Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
THALRIC
He reached for a bottle of soap, its scent clean and subtle.
He poured a generous amount into his palms, working it into a rich lather.
His gaze held hers as he began. His soap-slicked hands started at the base of her neck, smoothing over the delicate tendons, tracing the line of her shoulders.
He worked with a slow, deliberate pressure, massaging the muscles there, feeling the strength beneath his touch.
Her breath was steady, but her eyes were dark and locked on him.
He moved down, his palms sliding over the curves of her breasts. He lingered there, circling each peak with his thumbs until the nipples hardened into tight buds against his skin. She inhaled sharply.
“Thalric…” Her voice was a whisper lost in the shower’s patter.
He didn’t answer with words. He answered with his hands, continuing their downward path, mapping the defined muscles of her stomach, the athlete’s core that had carried her to Olympic gold.
Then he knelt before her on the wet floor, the water streaming over him as he lavished attention on her long, powerful legs.
He washed each thigh, each calf, with a reverence that felt like a prayer.
His hands traveled back up, and inward. He cupped the heat between her thighs, his fingers sliding through her wetness with ease. Through the bond, her desire mounted like a rising tide—sharp, urgent, and breathtaking.
Her hands reached for him, but he caught her wrist gently, lowering it. “Just relax,” he murmured, his voice rough. “Just feel.”
He focused his touch on her sensitive folds, circling the taut peak of her clit with a relentless, gentle precision. A low moan escaped her, swallowed by the steam.
“Please… more,” she begged, her head falling back.
He gave her more, but not the rush she wanted. He inserted two fingers inside her, finding her impossibly tight and hot. He thrust them slowly, deeply, matching the rhythm of his circling thumb. Her cries became fractured gasps, her body bowing toward his touch.
Then he lowered his mouth.
The taste of her was intoxicating—salt, soap, and the unique, sweet essence of her.
He licked and sucked in a rhythm that synced perfectly with the thrust of his fingers.
He drank her gasps, felt the tremors building in her thighs.
Her hands clutched his hair, not pushing him away, but holding him there, anchoring herself to the pleasure.
Minutes later, her climax hit her like a storm. Her whole body shuddered, a violent, beautiful convulsion that made her legs buckle. He supported her with his free hand, his mouth and fingers working her through the peak until she was limp and panting, her eyes closed in shattered bliss.
But he didn’t let her recover. In one smooth, powerful motion, he stood and lifted her. Her arms flung around his neck as he pressed her back against the cool tile of the shower wall. Her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist, her entrance still pulsing and wet against his aching cock.
“I need you inside me. Now,” she demanded, her voice raw with renewed hunger.
He didn’t make her wait.
He pushed into her with one long, inexorable thrust, filling her completely, stretching her in a way that made his own vision blur.
A loud, sharp cry tore from her mouth, a sound of pure pleasure.
Her fingers dug into the muscles of his shoulders, holding on as if he were the only solid thing in the world.
Then he began to move. Slow. Deliberate. Each withdrawal was agonizing, each return a homecoming. He watched her face, memorizing the flush on her skin and the way her lips parted with every deep stroke. His wolf growled inside him, impatient, ravenous for the final act.
“Thalric, faster… please,” she moaned, her hips meeting his with increasing urgency. “Give me your mark.”
The plea unleashed the beast.
His control shattered. His thrusts became primal, deep and fast and hard, a piston driving them both toward a precipice. He felt his own orgasm gathering, a tsunami of sensation, and through their bond, he felt hers coiling tight, ready to snap alongside his.
It was time.
He leaned forward and put his mouth against the smooth skin of her neck where her shoulder curved. His wolf surged forward, and the change was instant—his teeth elongating, sharpening, the instinct to bite, to mark, to complete overriding every civilized thought.
Her orgasm erupted first. A violent, screaming release that clenched around his cock, pulling him deeper. At that exact moment, he bit down.
The taste of her blood was sweet, metallic, and perfect. The act was not violent, but profound—a sealing. As her blood touched his tongue, his own orgasm detonated, a shuddering, blinding release that poured his seed deep into her depths.
And in the space between those two heartbeats, the world changed.
The mate bond, once a vibrant but incomplete thread, snapped into its final, eternal form.
Suddenly, her emotions weren’t just echoes or hints—they poured into him, crystal clear and vibrant, as if they were his own.
Her wonder, her satisfaction, her lingering physical euphoria, her love—all of it flowed into his soul, mingling with his own triumphant joy, his fierce possessiveness, his overwhelming love.
Her eyes opened. They were clear blue pools filled with awe. “I can feel you so intensely,” she breathed. “Your desire… your hope… your joy… Your love. It’s so strong.”
He smiled, a real, unguarded smile that felt foreign on his face. He didn’t speak aloud. Instead, he reached for the new channel between them, the telepathic link that was now as natural as breathing and sent the words directly into her mind.
I love you.
Her eyes widened, then crinkled with delight. She heard him. She beamed, a smile so big and bright it rivaled Nova Aurora’s twin suns. “I love you, Thalric. So much.”
As the aftershocks of their joining faded, the completed bond pulsed between them, a warm, contented hum of forever. He lowered her gently and helped her step from the shower, wrapping her in a thick towel that swallowed her frame.
He hugged her from behind, his chin resting on her damp hair. “I feel complete,” he said, the words simple and true.
She turned in his arms, her smile still radiant. “I feel complete, too. I feel like I’m finally who I’m supposed to be. Finally where I belong.”
He looked at her—his mate, his Luna—and he couldn’t help the thought that whispered through his newly whole soul.
Fate knew exactly what it was doing when it wrote their names in the stars.