The trees were swaying harder, leaves falling to the ground and spinning in the newly forming gale. Z could feel Dorothy’s energy mingling with his, more intensely than it had before.
He knew the moment she realized he was trying to be careful, to go slowly. For her.
His heart mate disagreed, digging her elbows into the ground and powering her hips back against him. Demanding more.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Begging.” Her voice was rough and raw, matching his emotions. She looked at him over her shoulder with a wicked grin. “Surrendering, my way.”
He narrowed his eyes, one hand tightening on her hip while the other slid up to grip her shoulder. “Finally.”
The wind howled with victory as he lost the last tenuous grip on his control.
She screamed his name as he pumped inside her; full and deep, hard and fast, over and over until his legs shook and his body gleamed with sweat. This was what he needed. To claim her. To conquer her the way she’d conquered his heart.
“Tell me you love it.”
“I…oh shit…I love it.”
“What, sweet? What do you love?” He wrapped her hair around his fist and tugged gently, arching her neck as he rode her. She knew what he wanted her to say. Needed her to say.
“I love your cock.” He growled, and heard her moan in return. “Make me take it, make me take it all. Harder, Z, fuck me harder.”
“Witch,” he gasped, all words forgotten as he fell on her, hands beside her on the ground, his hips pounding her into the damp earth beneath them.
The trees were nearly bent over, rocking in a rhythm to match their frantic coupling. “I’m coming, Dorothy,” Z shouted through the tempest. “Come with me.”
It felt like flying. Out of the atmosphere and into the stars. Her magic danced with his, her soul transformed him forever. He was hers, irrevocably. She made him fly.
When he landed, he was on his back and she was trembling in his arms, both of them overcome with the enormity of the moment.
Goddess, I love him.
He touched her cheek, unsure if he should tell her she’d projected that thought into his head or not. She loved him. He tried to still the tremor in his fingertips as he studied her beloved face. “My sweet Dorothy.” He kissed her forehead. “If you only knew how very much I lo—”
He couldn’t speak. Someone had taken his voice and his magic. He was frozen. Helpless.
Dorothy! Run!
“What?”
She’s here. Get away as fast as you can. Get help. Glinda…
“Beneath the moons my eyes can see,
A heartless wizard wandering free,
His soul is dark, his eyes are cold,
He’d be worth more were he pure gold.”
The voice echoed overhead, and Dorothy jumped up, spinning wildly. She knew that voice.
“Aunt Glin? Z, that’s…Z? Z!”
He was lying where she had left him, his arm curved around a body that was no longer there, his lips forming the words she’d been longing to hear. She knelt to touch him. He was hard, frozen like a statue. A beautiful, golden statue.
“Oh Goddess, no.”