22. Zariel
Chapter twenty-two
Zariel
S he was tight around me, gripping me with her delicious heat, even as I spilled out of her and dripped to the frozen ground far below.
My mate. My mate. My mate.
My body sang at the sweet relief that I had finally claimed her, marked her. Angels are in truth no different than other creatures, and how I felt in this moment was a testament to the base animal that still lived within us. She was mine.
Mine.
Even though I had just taken her, had felt her grip me and throb as I made her go over the edge, that feral side of me stirred to do it again. And again. I’d never be able to get enough. Her every movement echoed through me as if it were my own, her pleasure a mirror to mine, her desire reflected back to me. This wasn’t enough. Never enough .
The mate bond chose a partner for me, and I thanked the heavens that it chose her. Soaring above the ground, with her wrapped around me—this was how it was supposed to be. She wasn’t an angel and she’d never have wings of her own, but she didn’t need them. As long as I had breath, they, along with every other part of me, was hers. And her not having wings let me hold her against me, fully pressed, gripping me out of both necessity and desire. We didn’t have to perfectly time the beats of our wings or risk knocking each other off course. No, she fit my body as I held her, and I’d never let her go.
Then the moment I should’ve been basking in bliss became shadowed clouds covering the moon. From hundreds of feet above the ground I faced the mountain, and all that it entailed.
Damn all of this—I was never going to be without her again. I didn’t care what anyone else thought, did, or said. I’d leave everything, even if it meant leaving my hard-earned position in the mountain and never going home. Was that rational? No. Rational thought left the moment she slid onto me. From here on out there was nothing that mattered other than her.
Angels were warned about what taking a mate could do to oneself, the absolute insanity. The warnings were not nearly enough. She was now a piece of my soul, and I’d happily give whatever it took to have her with me. I’d surrender everything that I worked for, suffered for, if it meant that I’d be guaranteed to see her face next to me every morning, forever.
Her head rested against my shoulders, her eyes languid, body sated. Light brown eyelashes fluttered, revealing her brilliant pale blue eyes. Her scent overwhelmed me, and now, mixed with my own, was driving me to oblivion once again.
I had to take her again. Soon. Not soon enough.
But my mate was human, and she needed rest. She needed to be indoors, where it was warm. She’d stay in my bed, and I’d take the time to explore every inch of her, and worship her as she deserved.
Was she feeling this as intensely as me?
“That was …” she said languidly, wind rushing past us. “I mean, that was—”
“Everything I had dreamed of, and more.” I kissed her perfect pink lips, lips that I imagined would soon be around my cock, sucking on me. And that would only happen after I tasted every bit of her. The flood of desire reared, but I forced it back. It had to wait. I needed to take her home, and then I’d face whatever was trying to keep us apart.
“I don’t want this—us—to end,” she said. “I can’t let it end.”
“It won’t,” I said. I drifted to a glide, aiming towards where we had left the mountain. Someday I’d take her flying, truly flying, and we would see everything the world had to offer, far away from here .
“Zariel—”
I met her gaze and cut off her protest, doing my best to convey to her in looks what my words could fail to do. “You are mine,” I said, “chosen by fate. I refuse to have it any other way.”
I meant every word.