Chapter 38 #3
“Are you sure?” I asked, my heart teetering on a dangerous cliff. “This war could have some terrible, tragic end. You and I might not get a happily ever after.”
“If I get to be with you in whatever days we have left, I already have mine.”
My forehead sank against his. “There are so many mistakes I regret. But loving you isn’t one of them. I’m done running. From you, and from the future . . . whatever it may hold.”
A troubled look flickered over him at those final words, so I took his face in my hands, and I kissed it away. I kissed away all the hurt I’d caused him, all the rejection and doubt. I kissed him with the promise of my mark—that my heart was his, eternal and unconditional.
He scooped me into his arms and laid me down in a grassy bed of wild-growing bluebells and ivory yarrow.
With tender hands, he slid my skirts up over my hips, his touch as soft as a kiss, and he nestled between my thighs.
His cock nudged at my entrance, not as a tease but a promise, though I whimpered for it all the same.
“I love you,” I breathed. “I love you. I love you.” I repeated it over and over, knowing he needed to hear it to believe it again.
His arm slid under my back and drew me against him, his other hand cradling my head, fingers twining in my hair. His lips hovered over mine, letting my whispered reassurance fill his lungs and feed his spirit.
“I love you,” I said again. “I never want to let you go.” For once, I was grateful for the incomplete bond, so he could not feel the sorrow cowering beneath my vow.
He held me close, and in one slow shift of his hips, my grief disappeared, replaced by the most exquisite bliss I’d ever felt.
It was more than just his rigid fullness or the delicious friction on my attention-starved core.
As he seated inside me, something soul-written filled every dark corner with glittering joy.
All my worries seemed conquerable, all my burdens took flight.
I felt strong and beautiful and brave, convinced there was no challenge I couldn’t overcome with Luther at my side.
And though I knew the mating magic was at work, masking my troubles in its euphoric glow, I didn’t care.
I didn’t feel broken anymore—I felt perfectly complete.
With our bodies joined, the needs of the bond finally went silent. There was no more burning mark or itching skin, no ceaseless tug to his side. Everything felt right, as if this person, this moment, was the only place I was meant to be. The place I’d always been meant to be.
Luther began to move, thrusting in deep, indulgent strokes.
Sex between us had always been closer to a fight, intense and just the right kind of rough—but this night felt different.
There was something achingly sweet about the way he kept me caged against his chest, breathing enraptured vows of love in my ear.
Every time he withdrew, we both held the other a little tighter, and every time he filled me again, our bodies melted into one.
This was not a man marking his territory, but savoring it for the paradise that it was.
The sensation was so overwhelming, I barreled toward release long before I was ready.
I gripped hard to his back, tense with irrational panic at the thought of this moment ending and the cruel world reclaiming me for its own.
Luther stilled inside me and showered my bruised neck in the lightest of kisses until my passion ebbed and my body relaxed.
Then he began again, grinding against my clit until I was breathless and writhing.
We continued like that, moving together among the starlit trees, until at last he worked me into a high I couldn’t come back from. I clung to him and cried out his name, then he worked my quivering body until he thickened inside me, and he cried out mine.
Sweaty, spent, and blissfully at peace, we lay among the wildflowers, and we talked.
He held me in his arms while I told him about my time on the island.
The shame I’d been harboring slowly transformed to something more like strength as I recounted the hardships I overcame, every dark moment I fought through and survived.
He refused my apology for my cruelty in Fortos, insisting he was grateful for the push to explore his own dreams more deeply. My heart leapt as he talked excitedly of his vision for the council, his attempts to embrace his mortal side, and his hope to help other half-mortals do the same.
We made love again under the silvery embrace of two watchful moons, my sentinel in the sky and Luther’s creation on earth.
After, I laid my head on his chest, his heartbeat pulsing through my blood alongside its companion rhythm in my chest. A breeze scented with seawater and spring ruffled my hair, and I felt him smile against my temple.
And for a moment, I saw it.
The future we might have. The nights we might spend together, the forest we might call home. The peace we might finally win.
Unchangeable fate be damned . . . I was going to fight for it with everything I had.