CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
I ran with a speed that should have been born of terror, but my lips were pulled back in a jagged, exhilarated grin.
This was his version of a confession—a twisted invitation to finally step into the darkness he’d promised me.
He’d given me a head start, a mercy I knew wouldn't last.
I could feel him behind me, a cold, predatory shadow that pressed against the back of my neck, urging me to push faster.
I dove into the thicket, thorns and low-hanging branches clawing at my skin.
I hissed as a briar sliced across my arm, the sting sharp and immediate—but then the bond throbbed.
The realization sent me spiraling, a mix of genuine alarm and devastating heat coiling in my gut.
He surprised me at every turn, peeling back layers of himself that were as beautiful as they were terrifying.
But I was distracted.
My foot caught on a stray branch, and before I could even gasp, gravity took hold. I hit the ground hard, the breath driven from my body in a single, dusty thud.
He caught me before I could even push myself up.
A sharp yank at my ankles, a blur of motion, and I was on my back, staring up into the night sky.
“Got you, firecracker.”
I winced as the taste of blood filled my mouth, my teeth having caught my tongue in the fall.
He looked like an ancient warrior god standing over me, terrifyingly handsome in the pale light.
He began to strip with a slow, deliberate focus—jacket, tie, then the buttons of his shirt.
I couldn't look away from the wolf in his eyes.
“I shouldn't have left,” he said, his voice threaded with a dark kind of honesty.
“But you have to understand, Ava... I am the darkness. I have demons that haven't even begun to show themselves. Why do you want this?”
The shirt hit the dirt.
My gaze drifted down his chest to the low-slung waist of his pants and the throb of him beneath the zipper.
I swallowed hard, my pulse a frantic roar.
“Because I’ve never been afraid of the shadows,” I told him, my voice iron-clad.
I stared him down, needing him to understand that I saw it all—the demons and the male—and I wanted both.
His jaw worked as he processed my words, and then that wicked, familiar grin returned.
He sank to his knees, his hands possessive as he took my foot, his lips following the line of my leg in a slow, agonizing crawl that made my entire body go taut.
His lips traced the sensitive skin of my inner thigh, sending a jolt of pure electricity through me.
I felt him move, a shadow blocking out the moon as he settled his weight above mine.
He looked down at me, disheveled and dirt-stained, his silver eyes searching for a reason to let me go.
“And you still want to marry me?” he whispered. “Knowing the demons? Knowing this?”
I met his gaze with a ferocity that matched his own.
My hand found his cheek, grounding us both.
“Till death do us part,” I promised.
The silence that followed was deafening.
He went rigid, his breath hitching as he looked at me like I had just handed him the sun.
I gave him a small shove, and we moved as one, rising to our knees in the dirt.
“I love you,” I breathed.
“Gods, you have no idea how much I love you, how much I crave you. I want to worship every inch of this gods-given body.”
His response flooded the bond, a tidal wave of undying devotion and carnal need.
Then his lips crashed onto mine.
It wasn't sweet; it wasn't delicate.
It was the desperate hunger of two people starved for each other.
I tasted the sharp iron of my own blood and the grit of the forest floor, and when I pulled back, remembering my bitten tongue, he only gave me a jagged, beautiful grin.
I watched, mesmerized, as he swiped a finger over the blood on my lip and tasted it.
His eyes bled into total darkness before snapping back to molten silver. My magic reacted instantly, orange flames licking across my skin in a restless dance as he savored the copper tang.
“You taste…” He trailed off, closing his eyes as if the flavor itself was a prayer. I let out a low whimper, and his lids snapped open.
“Careful, darling,” he whispered, his hand sliding through my hair.
His expression turned lethal.
“You don’t know what I’m capable of. There are things I like—dark things—that would leave you ruined.”
I leaned into him, the heat between my thighs demanding more.
The chase had primed me; the hunt had made me crave the very things he was trying to hide.
“Show me all of them,” I demanded.
I felt his shock echo through the bond, quickly replaced by possessive concern as his thumb traced the curve of my spine.
I pulled back just enough to see his face. “You think I’ll break?”
“No, firecracker. I know you’ll obey,” he murmured, his voice dropping an octave as he twitched against me.
I moaned, the sound lost in the space between us.
“I’m just afraid of going too far.”
I seized his face, my nails digging slightly into his stubble.
“What if I want you to go too far? What if I want the pain?”
He growled, his nails digging into my skin, marking me as his own.
A shudder tore through me as he claimed my lips with predatory hunger.
I reached for him, my fingers clumsy with desperation until his trousers hit the forest floor.
He tried to pin me against the bark, but I had other plans for this game. I pushed back, my hands firm on his chest as I pivoted him, forcing his spine against the rough wood.
I didn't give him time to recover.
I dropped to my knees, the damp earth staining my skin as I looked up into his silver eyes.
Between us, his length pulsed, heavy and arrogant.
I watched the way he looked down at me, his breath hitching as I moved closer to the heat he was so desperately trying to offer.
I wrapped my fingers around him, the heat of his skin searing my palm. I didn't look away, holding his gaze even as his jaw ticked with a frantic, suppressed need for control.
He wanted to lead, but gods—so did I.
I trailed my tongue from the base to the tip, savoring the salt and the heat of him, before sliding him into my mouth.
I watched, mesmerized, as his eyes blew wide before his lids fluttered shut.
A low, broken moan tore from his throat, his head falling back against the bark as his muscles turned to corded steel.
He was magnificent like this—undone, at my mercy, and drowning in the sensation I was giving him.
I moved with a slow, deliberate rhythm, the taste of him mixing with the lingering copper of my own blood.
It was a dark, intoxicating cocktail that made my magic thrum in my veins.
I moved faster, desperate to hear that low, animalistic growl break from his throat.
In one swift, brutal motion, his magic claimed me.
Heavy, shadow-wrought bands coiled around my limbs, and a thick collar of darkness wrapped firmly around my throat.
I was yanked upward, the world blurring until I was pinned against the tree.
The rough bark bit into my shoulders, a sharp contrast to the cool, ethereal weight of the shadows holding me captive.
I arched against the timber, breathless and exposed, as Asher stepped into the space between my dangling feet.
Asher was a mess of sweat and desperation.
“Firecracker,” he panted, his forehead dropping against my stomach for a fleeting second.
“Tell me I’m the first. Tell me no one has ever made your blood burn like this.”
The shadows at my neck tightened slightly, a dark, pulsing reminder of his claim. He didn't wait for the answer before he dropped to the mossy earth. He draped my leg over his shoulder, his eyes burning with a silver fire as he looked up at me.
I came undone.
The sheer commanding presence of him, even while kneeling, was enough to shatter me.
As he leaned in, his tongue catching my clit with punishing precision, I screamed his name into the night.
“Only you,” I breathed, my fingers knotting in his dark hair.
“No one has ever… gods, Asher, no one.”
He growled, a deep, territorial sound that rumbled through my thighs as he lapped me up, his tongue relentless and hungry.
I gripped his head, pulling him closer, letting him drown out every memory of the past with the sheer violence of his devotion.
"Gods—" the plea was ripped from my throat, but it was swallowed by his answering snarl.
"Stop calling for the heavens," he hissed, his voice a lethal vibration in my mind.
"You belong to the dark now. Mine to fuck. Mine to break. I want my name—and only mine—seared into your throat. Tell me you hear me."
The stars in my vision flickered and died, replaced by a raw, carnal pleasure that left me gasping.
I nodded frantically, my fingers digging into the bark of the tree.
"Good," he purred, his eyes dark with a satisfied kind of malice.
"Now, show me how well you can obey."
As he moved, my skin ignited. Bright, hungry flames swept over my body, casting long, flickering shadows against the trees.
But his shadows were faster—they rose to meet the fire, weaving through the heat without burning.
We were a storm of fire and shadow, a collision of elements that shouldn't have existed.
"Look at us," he commanded, his silver eyes locking onto mine. "This is destiny, Ava. And I will bury this world in shadow before I let a soul take you from me."
"On all fours, princess."
His breath was ragged against my skin. I nodded, my teeth drawing blood again as the sheer intensity of his gaze pinned me in place.
He licked the wound clean, his eyes darkening as he savored the taste.
"Do it," he commanded.
I fell to the ground instantly, my knees sinking into the soft soil. I was exposed, waiting, my fingers clawing at the dirt as the bond thrummed with his proximity.
He settled behind me, a predator finally claiming his prize.
“Darling, you've been so good,” he whispered against my skin.
Then his hand descended, the impact sharp and stinging.
I cried out, the pain blooming across my skin like wildfire, centering me entirely on the male who now held my world in his hands.
He moved against my entrance, a rhythmic tease that had me clawing at the mossy earth.
Before I could beg, he seized my hair, yanking me back against his heaving chest as he forced himself inside.