Chapter 9 #2
Zirene’s mouth found my mark first—the intricate pattern at the junction of my neck and shoulder where his claim was branded into my skin.
His lips traced the raised lines, tongue dragging over the sensitive flesh in slow, reverent strokes.
Each pass sent lightning through my nervous system, pleasure sparking from the mark and radiating outward until my toes curled.
My head fell back, a moan escaping before I could catch it.
Heat surged between us—a raw, physical awareness snapping tight, like the space between our bodies had caught fire and refused to burn out. It cascaded through my system, sparking along every nerve. My spots cycled rapidly—violet to blue to a deep pink—each color a broadcast of my pleasure.
I was dimly aware of my other mates shifting closer, drawn by the pull of sensation flooding the web. Watching. Waiting. Feeling everything I felt through the threads that bound us together.
Zirene’s mouth drifted lower—down the column of my throat, over my collarbone—until he reached the scar.
He slowed there, reverent, tongue tracing it gently as if he could erase it with devotion alone, as if the right touch might heal what history had carved into me.
His breath hitched against my skin before he continued, lingering at my sternum, forehead pressed there as if grounding himself, heat and care woven into every motion.
“Beautiful.” The word rumbled through his chest. “You have no idea what you look like right now, do you? Glowing. Fierce. Mine.”
His mouth closed over one peak, and I cried out.
The sensation was sharper than usual—my body more sensitive from pregnancy, every touch amplified.
His tongue circled the hardened bud, teasing and tasting, while his paw curled around my other breast. Hot and devoted.
I clutched his mane, fingers tangling in the thick strands, holding on as pleasure crashed through me in waves.
“Zirene—”
“I know.” He switched to the other breast, giving it equal attention.
His paws slid down my sides, tracing the flare of my hips before cupping the swell of my belly.
“I feel you, Nova. Every tremor. Every pulse.” His claws drew gentle lines over my stretched skin, reverent.
“I feel our daughter, too. Growing strong. Perfect.”
Kaede’s daughter.
The thought made my eyes sting. My first pregnancy had given me three cubs—two playful sons and a fierce daughter.
They bore the markings of the Aldawi royal line, silver threading through patterns that marked them as mine.
The twin boys carried Zirene’s darker shading, while my daughter looked like Royak—each of them holding my silver instead of gray.
This time was different. The life inside me was Kaede’s—a true demi-human. None of us knew what powers she would wield, how dangerous or brilliant the blend might be. Only that she would be something the galaxy had never seen before.
And Zirene would most likely be at war when she was born.
I shoved the thought away. Buried it deep. Tonight wasn’t for grief. Tonight was for connection—for pleasure and love and the desperate need to hold onto something before it slipped through my fingers.
Zirene continued his worship. Down over my belly, pressing kisses to the taut skin. Lower, to the jut of my hip bones. His breath fanned hot over the sensitive flesh of my inner thighs, and I shuddered.
Movement behind me. A familiar presence at my back.
Kaede.
His thread pulsed with controlled want as he settled behind me. Not touching—not yet—but close enough that I could feel his body heat against my spine. The juxtaposition of them both—Zirene’s worshipful attention from the front, Kaede’s coiled restraint at my back—made my head spin.
“Easy, star.” Kaede’s voice was a low rasp against my ear. “Let us take care of you.”
The soft click of a container opening. The slick sound of lubricant coating fingers.
I gasped as Kaede’s hand slid between my thighs from behind, cool gel meeting the heat of my arousal. His touch was clinical at first—efficient, practical—but then his fingers found my entrance and I felt the tremor that ran through him. The break in his legendary control.
“Stars, you’re soaked already.” His voice was rough. Strained. “All that from your Shadow’s mouth?”
“From all of you.” I could barely form words. “From knowing you’re all watching. Wanting. Feeling—”
“We are.” Kaede’s fingers worked me open with devastating precision. Adding more slick, making sure I was ready. Preparing me for the male whose mouth still traced patterns of worship across my hips. “Every one of us. You’re broadcasting through the web. We can feel everything.”
Heat flooded my face. I hadn’t realized my shields had dropped so far—that the pleasure Zirene was building had leaked through every thread in my constellation. But now that Kaede mentioned it, I could feel them all. Their arousal. Their devotion. Their desperate need to be part of this moment.
Kaede withdrew his fingers, and I whimpered at the loss.
He pressed a kiss to the mark on my shoulder—his mark, the companion to Zirene’s on the other side.
“Enjoy your Shadow, nestqueen.” His voice was soft.
Almost tender. “Let him memorize you. Let him carry the taste of you into battle.” Another kiss, lighter.
“I’ll be here when you’re ready for more. ”
Then he pulled back, settling at the edge of the nest to watch.
Zirene’s hands gripped my hips, lifting me effortlessly. The head of his stav pressed against my entrance—hot and hard and impossibly large. Even prepared, even slick with want and Kaede’s thorough attention, the stretch always took my breath away.
“Look at me.” Zirene’s command was soft but absolute.
My eyes found his.
He lowered me onto him slowly. So slowly. Inch by devastating inch, my body opened to accommodate him, the fullness of him sending sparks through my vision. My mouth fell open on a silent cry. My fingers dug into his shoulders, nails biting into his thick fur.
“That’s it.” His voice was wrecked. “Take me, Nova. All of me.”
When I finally settled fully in his lap, both of us breathing hard, he pressed his forehead to mine. His shadow wrapped around us completely now—a cocoon of darkness that blocked out everything else. Even my other mates, watching from the edges, seemed distant through the veil of his power.
“I love you.” The words fell from my lips before I could stop them. Raw. Unguarded. “I love you so much it terrifies me.”
“I know.” He began to move—slow, deep rolls of his hips that dragged sensation through every nerve.
“I feel it. Always. And I love you just as much.” His paws guided my movements, lifting and lowering me in a rhythm that matched the beating of our hearts.
“You think I don’t feel the same? You think I’m not terrified of losing you? ”
I couldn’t answer. Couldn’t think. The pleasure building between us was consuming everything—white-hot and endless, fed by the bond, amplified by the web.
I rode him in his lap, taking him as deep as my body would allow, chasing something just out of reach.
Every movement drew sounds from both of us—his groans rumbling through his chest, my gasps catching in my throat.
The wet sounds of our joining filled the room, obscene and beautiful all at once.
“This is why I have to go.” Zirene’s pace increased, his thrusts turning harder, more urgent. “To protect you. To protect our cubs. Our clan.” His claws pricked at my hips, drawing pinpoints of heat. “To make sure you have a galaxy worth bringing our children into.”
“Zirene—”
“But know this.” He gripped my chin, forcing my haze-clouded eyes to meet his not black but burning royal purple.
“No matter how far I go. No matter what battles I fight. You are my home, Selena. You are my everything. And I will find my way back to you—across any distance, through any war, against any enemy.”
He thrust up hard, hitting a spot deep inside that made stars explode behind my eyes.
“Say it.” His voice was a growl against my throat. “Say you’ll be strong for me. That you’ll wait for me. “
“I’ll wait.” The words came out broken, punctuated by gasps and moans as he drove into me with increasing intensity. “Forever if I have to. I’ll wait forever.”
“Good.” He kissed me, fierce and claiming. “Good.”
His shadow tightened around us. Tendrils of darkness slid across my skin—my arms, my back, the sensitive peaks of my breasts.
They wrapped around me like a second embrace, touching everywhere at once, driving my pleasure higher and higher until I couldn’t tell where Zirene ended and his shadow began.
It was possessive. Claiming. A reminder that even when he was across the galaxy, part of him would always be with me—shadow-deep and eternal.
I gripped his mane, holding on for dear life as he thrust up into me. The angle was perfect—deep and consuming, hitting that spot with every stroke. My body wound tighter with each passing second, climbing toward a peak that felt impossibly high.
“Let go.” Zirene’s voice reverberated through me, through the shadow wrapped around me, through every part of my overwrought body. “Let me feel you fall apart.”
One more thrust. One more stroke of shadow against my most sensitive places.
I shattered.
The climax ripped through me with devastating force, pleasure crashing in waves that stole my breath, my vision, my sense of self.
I screamed his name—or pathing it through the bond, broadcasting to every male in the nest, because I felt them all react.
Felt their answering pulses of arousal and satisfaction and fierce, protective love.