“I love you,” he said, eyes on me before he thrust again.
The bond sparked and crackled with the way he slammed home, with our admission to each other.
“Again,” I demanded, and he grinned at me before flicking his tongue over my lips.
“I love you,” he said again, pairing it with two hard thrusts that made my eyes roll back in my head.
“Mate,” I gasped, my nails digging into his back. “You’re mine,” I said and tightened my legs around him.
He groaned. “Always,” he said, slanting his mouth over mine. “Always yours.” He slammed into me again and again, driving the heat between us to a searing white-hot inferno. Every inch of me—body and soul—blazed at the feel of him against me, inside me. His smell swirled around mine, braiding our scents together until we were something new. Something strong, unbreakable.
And just as my body coiled like a hot spring, I turned my head to the side. “Drink,” I demanded, and he didn’t need to ask me twice. He heard the consent, the need in my voice for us to be bonded on every level imaginable.
He sank to the hilt just as his fangs slid into my flesh.
I exploded, shattered. Completely unraveled with each thrust of him inside me and each pull he took at my neck. My body and soul flooded with the most delicious, aching, screaming heat. I moaned his name, digging my nails into his back so hard I hoped I’d leave scars. I wanted to make my mark on him in every way, as he had done to me.
My head spun as I came again, as he hardened inside me another degree, finding his own release with a growl loud enough to shake the walls. A quick, healing lick across my neck sent shivers dancing down my spine.
He rolled us to the side, holding me to him without crushing me with his strength and power. He smoothed the hair away from my face, finding my eyes.
“No iron this time?” he joked, and I smacked his chest.
“Let’s save that for the next suicide mission you plan, okay?” I teased right back.
“Aye,” he said. “You won’t catch me off guard so easily next time.”
I arched a brow at him, trailing my fingers over his muscled chest, his hard abdomen, and lower. “Is that a challenge?” I gripped his length in my hand, which was already hardening again.
“With you?” He hissed as I fisted him, pumping from root to stem. I shifted, hooking my leg over his hip, wiggling until I’d taken him inside me again. “Always,” he growled.
“Good,” I said, breathless as I slowly rocked against him. “Because I’m yours, Lachlan, for just as long.”
He slipped an arm beneath my hip, hauling me against him.
The bond between us glimmered and purred and pulsed with a love that stole the breath from my lungs. I cupped Lachlan’s face, stilling for just a moment so he could see it shine through my eyes.
Endless.
That’s what the bond radiated.
A love that was absolutely endless.
Ransom
Alek: Meet me in the war room.
I glanced at the text message and wiped the sweat from my brow, then put back the two wakizashi swords I’d been training with, placing them in the long wall mount next to the katanas. My chest burned with exertion, but it felt good to shake the dust off the older weapons. I’d learned a long time ago that you had to fight with whatever was closest.
“You look good with those,” Benedict said, taking a break from pounding the shit out of the punching bag. Had to give it to the guy, though. He had one hell of a right hook. I’d been on the other side of it enough times to know.
“Thanks. Have to admit, I kind of miss combat before firearms.” There was no use for elegant weapons like these, now. Not when a bullet did just as much damage with a fraction of the effort.
“Only you would.” He grinned and went back to slugging the bag.
Across the gym, Olivia climbed out of the ring where she’d been sparring with Valor—Lachlan’s mate. The human was fast for a…well, human, but Olivia always took it easy on her.
Olivia was the fastest vampire I’d ever met in my life, and being the combat master for the Order meant I’d met more than a few vampires.
But in my hundreds of years, I’d never met one like her. Olivia Sorokin was one of a kind. Her lethal grace made her the most exemplary bodyguard I’d ever had a hand in training, not that I’d taught her much. By the time I’d arrived at the selection, she’d already proven herself deadly with blade, bow, and firearm…and that was back when muskets were a thing. Between her fighting skills, speed, and ability to act as a body double when needed for Princess Avianna, Olivia had been the perfect fit.