14. Gracie
Gracie
The rooftop of the capitol building was quiet in a way that wasn’t possible anywhere else.
Ravik’s hand rested at the small of my back, warm against the chill of the evening.
It wasn’t as cold as it was in the Cold Moon Pack, but there was a bite to the air that hadn’t been there when we’d first arrived.
The other two were still downstairs, buried in logistics after the formal dinner had officially ended.
We’d gotten a lot of information out of the Cinder Ring leaders over the past few hours, but there were still details to smooth out if we hoped to leave in the morning with a real plan.
I could tell Ravik needed a break, so when I suggested a walk, I was glad he took me up on it right away.
Thornar and Basir had promised to join us when they were done, but I was happy to have some alone time with Ravik.
With how busy we’d been, I’d been trying to carve out space for that, even in small moments—like with Basir earlier, or how amazing it had felt to spar back and forth with them in wolf form.
A moment away from everything, before the world crowded back in and we set out on a full day of travel, was something I couldn’t risk losing out on. I knew there wouldn’t be quiet again for a while.
The half moon climbed higher in the sky, my wolf stirring at the sight.
Ravik guided me toward a flat section of the rooftop with a clear view of the city, and I kept my gaze fixed on the sky the whole way there.
When we finally sat, neither of us said anything at first, just watching the city below in comfortable silence, my head resting against his shoulder.
“Is it too much to hope that the situation with Ivan will be handled as easily as this?” I asked.
Ravik let out a low rumble. “Unfortunately, yes, lux mea.”
“I know.” My voice came out smaller than I meant it to.
He put his arm around me and pulled me onto his lap, my back against his chest. I let myself sink into him, into the solid warmth of someone who’d been so careful with me since the moment we met.
“But this is the one we can’t afford to lose.”
An absolute understatement.
I turned my head, trying to look up at him, but felt his arm tighten around me in response.
“I’m scared,” I admitted, the word small against the vastness of the task that lay before us. “Not of dying. I made peace with that a long time ago, back when I thought I’d never leave Cold Moon Pack. I’m scared of losing one of you.”
Ravik went still behind me. I hadn’t meant to be so blunt, but after the fights we’d faced recently, I realized that every spike of fear that had gripped me had nothing to do with dying myself—it was all about losing them.
“You won’t,” Ravik said finally. “Not because I can promise there won’t be danger. We’re going into a war. But because I intend to stand beside you—between you and anything that tries to take you from me, lux mea. If I’m gone, I can’t protect you.”
My eyes stung, and a tear escaped before I could stop it. Ravik caught it gently, and I tilted my head up to look at him, seeing pure love glowing in his gold eyes. I considered what he was saying, what he was really telling me.
He was promising he’d live through all of this, for no reason other than to protect me.
“I love you, Ravik.” I shifted, turning to face him so I could say it with my full chest. “I love you, and whatever happens tomorrow, I know the three of you will do anything you can to make sure we, and the people we love, make it out.”
Ravik caught my jaw, his gaze darkening. “Lux mea, there is no version of tomorrow I am willing to survive without you in it. I love you. I will do anything for our future.”
Anything.
My breath caught as raw want flickered across his expression before he leaned down and captured my mouth with his. It was slow and deliberate, the kind of kiss that set my body on fire in an instant.
The tone of the kiss shifted fast, from deliberate to needy on my end. So needy that when he pulled away I let out a small sound, nearly a whine, of complaint.
His hands found my waist and turned me until I faced the city again, my back against his chest. I could feel exactly how much our kiss had affected him. The city stretched out below us and I gripped his forearms as he held me in place. .
“Ravik—”
“I’ve got you,” he rasped against my ear.
One arm banded across my stomach to keep me anchored against him while his other hand slid down, fingers trailing over my hip before dipping between my thighs, pushing the hem of my dress up as he went.
I gasped, my head falling back against his shoulder, the cool night air hitting bare skin.
“Just feel, lux mea,” he murmured, his voice edged with command—and my whole body responded before I’d even decided to obey.
I flushed, half from his words and half from the way his fingers moved against my center, slow and deliberate, pushing the already-soaked fabric aside.
My fingers tightened on one forearm, trying to steady myself, as I reached back with my other hand to grip his hair.
A moan left my lips as his chest rumbled with something that was more wolf than man.
Ravik’s pace was unhurried but purposeful, every stroke bringing me up and then back down, adjusting the second I gasped or shifted against him. The city lights blurred at the edges of my vision as the pleasure coiled tighter, my hips beginning to rock into his hand on their own.
“That’s it,” he coaxed, teeth grazing the shell of my ear. “Let go for me.”
When I came the first time, my whole body shook against his, held together only by the arm still locked around my middle. Before I could fully catch my breath, his mouth found the curve of my neck, warm and open-mouthed, and I felt the shift in him at once—a deeper hunger taking over.
“Mine,” he rumbled against my skin, and then his teeth sank down, a sharp bloom of pain that dissolved almost immediately into something searing and electric.
Our bond, between all four of us, snapped tight and alive all at once.
It wasn’t just pleasure anymore. I could feel Thornar’s warmth at the edge of my mind and Basir’s watchfulness close behind it. It was like the bond itself couldn’t hold the four of us as separate people anymore. Pleasure and possession tangled so completely I couldn’t discern one from the other.
The world went white at the edges, and when it came back, I was shaking and desperate, my whole body alight with a need that only my mate could soothe.
“Ravik.” His name came out broken as I looked up at him, barely a word at all. “Please. I need you.”
He held my gaze, the gold darkening into almost black, and whatever restraint he’d been holding onto snapped the second our eyes met.
“Say it again,” he demanded.
“Please.” My hands found his hair, reaching behind myself, pulling him down toward me. “Please, Ravik.”
That was all it took.
He released me for just a moment, long enough to free himself, and a small, needy sound escaped me at the sight of his cock.
We should have taken the time to undress fully, but I couldn’t be bothered—the raw desire and urgency rocking through me left no room for patience.
When he pulled me back down and again wrapped his arm around my waist, I knew exactly what he wanted.
“Look at the city,” Ravik said, gripping my hips, his cock rubbing against my slick entrance. “I want you to watch it—watch all of them—as I fill you up. As you take every inch of my cock.”
I whimpered as I tried to sink down onto him, his grip easing just enough to let me tease my entrance. “Slow,” he demanded. His hands tightened on my hips, guiding me down. I moaned at the sensation of him stretching me, until I was fully seated and there was nothing between us at all.
“Ravik,” I gasped, my head falling back against his shoulder.
“That’s it, lux mea.” His breath was ragged against my ear, one hand splayed flat against my stomach under my dress, the other finding my hip to help set the pace. “Move. Show me how much you need this.”
I did, rolling my hips experimentally at first, then with more confidence as pleasure sparked bright and sudden, Ravik’s low groan against my neck urging me faster. The city blurred with every roll of my hips, his hands anchoring me even as I chased my own rhythm.
“Good girl,” he murmured, and the praise sent a fresh wave of heat through me, my movements growing more desperate. “Just like that.”
His hand slid from my hip to find my clit, matching the movement of my body with maddening precision. The bond between us thrummed hot and bright, amplifying every sensation until it was almost too much.
“Ravik, I’m—”
“I know.” His voice was strained now, control fraying at the edges. “Let go. I have you.”
His fingers banded across my mouth to catch my scream, possessiveness roaring through our bond. I bit down on his hand when my release crashed through me. Ravik’s blood was sharp and coppery against my tongue as I shattered around his cock, his name tearing from my throat into the open night air.
Ravik groaned, a sound that vibrated straight through his chest into mine, and before I’d fully come down from it, he pressed me forward, bracing me against the ledge as he rose up behind me.
His strokes were hard and deep, purposeful, chasing his own release with an urgency that stole what little breath I had left.
“Ravik, it’s—” I gasped, the pleasure rushing over me nearly painful.
“You can take it. I know you can. Take all of me, lux mea.”
I moaned, low and broken, rocking back to meet him as he drove into me harder, faster.
“Gracie.” My name came out like a roar, his rhythm stuttering as he finally let go. We stayed there for a long moment, both of us trembling, and a small sigh of relief escaped me at the feeling of being connected to all of them.
My wolf let out a howl from inside me, and my vision went hazy. In a delayed reaction, the mark at my throat flared white-hot. I gasped, my hand flying up to press against it.
“Gracie?” Ravik spun me gently to face him.
“It’s burning,” I managed, though it wasn’t pain exactly, more like heat trying to find somewhere to go. His eyes dropped to my neck, and I watched his expression shift.
“Your mark,” he said quietly. “It’s turning gold.”
“Gold?”
“I’ve never seen that.” His thumb brushed just beneath the bite, the movement reverent, careful.
Before I could ask what that meant, the heat spread, racing from my throat to where Thornar’s mark sat, then further down, to my shoulder, where Basir’s mark flared in answer.
Red bled into the same molten gold, all three glowing in unison.
This was magic that Vaelithra and Nyxarra had been talking about.
“They’re all turning,” I breathed.
“Because they’re finally whole.” Ravik’s voice had gone rough, something like awe cutting through his usual composure. “The god scar.”
The rooftop tilted.
“Rav—” I started, but the word never finished, my knees buckling as the world dissolved into light.
I wasn’t on the rooftop anymore. I was somewhere vast and formless, gold pulsating in veins through darkness, reaching out to three points of light pulsing in rhythm. All of it tangled together into one continuous pulse with a fourth point at the center. Mine.
Use it, a voice said, though it wasn’t really a voice at all—more an impression pressed directly into my mind. Not now. When it matters most.
The light shifted, and for a fraction of a second I saw a battlefield of chaos. A figure surrounded by darkness that throbbed like a wound, and four veins of power converging on it from different directions—pulling, unraveling, undoing whatever held it together.
The figure in the darkness screamed in agony and the four veins pulled tighter, cinching around the force at its center, and I saw it come apart.
Then the vision fractured, gold and darkness both dissolving into white, but the impression pressed one last thing into my mind before it let go entirely.
I gasped back into my body. Ravik’s arms were already around me, holding me upright against his muscular frame.
“Gracie.” His gold eyes frantically searched my face. “What happened? What did you see?”
“I saw how to use it,” I said, still catching my breath. “The bond. When it’s time to fight Ivan, I know what I’m supposed to do.”
“Are you okay?”
I nodded, the memory of the vision still sharp and clear in my mind— the exact shape of what I needed to do when the moment finally came.