Chapter 48
Andrik POV-
I run.
The trees whip by in jagged slashes of white and dark, but the only thing I can focus on is her.
Naked in that bed. A stranger’s hands on her hips. A vermin wearing my face, about to—
I growl, and the woods take notice. I can’t finish the thought.
My hooves thud against the earth with every stride, breaking through the frozen ground.
Something clutches at my chest from the inside.
My breath stutters. The cold air that normally fuels me feels too thin—like the forest can’t feed me fast enough,
“Andrik,” Lumi’s voice is small, muffled by my chest. She‘s wrapped in the sheet I snatched from that godforsaken cottage, pressed so snug against me I can feel every panicked thud of her heart. “Slow down... please.”
I can’t. If I slow down, the images will catch up. If I slow down, I’ll turn back. I’ll go back to what’s left of that house and tear him apart until there‘s nothing left but a red stain on the snow.
“Andrik, look at me.”
Her hand presses to my chest, right over my heart. The heat from her palm seeps through my fur, and the world slams into focus.
I halt.
We’re deep in the heart of the forest now. Far away from what happened. But as I look down at her, I know it will never be far enough. The memory of him touching her is a poison I’ll carry forever.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp, my grip loosening just enough so she can breathe. “I’m sorry, I just—I need to get you somewhere safe. Somewhere he can’t reach. Somewhere it’s only us.”
“He didn’t,” she whispers, her eyes searching mine. “You stopped him, Andrik.”
“Barely,” I snap.
Whatever dark magic he used held me under like a god's hand, shoving my face beneath black water.
I felt her the entire time—felt her confusion, her heat, her desperate, terrified need.
I was a prisoner in my own mind, screaming, clawing at the walls of the spell while he—while he touched my sael?n.
“Andrik.” She cups my face, her tiny fingers pulling my face to meet hers.”I’m here. I’m safe. You saved me.”
“I should never have left you.” My voice shakes. “I should have known.”
“Neither of us knew.” Her thumb brushes my cheek, but then her back arches. A violent spasm seizes her body. She gasps, doubling over in my arms.
She was so close to sealing the bond, and now it’s howling for what it was promised.
“I need to seal it,” I murmur. “Now. Before the moon sets. Before anything else tries to take you.”
I adjust my hold and start walking toward the one place where this can be made right. I feel it before I see it—the pull of sacred ground. The air hums with the energy of ancient magic woven into the roots of my forest.
The clearing appears through the trees. A haven of emerald moss untouched by snow. Birch trees surround us with a faint, bioluminescent pulse.
I stop at the edge, my heart hammering against my ribs. This is it. Once we cross this line, our souls will be fused.
“Are you ready?” I ask softly.
Lumi looks up at me. Her eyes are glassy with fever, but beneath the haze, there’s a clarity of trust.
“I’ve been ready since the moment I met you,” she whispers.
I step over the threshold.
WHOOSH.
The ring of godfire ignites instantly. Blue flames erupt from the earth in a perfect circle around us—cold fire that doesn’t consume, but creates a barrier between us and the rest of the universe. A witness. A blessing.
Lumi gasps as the blue light reflects in her eyes. I lower her onto the soft moss. The sheet falls away, and she is bare before me in the moonlight, blue shadows cast across her flushed skin.
She is the only thing I have ever wanted.
She reaches for me.
“Andrik, please. I can’t wait.”
“Not yet.” I catch her wrists gently, pinning them above her head, “There’s something I must do first.”
I release one of her hands and extend a single claw. I drag it across my palm—a single clean line. Blood wells up immediately, dark against my light fur.
“Andrik—”
I take her hand in mine, cradling it. “Do you trust me, Sael?n?”
“Yes.” She answers without hesitation.
I press the tip of my claw to her palm. She doesn’t flinch. I make one quick stroke, as painlessly as I can. Her blood rises to meet mine.
I press our palms together. The moment our blood mingles, magic erupts through us like lightning.
“Blood to blood. Soul to soul. We begin and end here. Until the stars go dark.”
The instant the words leave my mouth, the entire forest shudders.
Lumi gasps, her fingers tightening in mine. A strange tingling bursts up through our joined palms.
A chorus rises from the trees.
Distant howls echo across the forest. Crows scream from the canopy of trees, flapping into a frantic spiral—a sudden roar of antlers clashing in the glen, the tremble of paws. From every direction, the sounds rise.
They feel it. All of them.
One by one, her soboe?ns return to bear witness, bowing in the frost around the mating circle.
Our palms separate reluctantly. I stare at her hand—at my blood mixing with hers. Something primal surges through me. I guide her bloodied palm to my chest and drag it slowly over the white of my fur.
A hiss escapes me.
The contact sears straight to my bone until I feel the bond’s magic thrum against my own. She lives inside me now. Marked into the muscle. Woven through the ribs she’ll sleep against for the rest of our lives.
“I wear you now,” I murmur. “Your blood...” I slide her hand across my collarbone. “It’s a part of me now.” I drag her hand over my throat, then down the center of my chest, tracing the hollow of my chest where the gods once carved her name into my heart.
“Everything I am belongs to you.”
Her head tilts curiously as I bring her hand to my mouth. I lick across the thin wound I carved.
“Veyr’thalin etra’saev,” I whisper against her skin.
She gasps.
“Andrik—”
I lick again, tasting the copper and salt of her on my tongue.
“Kaemorin, to heal.”
Another long, reverent stroke.
“To claim.”
Lick.
“To worship.”
The wound has already begun to close from the thraev?n leaking from my fangs, but I can’t stop.
Her breath catches as I shift forward, pressing my hand to her belly—leaving a smear that stains her pale skin.
“I’ll mark you in every way,” I rasp. “Inside and out.”
I drop to my knees and lick the blood trail off her skin. Her thighs shiver as my hands splay across the back of them.
“Kaemorin.”
The residue of what he stole from her still lingers beneath her sweetness. My instincts revolt.
My hands twitch where they hold her. Rh?ven claws at my bones, snarling to destroy. She let him near because she thought it was me, I remind myself.
So I’ll show her the difference.
“Guide me,” I rasp, dragging her hand over her chest. “Thrav’el?n, lumina’ka. Nai’ven mar?k ves thrae.” (Show me, little light. I’ll undo him with every breath I take from your skin.)
Her breath hitches. I thread her fingers between mine and slowly drag our joined hands lower. Over the swell of her stomach, down the trembling rise of her pelvis. Her heat bleeds into my skin.
She presses my palm between her thighs, and my vision goes black for a second. I swear I can taste her on the back of my tongue. I’m losing myself—and I don’t thrahking care.
Her fingers curl around mine. She draws two of them lower until they slip against her slick entrance.
I shudder.
“Veyr’solma. Veyr’sae. Kaemorin.” (So soft. So warm. Mine.)
She gasps when I start to move, rocking my fingers in a rhythm I can’t control anymore.
“Feel that?” I moan. “That’s mine.”
She nods.
“Say it,” I plead. “Please. Just tell me it’s mine. I need to hear it from you.”
“It’s yours,” she mumbles deliriously.
“I don’t want to serve the gods. I want to serve you. “Ves’lir kaemorin. Ves’kai velorin.” (Take what’s mine. Take what’s safe.)
My lips hover just above the seam of her virae.
“Please,” I whisper, my voice already fraying. “Let me taste you. I need—”
She nods breathlessly, and it’s all the permission I need.
I drag her thigh up onto my shoulder and groan when her scent envelops me. I rub my face over her slickness, covering myself in her essence. Her body arches, trembling around me. I lock my arms around her thighs to hold her in place.
“Andrik, I don’t know what you’re doing... but it’s making this so much worse.”
I can’t get close enough to her. I growl in frustration, my claws flexing against her hips. I need more.
I sink lower to brace her weight. My grip tightens, and with a soft grunt, I lift her other leg and drape it over my opposite shoulder.
She yelps, suddenly perched fully on top of me, thighs wide and quivering around my head, her slick heat pressing to my mouth like she was made to sit there.
Gods, she was.
I moan ravenously into her, and the sound vibrates straight through her core. Her fingers tangle in my hair as she grinds against my tongue.
“Grip me, Sael?n. Hold your rh?en’ka,” I purr.
Her fingers lift from my fur and wrap around my antlers.
“That’s it,” I rasp between strokes. “I’m going to erase him. With my mouth. My tongue. Until the only taste left is ours.”
“Andrik,” her voice cracks.
Her hips roll frantically. I flick my tongue up and down, teasing her swollen clit until her cry pierces the canopy.
“That’s my thal’kisha,” I groan. “Let the forest know who makes you feel like this.”
The veins in my biceps swell as I start curling her weight, helping her chase her pleasure.
She looks down at me, eyes wide and dark with need. I look up at her and drag my tongue through her lips in one long, devastating stroke.
She whimpers, fingers tightening on my antlers as her head falls back. I take full advantage and lift her faster onto my tongue, then lower her again. Over and over. Using my strength to give her exactly what she needs.
“Are you sure you’re a virgin?” she pants out, thighs crushing my cheeks.
My tongue works faster, deeper, curling it inside her.
“I won’t be for much longer,” I growl into her.