Chapter 37 #2
Blake’s hips ground into me, and I gasped into his mouth, my body arching in response.
The friction was maddening, the pressure of him teasing, as if he knew exactly how to push me to the edge and keep me there.
I whimpered, the sound muffled by his lips, and his grip tightened on my wrists, holding me still as he rocked his hips harder, each movement sending shock waves of pleasure through me.
His other hand played against my nipple, circling the peak slowly, until it felt like that tease alone would have me bursting.
“Blake,” I breathed, half a plea, half a challenge.
He pulled back, just enough to let me catch a breath, his lips barely brushing mine.
“Tell me what you want, Rubi.” His voice was low, molten, edged with command that seeped into every syllable.
My mind flashed through every filthy way I wanted him to touch me, stroke me, lick me.
I ached for him, body thrumming with need, but it wasn’t enough.
It would never be enough. My heart pounded like it was trying to tear free of my chest, and somewhere beneath the hunger was a hollow I couldn’t fill with pleasure alone.
I needed more. Needed him. All of him. His rage, his loyalty, his fear, his truth. His soul next to mine.
The melody in my blood was an incomplete song, seeking a harmony I hadn’t yet found. Seeking the one note that could make it whole. My voice broke under the weight of it, and the words fell from me like a wound torn open.
“Pair with me.”
He froze, pulling back to look at me. Embarrassment lit my cheeks, and I couldn’t meet his eyes. What if that wasn’t what he—
“Rubi,” he said my name like a prayer. He lifted a finger under my chin until my eyes locked on his. The desire I saw there, the hope—it was almost too much. “Is that…Is that truly what you want?”
I nodded, my eyes bright and welling with the need.
“I want to feel you,” I whispered. “Please, Blake—I just…I need—”
“Shh,” he cooed. “I know what you need.”
My body crumbled beneath his gentle, steadying tone. He settled himself tighter against my aching core, his pants still in the way, his hands smoothing up my bare skin, along my extended arms, until he grasped my right wrist in his left hand.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I nodded again. “Only if you want—”
A hoarse laugh burst from him. “Rubi, this is all I want. To be Paired to you…it would be an honor.”
His words made my throat catch.
I was a yin magic user with a magic I didn’t understand and couldn’t control, nothing worth speaking of.
I was an Azure in a dominion built for Silvers.
I was a foreigner who had no memories, barely anything that made me Rubi.
And he was…nearly royal. The strongest metal mage to exist, a Zenith, the Twin Blade to a king who wanted me dead.
To feel so worthy, so desired in this way.
“Please,” I whispered as his forehead pressed gently to my own, his eyes closing.
And then he spread my palms open and pressed his Marks against mine.
A faint shimmer of light appeared between our hands, barely visible at first. A delicate strand, pulsing with an ethereal glow. It wound through the space between us, pulling tighter, as if drawing us together.
My heart raced as the shimmer became clearer, turning into a red thread that bound us, soft but unbreakable, stretching across the distance between us.
His mouth pressed into the skin of my neck, soothing kisses and licks while I watched, transfixed. The thread glowed a deep crimson, the same shade of red that legends spoke of—the red thread of fate that tied two souls together, binding them across time, distance, and circumstance.
It looped around my wrist, the delicate thread spiraling in and out of my fingers before connecting to Blake’s hand, twining around his wrist and up his arm.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I could feel Blake’s energy pulsing through the thread, his magic brushing against mine, hot and alive.
The thread tightened, and with that, the pull between us became almost unbearable.
I felt Blake’s magic. It was powerful and controlled, but now it was more than just power.
His energy wrapped around me, pressing against my own, and my magic, weak as it was, responded.
Heat flared inside me, fire sparking at the edges of my consciousness, reacting to the intensity of his presence.
Blake’s gaze burned into me, his eyes dark with a hunger I couldn’t ignore. His presence, the steady hum of his power, wrapped around me like a vise. He stayed still then, eyes locked on mine, watching me as the thread pulled us closer, the space between us shrinking with each heartbeat.
But just as it was supposed to tighten, to complete the bond, the thread hesitated.
It flickered.
A sudden, sharp pull yanked at my chest, making me gasp. The thread quivered, unstable, as if caught between forces that were pulling in opposite directions.
I glanced up at Blake, his eyes darkened with concern, but he remained still, his jaw clenched as though willing the bond to hold. His gaze met mine, and I felt that familiar pull toward him, something magnetic between us.
But still the thread resisted. It twisted in the air, writhing like it was fighting something unseen.
I could feel the strain deep inside, tugging at the edges of my mind, something blocked, something hidden.
My body tensed involuntarily, and a strange sensation crept over me—an odd, heavy pressure, like a distant memory struggling to resurface.
It was suffocating, dizzying, but I couldn’t place it.
But somehow I knew this wasn’t how Pairing was meant to feel.
I surged up and joined my lips to his, and the world fractured around us. The moment our mouths met, everything else fell away.
It was just him. Just me.
His lips were warm, firm, but the real fire was beneath, where our souls met in the unseen space between us.
It wasn’t just a kiss. It was surrender and defiance, a claiming and a question all at once.
I felt the pull of him, the raw, unspoken need that had always existed between us, threading through my veins like molten gold.
Magic, or maybe something deeper, surged in the space between our bodies, crackling at my fingertips, singing through my bones.
Then the red line snapped into place.
The bond formed. The thread pulsed, and I felt the connection, like a puzzle piece fitting where I hadn’t realized it was missing.