Chapter 18
“You came back.”
The words scraped out of Valrek’s throat before he could stop them, raw and broken and nothing like the controlled growl he’d intended.
Three days. Three days of pacing the cave like a caged animal, of Lilani asking why the Star Lady wasn’t visiting anymore, of his beast howling at the moons and demanding he hunt down his mate and drag her back where she belonged.
And now she was here, clutching his people’s sacred relic to her chest, her ridiculous human dress torn to ribbons and her skin glowing like starfire.
Mate.
The beast roared the word through every fiber of his being.
Then she crashed into him, and thought became impossible.
She was shaking—he could feel the tremors running through her body as his arms locked around her, pulling her so tight against his chest that he could feel her heartbeat pounding against his own.
She smelled of fear and adrenaline and something chemical and wrong, like she’d been trapped too long in a sterile human box.
But beneath all of that, her true scent sang to him: cold sea and warm honey, the call of deep water and sunlit shores, everything he’d ever wanted and never dared to ask for.
“You left me,” he heard himself say, stupidly, because his brain had apparently stopped working the moment she’d thrown herself into his arms.
“I know.” Her voice was muffled against his chest. “I couldn’t come back. Merrick was watching me but I thought if I stayed away, you’d be safe—”
A growl ripped from his throat.
“You thought leaving would keep me safe?”
“I didn’t know what else to do!”
She pulled back far enough to look up at him, and the sight of her face nearly undid him. Her eyes were wild, her skin shimmering wildly.
“I was trying to play along, trying to come up with a plan, but then Merrick decided to announce the wedding,” she said, the words tumbling out in a rush.
“He had me on a stage in front of the whole village, and I couldn’t—I couldn’t—so I used my Song to destroy the sound system and I ran, but there was a Vultor at the festival, someone I didn’t recognize, and I thought—”
“A Vultor?” His hands tightened on her shoulders. “What did he look like?”
“Long, dark hair. Lean. Dangerous.”
The description was too vague for him to recognize, but he was more concerned about her. She was still shaking, and he realized she’d run all the way here.
She destroyed her life to come back to me.
“Where’s Lilani?” she asked suddenly, looking around the empty cave. “Is she safe? I was so scared—”
“She’s with the fisherman’s wife in the cove north of here.” He didn’t want to admit he’d taken her there because he was afraid his daughter would see the depth of his despair. “She’s safe. I promise. She thinks she’s on a special adventure.”
A wave of relief crossed her face, and she went limp against him. “I was so scared for her. When I saw the other Vultor, I thought—”
“It doesn’t sound like anyone from my old pack. I don’t know who he is, but I’ll find out. After,” he added, his voice dropping to a growl.
“After what?”
“After this.”
He kissed her, claiming her with his mouth as he poured three days of fury and fear and desperate longing into the press of his lips against hers. She answered with equal fire, her fingers digging into the muscles of his shoulders hard enough to leave marks.
Good, the beast purred. Let her mark us. Let her claim what is hers.
She tasted like salt and honey and when her tongue met his, the last threads of his control began to fray. He walked her backwards until her shoulders hit the cave wall, pinning her there with the weight of his body while his hands roamed the tattered remains of her dress.
“This thing,” he growled against her mouth, tugging at the high collar that still clung to her throat. “It’s hurting you.”
“Merrick chose it. To hide my gills.”
A snarl ripped from him, and his claws made short work of the fabric.
The collar fell away in shreds, revealing the delicate slits along her neck that fluttered with each rapid breath she took.
He bent his head and pressed his lips to them, feeling the way they opened and closed against his mouth, tasting the salt of her skin.
A muffled cry escaped her lips.
“Valrek—”
“Tell me to stop.” His voice was a rasp, barely recognizable. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll walk into the sea and not come back until I’ve drowned the beast.”
“Don’t stop.” Her hands were in his hair, pulling him closer. “Don’t ever stop.”
His beast took over. He carried her deeper into the cave, away from the entrance, away from the light, into the shadows where the air was warm and the sound of the sea was a distant lullaby, and lowered her onto his sleeping platform.
She looked up at him, her dark hair spreading across the furs like seaweed, her skin shimmering a brilliant blue, and he had to stop. Had to make sure.
“I intend to claim you as my mate. To give you my mark,” he said, the words rough. “It’s not something that can be undone. There will be no other. Not for me. Not ever.”
She smiled, reaching up and traced the scars on his chest.
“Then claim me,” she whispered.
He lost all semblance of control then. He ripped away the remains of her ruined dress, exposing the map of stars scattered across her body. He wanted to trace every single one with his tongue, to commit them all to memory.
He started with her collarbone, tasting the salt and the honey of her, learning every gasp and shiver.
He mapped the curve of her hip, the delicate line of her ankle, the sensitive peaks of her breasts.
He explored her until she was a writhing, begging mass of violet light beneath him, her nails scoring patterns into his back.
Then he moved lower.
“Look at me,” he demanded, and her star spangled eyes met his. “Watch me take what’s mine.”
She was wet and wanting, her body blooming for him like a night flower.
He tasted her, and the flavor of her—rich and complex and entirely unique—made his beast howl with triumph.
She cried out, her back arching off the furs as he explored her with tongue and teeth, learning the rhythm that made her writhe and sob, that made her skin flare with blinding, brilliant light.
He didn’t stop. He rode out her climax, his tongue relentless, pushing her higher, harder, until a second, more intense release ripped through her, leaving her breathless and trembling.
“Valrek,” she gasped, reaching for him. “Please.”
“I want you ready for me.” His voice was a low growl against her thigh. “I want you so full of me that you can’t remember what it felt like not to have me inside you.”
He moved over her, his body blanketing hers, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer. He positioned himself at her entrance, and for a moment, he held himself there, the head of his cock nudging her slick heat.
“Mine,” he snarled.
He drove into her in one smooth, possessive stroke.
She cried out, a sharp, shocked sound of pleasure, and the light of her skin flared so bright that for a moment, he was blinded. He could feel every inch of her, hot and tight and welcoming, as if her body had been shaped for this, for him. For this single, perfect moment of union.
His beast roared its approval, and the last of his control snapped.
He set a punishing pace, each thrust a claiming, a branding, a promise.
Her hands were everywhere, clawing at his back, tangling in his hair, pulling him down for desperate, hungry kisses that were all teeth and tongue and frantic need.
She met his intensity with her own, her hips rising to meet his thrust for thrust, taking everything he had and demanding more.
The only sounds in the cave were the slap of skin against skin, their ragged breathing, and the distant murmur of the sea. It was a primitive rhythm, an ancient dance, and she moved with him as if they had been doing this for lifetimes.
Perfect. Ours. Mate.
The thought was a constant, triumphant chant in the back of his mind.
He could feel her body beginning to tighten again, her movements becoming more frantic, her cries higher and more desperate. He slid a hand between their bodies, finding the sensitive bundle of nerves at her apex and stroking it in time with his thrusts.
“Valrek,” she sobbed, her head thrown back, her neck a beautiful, arched line of silver and blue. “Valrek, I—”
“Let go,” he growled against her ear. “Come for me. Show me you’re mine.”
She shattered.
A scream tore from her throat as her climax ripped through her, a violent, blinding wave of pleasure that made her whole body convulse.
Her skin exploded with light, a supernova of blue and gold and violet that illuminated the entire cavern, and her inner muscles clenched around him, tight and hot and perfect, driving him to the edge.
But he held back, gritting his teeth, because there was one more thing he needed to do.
The mark.
His beast guided him, ancient instinct taking over.
He bent his head to the curve of her shoulder, carefully avoiding her gill slits, and breathed deep.
Her scent was overwhelming here—pure, undiluted, hers.
His fangs extended, longer and sharper than his normal teeth, and he hesitated for just a moment.
“Do it,” she whispered and he bit down, the taste of her blood like lightning on his tongue.
She cried out—pain and pleasure tangled together—and her body convulsed around him again. The sight, the feel, the sheer, undeniable rightness of it, sent him over the edge, his knot expanding and locking them together as he poured himself into her, making her irrevocably, eternally his.
He collapsed against her, his body shaking with the force of his release, burying his face in the crook of her neck as the aftershocks shuddered through them both. Her arms were wrapped around his back, her fingers tangled in his hair, holding him close even as their bodies struggled to recover.
For a long moment, the only sounds in the cave were their ragged breaths and the steady thump of his heart against her chest. And then he heard the echo-pipe.
A note rang through the cave, pure and clear, resonating with a frequency he felt in his bones.
The harp was responding—to the bite, to the bond, to the merging of his blood with hers.
The old stories were true, he thought dimly. The harp chooses its own. And it chose her.
Ours, the beast purred in sated triumph. Our mate.
He shifted, intending to roll off her, but her arms tightened around him.
“Don’t move,” she whispered, her lips brushing against his temple. “I like the weight of you.”
He settled back against her, propping himself up on his elbows so he wouldn’t crush her. He looked down at her face, at the soft, satisfied smile that curved her lips, and something in his chest—a knot of tension he hadn’t even realized was there—finally loosened.
“I’ve never felt anything like that,” she said, her fingers tracing a path down the scarred muscle of his arm. “I read about it in books, of course. They described it as a biological function.” Her laugh was a soft puff of air against his chest. “They left out the parts about seeing stars.”
His lips curved into a smile against her skin. “Good. Then I’ve given you something new to study.”
“What happens now?” she asked quietly after a long silent moment. “Merrick won’t stop. And my father… He’s trapped too, in his own way. And there’s still a Vultor warrior wandering around the village—”
“We’ll figure it out.” He tightened his hold on her. “Tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to hold my mate and pretend the universe isn’t trying to tear us apart.”
She tilted her head up to look at him, her silver-flecked eyes searching his.
“Your mate,” she repeated, like she was testing the word. “That’s what I am now?”
“That’s what you are. What you’ll always be.” He cupped her cheek in his massive hand. “My mate. My partner. My—” The human word felt inadequate, but he said it anyway. “My love.”
Her skin blazed a brilliant violet.
“I love you too,” she whispered. “I didn’t know I could. I didn’t know I was allowed to want things like this. A family. A home. Someone who looks at me like I’m not a science experiment.”
“You’re not.” He kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. “You’re a masterpiece. You’re a miracle. And you’re mine.”
She fell asleep in his arms, her body warm and pliant against his, and he lay awake in the darkness, listening to the distant song of the Echo-pipe and the steady rhythm of his mate’s breath.
The universe was indeed trying to tear them apart, but not tonight. Tonight he could just hold her in his arms and keep her safe.