Page 24 of Veil of Shadows (Fae of Woodlands & Wild #2)

CHAPTER 24

Hours later, we were still in the clearing, yet we weren’t any closer to finding an entrance to the hidden caverns. Everything we’d tried—digging, sending out magical pulses, thumping against trees’ bases for hollowed doors—hadn’t worked. We were no closer to discovering any entryway than we were when we’d arrived.

Yet a few times I could have sworn that I sensed something off in the clearing, as though something beneath us was repelling our advances. Just as Esopeel had described what she and the other wildlings had detected from within their tunnels, so did I. Something dark was definitely at play here, yet for the life of me, I didn’t know how to get around it.

And neither did anyone else.

Jax slammed his fist into a babbo tree, causing a slight splinter to crack on its base. “Where is he?”

Instinctively, I went to Jax’s side, laying a hand upon his shoulder before turning him toward me. He gathered me in his embrace, his arms locking around me as fear drenched his aura.

“Where is he, Elowen?” he rasped. “ Where ? And what’s being done to him?”

I ran my hands up and down his back, tangling my fingers through the hair at his nape as the others watched on with mournful expressions. “I don’t know, Jax, but we’ll find him. Like the others said, we’ll find him . Sooner or later, we’ll know.”

But hours later, we still had nothing to show for it. And when the sun shone high in the sky, and all of our stomachs were vengefully growling from being awake for hours upon hours without being fed, we finally conceded defeat for the moment and headed back to the capital.

Like the ride in, the males all shifted into their stag forms, save Jax, who once again rode behind me with his arm locked around my waist. He continually buried his nose in my neck, inhaling my fragrance again and again, and it struck me that he seemed to find my scent soothing. Because each time he did, the tension radiating through him lessened, if only a little, and that sweet gesture only created a pang of longing in me for something that could never be.

Whether or not I wanted to admit it, our time together last night had amplified my feelings for him, and our ruse to appear as lovers during our time in Faewood would have to continue. All of that only guaranteed a broken heart for me once this came to a crashing end.

The stags slowed, and the edge of Leafton appeared. Jax shifted in his seat, then whispered in my ear, “We’ll have to shift back. My father doesn’t like when we traipse around as stags in foreign kingdoms. If we’re not careful, word could reach him.”

Phillen slowed even more, the others doing the same, until they’d fully stopped.

Jax slid off his friend, helping me to do the same, and once everyone had returned to fae form, Jax threaded his fingers through mine.

The intimate gesture made my heart gallop, and I soaked up the closeness I could share with him while it lasted.

“Do you think your father will learn that you were all running as stags earlier this morning?” I asked him quietly as we walked toward the capital’s streets. The long grasses surrounding the outer capital brushed against my thighs, and the soaring white palace in the distance rose higher than any other building in Leafton.

Jax shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. We left early, so not many fae were about, but if anyone’s inclined to gossip, it’s possible word will eventually reach him.”

“And if he were to find out?”

Jax tensed, his aura spiking. “Then I may have a few new bruises to heal, if I let him land a few hits, that is. He doesn’t beat me as much anymore, though, not since I outgrew his magic.”

“He would...you mean he would try to physically hurt you?” My eyes widened as we strode into the capital. I wanted to ask Jax more, but a royal attendant standing on the street’s edge noticed us and rushed to Jax’s side.

The attendant bowed, and the pearly buttons running up his turquoise top sparkled in the afternoon sunshine. “Prince Adarian, good afternoon. I didn’t realize you were about the capital on the west side. May I assist you in your visit in any way?”

Jax pulled a few rulibs from his pocket. “You can, actually. We’re in need of an enchanted carpet. The faster, the better.” He pushed the rulibs into the attendant’s hands. “For your troubles.”

The attendant’s smile flashed wide as he pocketed the coins. “Of course, Your Highness. I shall have one here promptly.”

Back at Jax’s private residence in The Silver Hand, Lars called for food to be delivered from the inn’s kitchens, and we all ate quickly, knowing that every moment spent away from finding Bastian was just another opportunity for him to slip away.

Jax sat beside me, eating rapidly and methodically as though lost in thought. Now that we were once again behind hidden walls, the royal mask he’d worn outside had dropped, and a starker one had taken its place.

I forced another bite of eggs into my mouth and swallowed, barely tasting it.

I wanted to help Jax or reassure him, but it wasn’t like anything I offered would be more than empty words. None of us knew what bizarre situation was unfolding in the Wood outside of Leafton. If anything, the fact that each half-breed wore a metallic anklet, and dark magic clouded around that clearing, only solidified that Jax had been right to be concerned for Bastian.

Hoping to take his mind off that troubling matter until we could venture back to the clearing and search anew, I bumped the prince’s thigh. “So are you going to tell me what all the fuss was about this morning about what’s on the back of my neck?”

I was still puzzled by it. All of the males had seemed shocked when they’d looked at my nape, but even though I’d run my fingers across it multiple times, nothing about my skin felt amiss.

Jax cocked his head at me, as though coming out of a trance. “Do you not remember last night?”

A furious blush worked up my neck, and Trivan snickered.

“Of course I do,” I hissed.

A sly smile lifted the prince’s lips, the first genuine smile I’d seen on his face since Bowan had burst into our chambers this morning. “Then why are you asking?”

My brow furrowed, and I pushed my mostly empty plate away. “What do you mean, why am I asking ? All of your friends seemed to find something on my neck surprising, yet I have no idea what’s there.”

His smile lessened, and he turned to face me more. Broad shoulders stretched when he also pushed his plate to the side.

“You told me you wanted me to rut with you,” he said quietly, yet I still knew everyone heard him even though Phillen went into the kitchen, Lars following.

The others began talking to one another as if they were having normal conversations, except for Trivan, of course, who was blatantly staring at us, and I could have sworn that Bowan was hanging on our every word.

“Yes, I did,” I replied in a hushed tone, but I didn’t know why I bothered considering I was surrounded by shifters.

Jax’s eyebrows slanted together until a wedge appeared between them. “And you said you knew what that meant.”

“Right.” My frown grew, and an unsettling feeling crept into my stomach. “It meant you wanted to take me from behind,” I all but whispered and then wanted to die when Trivan snickered. “Goddess, do we have to have this conversation here?”

But if Jax cared that all of his friends were listening, he didn’t show it. Instead, a storm of emotions unleashed upon his face. “Elowen,” he said sharply, too sharply. “What is your understanding of rutting?”

“Um, you know, when a male stag shifter takes a female”—I mouthed the next words—“ from behind .”

The smirk on Trivan’s face died, a more troubling look taking its place, and a brooding scowl descended upon Alec’s. He wasn’t even trying to pretend he wasn’t listening anymore.

The Graniteer House noble shot Jax an accusing glare. “Are you serious, Jax? She doesn’t know ?”

I scowled. “Know what?”

“Oh, shite, this isn’t going to end well,” Bowan said quietly before he raked a hand through his hair. Any mirth he’d shone earlier had vanished.

My chest heaved as I studied all of them, but as much as I tried to control my response at being left in the dark, I couldn’t stop my growing sense of dread. “Will someone please tell me what you were all talking about in the clearing this morning?”

Jax scrubbed his cheeks.

Heart pounding, I demanded, “Jax, what’s going on?”

The worry on Jax’s face increased. “I...” He opened his mouth and then closed it. A soft growl rumbled in his chest. “We...Gods and Goddesses. I thought you knew.”

“Knew what ?” I swallowed the ball of anxiety that threatened to work up my throat. “Jax?” I whispered. “Tell me.”

“Oh, for stars’ sake,” Alec bit out, still across the room. “He claimed you, Elowen. That’s what happened when you rutted with him. That’s what rutting means. It’s not just a stag shifter taking a female from behind. It’s a male stag claiming his female.”

Confusion swam through me. “ Claimed me? But we didn’t fully enact the bond, so how could you have claimed me?” But then the fact that Jax was a stag shifter hit me, and that maybe what Stonewild fae did was different from what Faewood fae did when a mate bond was formed. Maybe holding my magic back hadn’t stopped us from forming the mate bond. All blood drained from my face. “You mean you...” But I couldn’t say it. Because even if Jax was my mate, it still didn’t change our future, yet if he’d claimed me...

I grabbed his hands. “Please tell me you didn’t.”

Devastation rippled across Jax’s face, and in a sweep of his arms, he was carrying me away from the other males. He didn’t stop until we reached his bed chambers, and then he slammed the door closed behind us.

He set me down and then paced a few steps back and forth in front of me. Finally stopping, he faced me, then scraped his fingers lightly across my nape. His touch made goosebumps shoot down my spine.

“Do you know what’s here?”

I couldn’t breathe. “No.”

Nostrils flaring, he tugged me into the bathroom.

Inside the bathing chamber, he grabbed a mirror off the counter, faced me away from the large mirror above the sink, and held the handheld mirror up for me to see. He swept my long chestnut hair to the side, revealing my nape in the handheld mirror.

My breath sucked in.

A silvery-inked mark, like a tattoo that probably shone like stars in the sun, revealed a stamp upon my nape in the shape of a stag’s antlers.

“Oh Goddess, you did. You claimed me as your mate.” My fingers flew to the mark, but as before, I couldn’t feel it, but I could see it in my reflection. “Jax, what have you done?”

The hopeful light in his eyes dimmed. “I thought you wanted me to.”

I tried to rub it off, tried to erase it, but it was as though it was under my skin, as if it was a part of me.

A growl erupted from Jax, and he forced my fingers to stop their brutal attempts at smudging his mark away. “You can’t wipe it off, Elowen. It’s permanent. I’m mated to you, and male stag shifters mate for life, so you’re it for me.”

“ What ?”

“Male stag shifters mate for life, and I chose you. I can never choose another. And that has nothing to do with our mate bond. I chose you as a stag and claimed you. It’s probably why you’re so confused by this and why you don’t feel the bond since you held your magic back when we were rutting.” His eyebrows slanted together, and I realized he’d felt me suppressing my magic when we’d been fucking. Despite the fact that I’d suppressed our fated mate bond on my end, he’d claimed me as a male stag anyway because he thought I’d wanted that.

“You can’t undo it? Truly?”

He growled anew. “I would never undo it. Once a male stag chooses his mate, even if they’re not his fated mate, that’s it for him. His choice is made.”

“You’re telling me that no matter what, it’s permanent? But what if a male stag found his fated mate after he’d already claimed another female?”

His lips twitched in a humorless smile. “He’d be perpetually tortured. Male stags mate for life once they’ve made the claim, but if a male met his fated mate after already claiming another, his instincts would be perpetually torn between the two females. It’s why most male stags choose very carefully when they claim a female. There’s no undoing it.” He looked down, his aura beginning to roll. “I tried to tell you that...once.”

“When?”

“On our way to Lemos. When I told you that brommel stag shifters have extraordinary healing abilities and that we move like the wind. I was also going to tell you that males mate for life, but I stopped myself.”

“But, Jax.” I shook my head. “I didn’t want this!”

His irises burst into a myriad of blue fireworks. “But I thought you did. You consented to it,” he all but growled. “Last night, when I asked if you wanted to rut, you said yes.”

“But I thought I was just consenting to sex. I thought that’s what you meant by rutting.”

He stilled, but a muscle in his jaw began to tick. “No, Elowen. That’s not what I was asking. Rutting to a male stag shifter enacts his claiming bond.”

My heart began to gallop in my chest. “But I didn’t realize a male stag can still be bonded on his own. I didn’t elicit any magic on my end, so I thought that would keep any bond from forming. I’d had no idea you can be bonded to a female just from rutting.” I ran a hand over my nape, finally understanding what the burning sensation was I’d felt after our first time.

He tore a hand through his hair. “I thought you knew. Rutting seals the claim for a male. That’s how it is with stag shifters. I thought you wanted me to.”

My breaths grew so rapid that the room began to spin. “So what does this mean now? To shifters? Since it’s obviously different in your kingdom than mine.”

His jaw ground together. “It means that I claimed you as my own . You belong to me now. You’re mine . I rutted with you, which means in the shifter kingdom, we’re as good as married, because that mark carries more meaning than any wedding ceremony.”

The realm tilted beneath my feet. Swaying, I reached a hand toward the wall to steady myself.

Married? Marked? He owns me? My mouth fell open. Then closed. Then opened again because those words chilled me to the bone.

“Belong to you?” My lips flattened, and my magic flared, then my lorafin powers swirled inside me, moving and spinning faster with every second that passed. A phantom wind billowed the towels hanging on the rack to my side, and shadows unfurled in the corners of the bathing chamber. “You said I would never again be owned by anyone.”

“Elowen,” Jax said sharply. “It’s not like that.”

“Oh, then what’s it like?” The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and more of my power rose, swirling the air around us. The towels began to flap wildly as the room darkened.

“It means that I’m bound to you. I consider you mine, and I’ll fucking kill anyone who tries to harm you or take you from me. But I don’t physically own you. I would never claim that or do that to you. Please, Elowen.” He cupped my upper arms. “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

The breeze fluttering around us quieted, and the room brightened again as my magic calmed, but just as quickly, confusion hit me. “But when I consented to rutting with you, I thought it was only sex.” His nostrils flared again, but I pushed on. “And what we had together was the most beautiful, amazing experience that I’ve ever had. I gave you my virginity. It was a moment I’ll cherish forever, but I thought it was only sex, and now you’re saying it was so much more.” I canted my head, and the implications of what we’d done shook me to my core. “But that doesn’t change my lineage. You’re still expected to marry another even though you claimed me. Right? Saramel said your wedding will happen next summer to another royal or a noble.” My stomach heaved. Just thinking about it made me feel sick.

Jax’s jaw snapped closed. “No, Elowen. I can never marry another now.”

“But your parents?—”

“Are in for severe disappointment because I chose you.”

“But what about what they expect of you?”

He sucked in a breath. “I know. It’s going to cause some problems?—”

“ Problems ? You’d be defying the king and queen of Stonewild Kingdom, Jax, and you only call that a problem? Even though you’re the heir, you’re still obligated by siltenite law to marry who they deem worthy of you. And I will never be worthy of you even though you’ve claimed me. You’re the heir as much as you’re trying to pretend otherwise. Oh Gods, Jax, what have we done?”

His nostrils flared so sharply that they looked like a knife’s edge. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say you’re not worthy of me. It’s me who’s not worthy of you .”

I laughed, the sound bitter. “In what realm do you live? I’m a lorafin . Yes, I’m powerful and have magic that others don’t, but I’m not a shifter, and I’m certainly not of the same class as a royal. Your parents will never accept me.”

“They’ll have to.”

It felt as though my heart stopped. Jax stared down at me, his eyes blazing, his aura pounding through him. He was gazing at me so intensely, achingly so, that for one moment, one hopeful moment, I pictured what that would mean if the throne considered me worthy. Jax and I could be together. We could actually marry instead of him being sold off to one of those horrible females I’d met on the ship. But just as quickly as that powerful hope came, it died.

My shoulders sagged, and my stomach turned into a knotted ball of sad acceptance. “They won’t. I’m a slave, Jax. What king or queen would ever accept someone of my birth for their son? I was abducted in the Wood, taken from my mother, but I was still born among the poor. I’m not of royal birth or even of esteemed breeding. And your own father couldn’t even accept his own flesh and blood—a male who was half royal by birthright—because he was a half-breed.” I waved toward the door, to the capital beyond. “Bastian is here in Faewood, partly because of your father’s unacceptance of him. Your brother was banned from your life and the Stonewild capital, yet you still think that the king and queen will accept me as an equal match for their son?” My heart clenched, as though a giant squeezed it between his fist. “I wish that was true. I wish we could make that a reality, but you and I both know that’ll never happen.”

Silence descended between us, and the only movement Jax made was the roll of his throat.

“You don’t know that,” he finally rasped, but some of the fierceness in his aura turned to something uglier, more jagged, as though the fear of our reality was catching up with him too.

“No, perhaps I can’t know that for certain since I don’t know your parents personally. But you made a comment back in the Wood about bruises you may have to endure if your father found out you were running in your stag form here. And you said something weeks ago in Fosterton, about abuse you suffered in your lifetime. Are they related, Jax? Is it your father who’s abused you?”

He abruptly turned away.

“It is him, isn’t it?” Something tugged at my insides. A sick realization that Jax had likely suffered abuse as I had. It made me feel physically ill. Because abuse behind closed doors, hidden away from prying eyes, cut one all the way to their soul. In all likelihood, Jax harbored achingly sharp wounds, just as I did. After all, he’d been banned from his own brother. And his father apparently beat him when he was displeased, or once had, until Jax had grown too strong.

“And your mother?” I asked quietly. “What role does she play in all of this?”

He sighed heavily, and in that sound, I heard the weight of all he’d lived with. “She agrees with his form of punishment. She always has.”

I stepped closer to him and laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

He swung toward me, and in a move too swift for me to fully see, I was gathered in his arms, and he was holding me close, so close that his nose was buried in my hair, right along my neck near his mark.

He inhaled deeply, and even though I knew whatever had transpired between us last night couldn’t be undone, for a brief moment, I was grateful for it. Rutting had forged the claiming bond for him, even if I hadn’t allowed our mate bond to fully form. Regardless, his stag bond provided comfort to him.

And as he held me close and inhaled my scent...I could feel what it did to him. It provided a refuge. A place of security that hadn’t been there previously.

We were irrevocably linked now because of his claim, and finally fully realizing that, and realizing what we had the potential to be...Jax’s reactions to me all began to make sense. His overprotectiveness. His obsession. His terrifying responses anytime someone hurt me. His possessiveness. All of it was because he was my fated mate. And it was possible that since he’d also chosen me as his stag mate, even if he hadn’t marked his claim before, his responses were exaggerated even more.

A memory flashed through my mind, like a million volts of lightning. It was the night in Fosterton when we’d been drinking in the booth, and what he’d said to me. There’s something about you, Elowen. Something I recognize in you is in me too.

“You’ve known for a long time that I’m your mate, haven’t you? Even in Fosterton, you knew.”

His arms tightened. “Yes.”

I held him close, running my hands along his back, across his broad shoulders.

His grip on me tightened. “That’s why I was so angry in Fosterton that morning.”

“What morning?”

“The night that male assaulted you and I insisted we share a room. That night was torture for me, and it wasn’t because I’d slept on the floor. That entire night, I’d known my mate was sleeping in the same room with me, but I couldn’t touch you. I was barely able to sleep with you so near, and it’s why I woke up early. I wanted to stare at you and just soak up your presence. I knew it was likely the closest I would ever be able to get to you, but then your arousal started drenching the room. It made the fact that I couldn’t claim you a hundred times worse. If you only knew how badly I wanted to rut with you even then, or the dirty thoughts that had been running through my head while you were sleeping, or the way you looked so damned sexy when you finally awoke that all I could think about was driving my cock into you...” He chuffed. “If you’d known all of that, you probably would have run.”

“Doubt it.” I laughed softly and bit my lip. “I can’t believe that’s what you were thinking. Did you know that I wanted to give you my virginity that morning? I’d had indecent dreams about you all night, but when you left in such a hurry, and then were so angry when I saw you again outside, I thought it was because you knew I was turned on by you, and it annoyed you.”

“Annoyed me?” A laugh rumbled his chest. “Oh, Little Lorafin. How wrong you were. I was in a foul mood because I wanted to rut with you so badly, yet I knew I could never have you. I was the Dark Raider. Only a selfish bastard would try to pull his mate into that lifestyle. And I also knew what I’d have to do to you once we reached Jaggedston. I knew I’d have to take your sight and eventually your sound, and it was eating me up that I was going to treat you that way. So, between having blue balls and also knowing that I would have to hurt my mate, something that every instinct in me screamed not to do, that’s why I was in such a foul mood by the time we finally left.”

I released a breath and squeezed him. “That’s why you were so mad?”

His throat rolled in a swallow, and he buried his nose in my hair. “It is. I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that, but I was still trying to do what I thought was best for you, and keeping you away from me and in the dark about my true identity was safer for you.”

I lifted my shoulders. “I never held it against you, the way you acted that morning.”

“I know you didn’t. And that only made me feel like an even bigger arsehole.”

“But what are we going to do now?” I asked quietly.

Slowly, he lifted his head, and that wild blue light shone in his eyes again. “I don’t know. I tried once to let you go. I was going to free you after my calling even though I knew you were my mate. It would have been the smartest thing to do, the best thing, considering I’m the Dark Raider, and even being associated with me puts you at risk. But when you found out who I was, even though I felt terrified for what your future held, I also felt...relief. I wanted you to stay. I wanted to have you with me always. And after you found out, I had an excuse to keep you near.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, so many things aligning as he bared his soul. The way I’d also felt broken at the thought of leaving him behind now made sense. Or the fear he’d spoken of. I remembered seeing him look that way, but at the time I didn’t understand why.

He took a deep breath. “But the most important thing to me right now is how you’re feeling. Are you angry with me? Since you didn’t fully understand what rutting meant?”

My shoulders sagged, yet I kept my arms looped around him. “Angry? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet what’s happened between us. Stars, I’m still not sure I fully understand all of the implications, but being connected to you—” I laid a hand on his cheek. Stubble met my palm when he pushed himself more into my touch. My insides tightened. Even that simple caress seemed to soothe him. “Even before your mark, I felt connected to you, Jax. You took me from a male who spent his life abusing me. You tried to free me in every way your ability allowed. You protected me when others couldn’t or wouldn’t. You made me feel—” I cut myself off and swallowed the thick lump that suddenly formed in my throat.

Intensity smoldered in his gaze, and he dipped his forehead toward mine. “Yes? What have I made you feel?”

Tears sprouted in my eyes, and against my better judgment, I choked out, “Loved. You make me feel loved , Jax, and that’s something I’ve never truly felt from anyone.”

His aura abruptly spiraled through the room, coating the walls, soaking into the towels, and bathing me in its richness. His chest heaved. “It’s because I do love you, Elowen.”

A stab of disbelief nearly cracked me in two. “But...why? Is it just because we’re fated?”

He kissed my eyes, brushing away each escaped tear, then trailed his mouth across my cheeks, pressing soft kisses along my skin. His touches were gentle. Reverent. Solidifying.

“It’s not just because you’re my mate. But because you’re you . You’re brave, resilient, kind, beautiful. You’re everything I could have ever wanted in a mate and more. And just because something in you calls to me, that’s not the entire reason I want you. I can’t explain it, Elowen. It’s a feeling I have when I’m around you. An instinct. A need to be with you. To hold you, protect you, love you. It feels like I can’t exist anymore without you.”

“Even though I’m a slave?”

He growled. “You’re not a slave. You’ll never be a slave again, and someday, you will see that you’re worthy of everything in this life. I know you doubt yourself, that you have insecurities, but you are worthy of every goodness that comes to you, Elowen. You are .”

I shuddered when his lips met my throat. “You truly believe that?”

“Of course I do. I only wish you did as well.”

My heart thumped, but instead of plaguing self-doubt thoughts creeping into my mind, they stayed at bay. Instead, a tentative bridge grew in my chest, connecting me to a new sense of confidence. Maybe Jax was right. Maybe I was worthy.

“How did you first know I was your mate?” I asked quietly.

A wry smile tugged at his lips. “All shifter males are taught from boyhood what happens when they meet their mate. Like other male fae, shifter males usually recognize the bond first, before the female. It’s a feeling. A sense deep within us that grows the more we’re in our mate’s presence. I felt it with you from that first morning you awoke in my tent and had even gotten inklings of it from the weeks leading up to us taking you, when I’d been watching you from afar. But I didn’t know for certain until we were in the Ustilly Mountains, and I felt the absolute rage and need to murder Lordling Neeble and his guards for what they’d done to you. The feeling overtook me completely.” He paused. “I’ve never felt the absolute need for vengeance as I did when I saw him abusing you on that domal. It’s why I was particularly brutal with him. I don’t usually carve up fae like that.”

A chill ran through me when that horrific night reared, and the lethal brutality that Jax had shown Lordling Neeble punched through my mind.

“Yet all along,” Jax continued, “I’d known something about you was different. Special. And since being with you, getting to know you more, that feeling has only grown. I’ve barely been able to stand it. Being around you and not being able to touch you, when all I’ve wanted to do is hold you, consume you, fuck you, love you,” he added on a low growl. “And when Alec kept flirting with you on that fucking ship, I could have...”

I laughed lightly. “He did that on purpose, you know.”

He rolled his eyes. “I know. He told me the other day. He even apologized for it.” His gaze bore into mine, and he cupped my cheek, brushing his thumb over my skin. “Suffice to say, you’re mine , Elowen. And I’m never going to let you go as long as you want to stay at my side.”

Something in me shattered at his raw declaration. It was real. Heartfelt. True . Everything he’d just shared had come from the depths of his soul. I knew that as truly as I knew the sky was green.

Before I knew what I was doing, my arms were around him, and I was tangled in his embrace, feverishly kissing him.

He hauled me to him and kissed me just as fast.

Loved . Jax loved me. Nobody had ever loved me, not really. Yet with Jax, I felt it. Every word he’d spoken had called to something inside me, an ancient bond, a fated link. If anyone else had said to me what Jax just had, every insecurity I’d ever felt would probably have come rearing back. But not with Jax. Not after feeling this.

He seemed to know the second I fully accepted our bonding. His aura swelled, and a fierce tide of his magic consumed me.

And then I was sitting on the bathroom counter, hauled up on it so quickly that my head spun. Jax was peeling my clothes off, his coming free just as fast. The need inside me grew stronger, more urgent. Jax was my mate. My mate.

His lips met mine, our tongues clashed, and my fingers raked down his bare skin, relishing the feel of his naked chest.

In a blink, his antlers emerged in a tidal wave of potent magic. Their huge span brushed the walls. Breaking our kiss only long enough to see what I was doing, I tentatively touched an antler, not even knowing I was going to until my fingers curled around the right one and then, with my other hand, the left. They felt textured. Rough. In a way, his antlers felt like stone.

I caressed them, running my fingers along that part of him, marveling at their width and feel.

“ Fuck , Elowen.” A wild grunt came from Jax’s throat as my feathery touches cascaded over his antlers, and then in a flurry of speed, we were both entirely naked, and his hard length was parting my folds as he entered me with a single thrust.

He plunged himself inside me so swiftly that I arched against him, grabbing a hold of his antlers to steady myself. My grip only seemed to heighten his frenzy, so I held on fully and ran my hands up and down them, crying out with each buck of his hips.

He pumped into me hard and fast, with so much force that my entire body shook, and the counter groaned beneath me.

“ Mine , Elowen,” he grunted and slammed into me again. “You’re fucking mine .”

“And you’re mine, Jax,” I replied as my bottom squeaked against the counter. “Forever and always.”

The wildness around him grew, and then his magic simmered in the air, coasting over my mark, heating my blood. Something cracked open inside me, and tendrils of my magic surged forth. But instead of trying to stop my magic from colliding with his, I let the well to my power burst open, knowing there was no going back after this, but with the bond gaining hold of me, I was powerless to stop it.

Magic slammed out of me, heading toward Jax until our powers collided. Spirals of our magic swirled around us, entwining, embracing, and tangling together. My magic coated him as his did to me, and that was when I fully felt our connection solidify. The fated bond within me fully, finally connected with his.

A shattering of power melded our souls, and his mark burned on my neck just as light flared on his wrist. The skin near his palm, shone with a twist of shadows and the eye of a semelee. A lorafin’s mark. The same mark I bore upon my lower stomach. My stamp was now upon him, just as his was upon me.

Jax growled in pleasure when my mark settled on his skin, enacting the final acts of our bond.

He slammed into me even harder, and our souls blended and became one. Finally, the instinct he’d been feeling all along, the deep throbbing need to claim another as their own, fully awoke within me too.

The need to be with this male, own him, claim him...it nearly overtook me.

And in that moment, when Jax did a final thrust inside me, and we both came together, our climaxes shooting through our bodies in a final blazing light, I realized that he was right. He’d been right all along.

I was his fated mate.

And he was mine.

And somehow, we would figure out a way to forge a path together.