I found you, the woman my human heart and lycan soul are so gone for. I didn’t realize how lost I was until you illuminated the way, mi cielo .

You are every wish I never dared to make, each dream I thought impossible, and now, you are my whole damn life. ’

She kissed him with a smile on her lips. ‘Ever the freakin’ poet. I love you more, Alexandr-Alexandr Levine Roman.’

Wrapped in each other and morning light, they fell asleep on the swaying terrace swing.

At peace, for once, with the war and the battle for their hearts behind them.