Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
KAEL
Make me yours, Kael Guthrie.
Her words ignite inside me, setting everything ablaze.
My mouth takes hers… hungry, claiming. Her lips part on a sigh, and I sweep into her mouth, ravenous for that first taste. My tattoos hum, casting light across the dark cave walls as her hands tangle in my hair, dragging me closer—greedy, unashamed.
Her tongue finds mine, moving with me, matching me. Shivers slide down my spine, building low and tight at the base until it feels like something inside me might break.
I kiss her until we’re both gasping, breathless, wrecked. My breath pushes strands of hair from her face. Her cheeks are flushed, pupils blown wide with want.
Then she’s on me.
Those soft pink lips undoing me from the inside out. Wrecking me.
My hands move without thought, palming her, relearning every curve like I won’t get another chance. Until I find her—slick, open, aching for me. My fingers slide over her, teasing, rubbing, giving her friction until she moans into my mouth.
Frantic… desperate. Just like me.
And I feel it.
Not just her body—but her need, snapping back into me like we’re tethered by something unseen.
The bond.
One flesh. One pulse. Mind-numbing hunger.
My cock strains hard against my zipper as her small hand massages over me, stroking slow and sure. My head tips back, a rough groan tearing free.
If I take her the way I want to, I might ruin her.
But I won’t stop.
“Need you… God—so much,” I grind out as she shifts, straddling me.
She gasps at the feel of me against her thigh. “You’re too big.”
“Yes,” I admit, burying my face in the crook of her neck. “Not made for each other… but we’ll make it work.”
I slide her zipper down slow this time. Fabric bunching at her hips until I slide it away. No rushing now. No escape left between us.
Her eyes are wide, face flushed and needy—so damn hungry I feel it in my blood.
My hand slips beneath her panties, finding her soaked. Already drenched for me.
“Yes,” she whimpers as I touch her, circling slow, deliberate. Her head falls back, hips chasing my hand. “Please… don’t stop.”
She doesn’t have to ask.
I feel everything.
Her pleasure floods me—sharp, electric, impossible to contain. It surges through my veins, crashing against my own until I break.
Hard.
Spilling in my jeans with a groan I can’t hold back.
Her palm presses against me, feeling it.
“God… that’s hot.”
“Is it?” I rasp.
“It means you want me.”
My fingers slide back into her heat, deeper now. “Like this?” I rasp. “You’re dripping for me.”
She laughs breathlessly. “Have been since the first time I watched you… down by the water.”
I still.
Too many thoughts. Too much feeling.
“I’m different,” I warn. “Down there.”
She arches a brow. “Different?”
“Have an extra part… that makes this irreversible.”
I push a second finger inside. She tightens instantly—too tight, too perfect—trying to pull away, but I hold her there, working her open, insistent, careful.
Her body spasms as I find what she needs.
I follow her down, head settling between her legs, tasting her as she cries out. Her breath hitches in her throat. She’s better than any flavor I could imagine. Sweet. Wild.
Made for me.
Her hands fist in my hair, pressing me closer, drowning me in her. I let her take what she needs, my tongue moving, my fingers keeping rhythm inside her.
She’s close.
I feel it building. That edge. That fracture point.
I press up against the rough spot near the front of her channel. Stars fill her head. My fingers curl slowly… so damn slowly. I feel her floating free now, taking me with her.
“Kael—”
Her body shatters.
She comes hard, clenching around me, pulling me deeper into her. My tattoos flare, light spilling across the cave, echoing her release.
Mine surges with it.
Stronger. Always stronger.
I drag myself back over her, breath rough, beard slick with her.
She pulls me down, kissing me—tasting herself on my mouth.
Her body jolts at it.
“You like that,” I rasp.
“Need it.”
“Need these, too,” I say, sliding down her body, shoving the shirt up over her head and revealing a pink lace bra. Her nipples pebble through the fabric.
I growl, burying one in my mouth. Tasting lavender and honey and need of the blackest stripe.
My hands fumble with the clasp until she helps, and the fabric falls away.
I take her in fully.
“Beautiful,” I say, voice rough. “More than I imagined.” My voice sounds thick, near breaking.
She grabs my beard, pulling me back to her mouth. “Unlike you, I don’t bathe for an audience.”
“I wanted you to see,” I admit. “Wanted you to want me.”
Her hand finds me again, sensual and deliberate.
“Need to see how you’re different,” she whispers.
I freeze.
No more hiding.
“If I take you,” I say low, steady now, “I’ll fill you completely. Leave you with me. Always.”
Her pupils blow wide.
I take another long drag from a nipple, circling with my tongue until her back arches toward me, her heart racing.
I can feel her pleasure everywhere. In my chest, behind my sternum. Shimmering in the light from my tattoos.
I tangle my fingers with hers. The bracelet spins, goes molten like mercury, threading around both our wrists. My eyes widen. “You don’t know what this means.”
She’s too busy coming undone to answer.
The bracelet, metal which should suppress, quickens our bond. I look up, realizing it’s the same with the mineral veins pulsing around us. As if this cave and the mountain above us give their blessing.
I tug down my jeans and boxers. Her eyes drop to my cock, and she lets out a whimper, gaze fixed on the spot above. Unfamiliar muscle that vibrates and slides, already dribbling my arousal.
She quirks her mouth, eyes filled with wonder. “What does it do?”
“Locks us together. One.”
“Will it hurt?” she asks, voice trembling.
“The first time, yes. For both of us.”
Eliza stares at me, so engorged, angry veins line my length. She reaches down and wraps her fingers around it. “I can’t fully close my hand,” she whispers, looking up at me, fear and trust mixing.
“I’ll swallow your pain.” I gently brush the hair from her face. When she squeezes her fingers, gives a slow tug, my eyes roll back. She hits the base, her thumb coming up to touch the extra part of me.
I freeze, terrified I’m too strange. That she’ll reject me.
Her face flushes. “You sure you’re not made for me?”
My shoulders relax a frantic sigh escaping my lips.
Her thumb slides again, circling the slippery, vibrating flesh. I suck in a breath, bliss washing over me. “There’s suction, too.” She licks her lips, wetting them.
“I give you me, you give me you. An exchange of DNA. More than reproduction. Becoming little pieces of each other until there’s no separation.”
She blinks slowly, face unreadable.
“Does that scare you?”
“What scares me,” she whispers. “Is that it doesn’t.”
“Resonance,” I whisper.
“What will I become? Alien, too?”
“Not alien,” I murmur. “Mine. And I’ll become yours. We don’t think beyond that.”
She nods once, anticipation building.
I slide a hand down the small of her back, over her ass, and beneath her thigh. I raise her leg, bending it at the knee. “First, you’ll want to punch me,” I warn. “Then you’ll beg me never to stop.”
“How romantic—”
I push inside her.
Fast. Deep.
She screams, body locking around me, shaking with the force of it. I hold still, gripping her hips, forcing myself not to move.
“Breathe,” I murmur, though I’m barely breathing myself.
She bites into my shoulder, drawing blood. Pain flashes… then disappears, swallowed by the bond, turned into something else.
Something better.
I move again. And again. Driving deeper. Finding rhythm.
Her legs wrap around me, locking tight as her body yields—then pulls me closer like she can’t get enough.
Neither can I.
My hand slides into her hair, wrapping it around my hand and pulling her head back to bare her neck. I mark her there with my teeth. Primal and ancient.
The breath hisses in her throat, face radiating satisfaction and thirst all at once.
The extra part of me tries to latch on. But I’m not ready for that.
Not yet. Not until she breaks again.
Completely.
And I feel all of it.
I pull out, flip her onto all fours. She gasps, pausing for one moment. I second-guess myself. Afraid of my own strength.
But when she gazes back over her shoulder, it’s an invitation.
“Need to take you hard. Push you to the edge. Then, we bond.”
Her eyes are black, her chest rising and falling too quickly as I drop down, licking and burying my beard and tongue in her heat.
Her pleasure detonates through me, lighting every nerve, every vein.
My control snaps.
I drive into her from behind. Taking her hard. Mercilessly. Lost in her wet velvet, frantic to feel every inch of her again and again.
Eliza spasms around me, another wave of pleasure strangling me. I could pass out. But still, I hold back. Have to do this right.
I take her to the edge, then withdraw. Take her there again until she grinds against me, begging.
One hand finds a nipple, squeezing and twisting. The other slides between her legs, rubbing her clit. She’s wild, savage, body a mass of tremors as she screams out her release.
Finally, she lies back on the blanket, jointless and breathless. Tears streak her cheeks.
Have I pushed her too far? Panic grips me.
Men like me don’t bond. We brand.
I knew this, and yet I didn’t hold back. Regret tightens my gut.
My weight settles over her gently, hands coming up to palm her cheeks. Thumbs swiping away her tears. “Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?”
She shakes her head, bottom lip trembling. “Not that. It’s so good I can’t bear it.”
That tugs something loose behind my chest. Never hoped a human mate would feel this like me. It’s everything.
Her silvery bracelet dances light when my arm draws near, circling both our wrists again.
“What is that?” she asks, her voice tinged with awe.
“That’s us,” I say gruffly, entranced by the illumination. But I feel hesitation in her. Like this is all still too much.
“We can stop,” I add.
“No,” she says. “I want to bond. I want all of you.”
“But you won’t be the same after, primrose.”
“Neither will you.” Her voice catches.
“Worth it.”
Her fingers tangle with mine, tendrils of light weaving us together. “Worth it,” she repeats, legs parting and hips rising to take me.
My mouth moves over her skin slowly now, her face, her lips.
Reverent.
This part matters.
Heat and pressure rise. When I can’t take anymore, my hips buck forward, latching onto her.
Her body arches as the bond locks into place. My body answers, taking, giving, merging until there’s no separation left.
No boundary.
No self.
I’m locked against her, cock still working and thrusting inside.
“How are you doing that?” she gasps.
“Extra parts.”
Her fingernails dig deep, wet trails sprouting where she breaks my skin. She trembles and shakes around me, fracturing again and again until the heat of my tattoos is buried faintly beneath her skin. A soft echo.
I smell heated flesh, dip my head to lick her marks, taking some of the sting from their burn.
“Yes,” she cries, arching into me. Sucking me into her until I come.
Deep.
Filling her. Claiming her. Branding her.
Mine. Forever.
The light explodes around us—veins of stone igniting, spiraling outward like something alive.
Our resonance.
The mountains answer.