Chapter 34
They left the party in silence, slipping away before the final toast. Mirel leaned against him in the car, already half-asleep. By the time they reached the estate, Kylix was carrying him. The sounds of laughter and music still echoed behind them as the car pulled away.
Inside the estate, everything was quiet. Kylix walked the long corridor with Mirel in his arms, the dim lights catching in his hair as he breathed against Kylix’s shoulder.
Night fell deep over Helion, inking the sky with moving planets and the shimmer of distant satellites. Through the curved glass of the Waltr, stars hung close enough to touch. Their soft light glimmered across the bed and the dark stone floor, faint reflections rippling in the glass walls.
Kylix laid Mirel down gently on the bed, brushing the golden hair from his forehead.
He stripped off his trousers with care, not waking him, and set them aside.
Once Mirel was settled, covered to the waist and breathing deeply, Kylix sat up.
He touched the multi-slate, dimming the lights to a low amber, and clapped once.
A soft thread of music filled the room. The ritual steadied him.
“You look like something I should worship,” Kylix whispered. “But all I want is to ruin you slow.”
Mirel lay half-covered, gold hair scattered across the pillow, pale skin glowing faintly in the starlight.
His chest lifted and fell. For a long moment, Kylix only watched him, the world narrowed to this small shape of breath and bone.
He wanted to keep him near, to reach for him each time the night turned, to know that when the stars wheeled again, Mirel would still be here, his gravity, his constant.
Outside, a slow arc of light crossed the neighboring planet’s horizon, blue fire drifting behind it like smoke. The hum of the estate was faint, distant. Inside, their quiet night waited.
Kylix’s hand rested over Mirel’s ribs, fingers tracing the faint dip between them.
He felt the slow shift from sleep to waking beneath his palm.
Mirel stirred, a quiet sound leaving his throat.
He stretched his arms before blinking against the dim light.
A faint smile tugged at his lips as his eyes opened.
“Good evening,” Kylix said.
Mirel opened his eyes fully. “It’s still night.”
“I know.” Kylix smiled. “You fell asleep before we even left the party. You missed half of Moargan’s speech.”
“That was on purpose.” His voice was rough with sleep but calm.
Kylix laughed under his breath. “Good choice.” He brushed his thumb along Mirel’s jaw. “You were extraordinary tonight.”
“Thank you.” Mirel’s lips curved faintly. He looked down to where Kylix had stripped him to his underwear and cape.
“Mesmerizing.” Kylix let his gaze drag over Mirel’s mouth, then leaned in and pressed a kiss to it, soft at first, then deeper, nipping until it parted.
“Sexy.” His tongue slid inside, coaxing a moan from Mirel’s throat.
“Dangerous.” He kissed lower, along the corner of his jaw, down his neck, dragging his tongue across the skin before licking up again, tasting the faint salt of sleep and skin. His mouth hovered at the base of Mirel’s throat, where he bit gently, then licked again, just to hear him gasp.
His lips trailed down to the edge of the cape, fingers brushing the line of Mirel’s hips. “I could watch you my entire life and still want more.”
Mirel shifted closer, mouth parting slightly, breath catching as Kylix’s fingers tugged at the edge of the cape. Kylix kissed the spot just beneath his navel, then lower, licking the line of his waistband, mouthing over the soft fabric until Mirel trembled.
“Tell me how it felt to kill him.” He nosed aside the fabric, revealing the flushed tip of Mirel’s cock, already leaking. Kylix mouthed over it through the thin cloth, feeling the heat, the twitch. Mirel gasped, fingers catching the edge of the sheets.
“It felt g-good.”
“Hmm. I saw that. I saw that you enjoyed yourself.” With practiced ease, Kylix removed his own trousers, cock heavy and flushed, standing between them. He leaned forward, voice a low purr.
“I couldn’t control myself. When he spoke of Cyprian—and of you—I just snapped.” Mirel’s gaze dropped, and he reached for Kylix without hesitation, wrapping his fingers around the length and stroking once, then again.
Kylix groaned low, letting the sensation wash through him. “Who taught you to be so forthcoming?”
“My bonded did.” Mirel pumped him with more confidence, thumb flicking the slit, dragging another moan from Kylix’s mouth.
“Just like that,” Kylix growled, breath sharp. “You want to make me come before I’m even inside you?”
Mirel’s lips curled slightly, but he didn’t stop. His hand moved faster, tighter, drawing a low curse from Kylix.
“You like watching me fall apart?” His voice broke. “Filthy little thing. You feel how hard I am for you?”
Their bodies moved closer, heat curling between them. Kylix dragged his gaze to Mirel’s throat, jaw, those mismatched eyes. The sight made something inside him ache, hunger threaded with awe.
He kissed Mirel again. Slow. Deep. Let his hips grind to match Mirel’s fist, sliding his hand over Mirel’s chest to feel the steady pulse beneath. Then he moved lower, wrapping his fingers around Mirel’s cock, stroking him with steady, greedy precision.
“You feel like sin,” Kylix breathed. “Like something I should worship until you forget your name.”
Kylix stroked him slowly, feeling the familiar shape, the slick already weeping from the tip.
Mirel arched into his hand, mouth parting around a breath.
But he didn’t just lie there. He reached down again, finding Kylix’s cock, stroking him with steady pressure.
His thumb dragged across the tip, spreading precum, making Kylix gasp into his mouth.
He nipped at Mirel’s lower lip, then sucked it into his mouth until his dare moaned. Then he dragged his mouth to Mirel’s neck and bit, harder this time, claiming the soft skin with his teeth, sucking until a mark bloomed. Mirel gasped, breath stuttering against him.
“You like that, baby? You like it when I mark you with my teeth?”
“Y-yes.” Mirel jerked him harder now, fingers tightening as his breath turned sharp.
Kylix gasped against his mouth. “Fuck, just like that. You trying to make me embarrass myself?”
Mirel panted. “You’re the one moaning into my mouth.”
Kylix grinned, then bit his shoulder lightly. “I’ll moan louder if you keep going like that. You want to hear it? Want to see what a mess you can make of me?”
Mirel’s answering groan was half-laugh, half-need. “Yes.”
“No.” Kylix pulled himself back. “I will come inside your ass, darae. Honor the Oath of Measure.”
Mirel’s chuckle was breathless. “Does the Oath require fucking?”
“Oh yes. Lots of it.” Kylix stroked Mirel with lazy devotion, dragging his thumb over the head, then down to cup and tease his balls.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Oh, little ghost. Then you better start believing. Because every part of you was made to fit in my hands…”
Kylix licked his way down, mouthing over his chest, sucking each nipple until Mirel squirmed. They let go of each other at the same time, hands parting from cocks with one last twitching stroke, bodies catching at the absence. Mirel’s hands tightened in the sheets, chest rising sharply.
“And in my mouth.” When he reached his cock, Kylix didn’t hesitate. He took him in slowly, lips wrapping around the flushed head, tongue flicking the slit before dragging down the shaft. Mirel let out a trembling sound, his body arching off the bed.
Kylix sucked him deep, pressing his nose into gold hair, then pulled back and swallowed again. His tongue circled the head, traced the thick vein, then licked slowly down to his balls. He mouthed them gently, then sucked one in, humming when Mirel’s hips jolted.
Mirel gasped, head tilting back. “Kylix… please.”
Kylix moaned around him, savoring the way Mirel shook. He dragged his tongue back up, lapping at the slit again, then took him back to the root, swallowing him with a filthy groan. His hands gripped Mirel’s thighs, keeping him open, helpless beneath the attention.
“You were made for this,” Kylix murmured between sucks. “For my mouth. For my cock. Look at you… fucking shaking and I’ve barely started.”
Mirel’s hands trembled where they gripped the sheets. “Good Light. So good…”
Kylix pulled off with a slow, filthy drag. “You’re perfect like this,” he murmured. “Soft. Spread. Mine.”
He pressed a kiss to Mirel’s mouth, then his jaw, then leaned over to grab the lube from his bedside drawer.
He spat into his hand first, mixing it with the gel until it slicked easily between his fingers.
With one hand, he coated his length in slow, deliberate strokes.
The other hand slid between Mirel’s thighs, fingers brushing over his hole before circling the rim in lazy spirals.
“You like this, darae? Like it when I make you feel good?”
Mirel shivered.
Kylix pressed in with a single finger. Slow. Deep. Letting him feel it.
“Relax,” he murmured, lips grazing Mirel’s knee. “Let me in.”
He worked him open, twisting slightly, then eased in a second.
Mirel gasped. His thighs parted wider. His head tilted back against the pillow.
Kylix crooked his fingers and felt the resistance fade. The wet sounds between them grew louder, obscene in the quiet.
“Gods, you’re tight,” he growled. “But you’re taking it so well.”
A third finger slid in, stretching him wider. Mirel whimpered, breath stuttering. His back arched off the bed, then rolled forward again, grinding against Kylix’s hand, desperate for more.
“P-please, amano.”
“That’s it,” Kylix praised, voice low and rough. “Take what you need. You’re perfect like this. Fucked open and begging.”
He dragged his fingers out slowly, leaving Mirel empty just long enough to feel the loss, then slicked himself again and guided the head of his cock to that wet, twitching hole.
He pushed in slow. The stretch burned beautifully.
Mirel moaned beneath him, hands gripping Kylix’s arms, holding on as every inch filled him.
Kylix bottomed out with a groan, forehead resting against Mirel’s.
“Fuck, you feel like heaven,” he growled.
He drew back and pushed in again, harder this time. Mirel cried out, legs wrapping tighter around his waist.
Kylix set a rhythm of deep, punishing thrusts, followed by slow rolls of his hips that made Mirel shudder. The sounds of their bodies meeting echoed in the Waltr, wet and brutal.
“You were made for this,” Kylix panted. “For me. Every time I move, you pull me in like you never want to let me go.”
He held still for a moment, then began to move, shallow at first, rocking deep. Mirel’s fingers clawed at his back, spine arching as a moan tore loose.
“You’re going to take every inch like the good little bonded you are,” Kylix growled.
Each thrust went deeper. Their chests touched, legs tangled, breath shared.
“You think I’ll stop?” Kylix panted. “You think I’m done? I haven’t even fucked the surrender out of you yet.”
Mirel whimpered, body gripping him tight. Kylix’s groan spilled against his mouth. He fucked him harder now, snapping his hips, thrust after thrust, relentless. Mirel’s cries came faster, one after the next, voice shaking with each deep plunge.
“Mine,” Kylix growled. “Gonna fill you up, just like this, fuck, just like this.”
His rhythm broke. He rocked hard, teeth bared, body trembling as the orgasm hit. His cock pulsed deep inside Mirel, hot and claiming.
Pulling out, he kissed Mirel fiercely, then moved down between his legs. “Gonna tongue every drop from the tip. Don’t you dare spill a fucking thing.”
His mouth wrapped around Mirel’s cock in seconds, tongue greedy, lips slick. Kylix moaned as he sucked, dragging his tongue over the head, swallowing him deep.
He licked the tip slowly, then again, tongue teasing the slit. The noises were filthy now. “Come for me,” he rasped. “I want every drop on my tongue.”
Mirel did, crying out softly as he spilled into his throat.
Kylix bent again and kissed his mouth, holding there, breathing him in. Their lips brushed again and again, mouths slow and open.
Mirel sighed into the kiss, body still trembling faintly, and Kylix held him through it, one hand resting over his chest. The bond thrummed quiet now, low and sure, a hum of something whole.
They stayed like that, limbs tangled, breathing together in the dark.
Kylix’s hand didn’t move from Mirel’s chest. He felt each heartbeat, slow and steady now, like a rhythm written just for him.
Mirel’s eyes fluttered open once, then closed again.
His fingers traced lightly over Kylix’s wrist, then settled on his forearm, keeping him close without needing to speak.
“You’re safe,” Kylix whispered against his temple. “With me. Always.”
Mirel didn’t reply with words. He only exhaled, soft and trusting, and let himself sink further into the warmth between them.
Minutes passed that way. The silence wasn’t cold. It wasn’t lonely. It was full.
Kylix had never understood peace until he saw it breathing beneath his hands.
“You’re everything,” he breathed. “And I’ll never stop wanting you. Even if the bond hadn’t chosen us, I would have found you. Wanted you. Burned for you anyway.”
Kylix reached down to pull the blanket over Mirel’s shoulder, tucking him in gently. The music still played, faint strings filling the quiet. Mirel’s breath evened out quickly, his eyes fluttering closed.
Kylix stayed there for a long moment, just watching him in silence. He could watch him forever. That breath, that mouth, the way sleep softened everything but never made him less sharp. Mirel wasn’t peace, he was permanence. And if the world tried to take him, Kylix would burn it down.
The bond hummed faintly beneath their ribs, not a command, only a quiet thread that pulled one heartbeat toward the other.
Each breath found its rhythm in the next.
When Kylix looked down, the faint light from the speakers shimmered over their skin, reflecting the soft smoke that still hung in the air.
The music changed to a low instrumental pulse, something tender that never quite resolved.
He could feel Mirel’s chest rise beneath his hand, steady and human, the simplest sound in the world. It anchored him more than any vow.
Two lives. One rhythm. The empire’s last defense made of bodies at rest.
Fire curled into frost, and somewhere between the two, the world decided to keep turning.
When dawn came, Kylix woke to find the frost spelling his name across the wall.