Hardly any sound escapes before Malix slams his lips against mine, kissing me deeply and swallowing up my sounds as he fucks me through my release. He lets out a choked grunt as he follows right behind me, his hot cum filling me up as he keeps his mouth sealed over mine.
When the movement of his hips finally slows, he eases my leg off his shoulder. My muscles protest a little, overstretched and a bit sore, but there’s too much pleasure still blazing through my body for me to care.
Panting, I look up at him. “What happened to wanting me to scream your name?”
“Oh yeah.” He makes a face before dropping his head to kiss me until I can’t breathe again. He pecks my nose and then tilts his head back. “I still want that, but I realized it might not be a great idea at the moment. What with us being on the run from Quinton’s pack and all.” A sinful grin tugs at his lips. “When there are fewer people out there who want to kill us, I’ll make you scream so loud that every single star in the universe will hear you.”
I chuckle, because that’s a very Malix thing to do, getting caught up in the moment and then having to adjust course at the last second. He’s a little more free-spirited than the other two feral shifters, but he’s just as smart and savvy as they are. He wouldn’t put any of us in danger if he could help it—and that includes letting me scream his name during sex.
“All right.” I smile lazily, squeezing my inner walls around him. “We can take a rain check on that.”
Malix laughs and pulls out of me, dropping to the damp ground beside me. When I roll over onto my side, he does the same, facing me. His palm splays over my lower back as he tugs me closer so that we’re curled up against each other, my breasts pressing against his chest. He nips my ear, and I’m so high on him that even that small touch sends another shock down to my pussy, making my clit throb with what feels like another mini orgasm. He hooks my leg over his, anchoring me against him, and I don’t notice the cold or the ground beneath us.
I only notice him. I only feel him.
It’s fucking incredible.
Malix pulls back enough to look me in the eye, the fingers of one hand playing with my slowly drying hair. “I’m on your side, you know.”
“Technically, you’re on my front,” I point out wryly.
With a little smirk, he reaches down and smacks my ass. “The mouth on you, kitty.”
As if just the mention of my mouth makes him hungry for it, he leans in to kiss me, keeping his hand on my ass and groping me a little as his tongue slides between my lips, tangling hotly with mine. I kiss him back, wrapping my upper leg a little more tightly around him so that we’re pressed flush together.
It used to make me furious, the way he calls me “kitty.” As if he was downplaying my shifter nature, throwing me in with the felines of the world instead of with the wolves where I belong. But it’s starting to sound more like an endearment every time he says it—especially right now, his voice warm and low and full of affection. It’s his nickname for me, something that has meaning for the two of us and no one else.
“What I mean,” he says with a mock scowl as he draws back a little to look into my eyes, “is that I agree with you. I can’t change who I am. The shadows are part of me. Maybe I’ll always be a monster.”
“You’re not a monster,” I cut in. Guilt tickles the edges of my thoughts, because I’ve definitely called them all monsters before. Even to their faces. But they’re not—they’re so much more complicated than that.
He leans in and presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “Regardless, I can’t change me. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to stop the worst from happening. Quinton may not be made of shadows like my brothers and I are, but you’re right about him being an asshole.”
“Gee, you think?” I drawl.
Malix sighs. “I’ve always known that, on some level. I think part of me has always hated him. But he created us. He… raised us. He’s the closest thing any of us have ever had to a father, and that—that’s a bond that’s hard to break.” He lets out another breath, burying his face in my hair and murmuring his next words into the messy tangle of drying locks. “But I want to. I’m sick of serving him.”
Hope rises inside me, and my chest warms even more than the rest of my body already has from being so firmly curled in his arms. I’ve been waiting for this moment—hoping for it. Praying for it, even when it seemed like it would never come.
Maybe these feral shifters really are capable of a lot more than I gave them credit for at first. Those hints of the goodness that I thought I saw inside them were real. The little embers just needed to be coaxed to life.
I’m not sure what to say that won’t sound condescending or smug or awkward, like a poorly written Hallmark card.
So instead of saying something stupid, I just kiss him.
His lips are warm and his tongue is like silk against mine, and he tastes so fucking good. I fall into him, taking my time, enjoying every moment of this. Our kiss deepens, and the heat rises even more between us. I consider suggesting we go again—and by the feel of him, I’m certain that suggestion would be happily accepted—but I’m not done with this topic.
Not until I get answers.
So I pull back a bit and cup his face in my hands, forcing him to look at me through his obvious haze of lust. “The vision from that seer. The one Kian mentioned about me, well, dying. What happens in it?”
The skin around his violet eyes tightens, and a flash of worry flickers in his gaze. “I don’t know. She didn’t share her vision with us the way your witch did with you. So we don’t know how it all plays out, just that being with us, accepting the bond… will destroy you.”
His jaw clenches as he says that last part, and I can feel tension move through his body like a rippling wave. But then, in typical Malix fashion, he grins, sliding a hand to my butt to press me against his body. He peppers a trail of kisses down my cheek and to my lips, where his mouth brushes against mine.
“It’ll be all right, kitty. I promise. We’re already trying to change one vision of the future,” he murmurs. “Maybe we can change that one too, yeah?”
I’m not sure if I believe him. Not sure if any of us will be able to change our fates, or if they’re already etched in stone, carved into the very fabric of the universe.
But I hope it’s possible, and I don’t want to let go of the little bubble of happiness that fills my chest just yet. So instead of arguing, I just curl my hand around the back of Malix’s neck and draw him closer, pressing my kiss-swollen lips to his.