Chapter 38 Sable #2
Pain exploded, white-hot, electric. My back arched, every nerve firing at once. But beneath the pain was rightness. My body knew this was supposed to happen, and a force within me adjusted to make space for something new.
The bond exploded and I screamed as I came all over him. It felt like I was hit by lightning. The bond locked into place with a finality that stole my breath. I held him close to me as he gently rocked, his cock still filling me.
And then his emotions came.
Love. Consuming, all-encompassing love. Awe. Bone-deep gratitude. Fierce possessive satisfaction—mine, mine, MINE—so loud I could barely think past it.
His wolf claimed me through the bond. Primal and absolute claiming. But I felt his human side too: reverent, overwhelmed, terrified he'd still find a way to break this.
I'd known he loved me. But feeling it—experiencing the depth and breadth and intensity of it filling our bond, after all we’d been through—
It was too much. Not enough. Everything.
"Rhys," I choked out, and he released my neck, tongue sweeping across the wound. The sting dulled but didn't disappear. I felt the mark settle into my skin—permanent, visible, his.
Through the bond, I felt his satisfaction. His wolf's smug claim. His human wonder at what we'd just done.
But the bond wasn't complete yet. It pulled at me, demanding more. One-sided, unfinished. He wasn’t finished.
Our turn, my wolf snarled. Our turn to claim him.
My vampire side rose with her, fangs aching, bloodlust sharp. Both sides of me surged forward in perfect alignment.
I moved before conscious thought caught up.
The look on his face, the anticipation that was still drunk from claiming me, that was all I needed.
I was slick, my pussy still tender from release but ready to be everything to him.
I rolled him over this time, and he gladly went, eyes glowing with his wolf.
I straddled him and didn’t waste another second.
“I am yours,” he said, and I was unleashed. I rushed at his neck, rocking against his cock and sinking my teeth into the junction of his neck and shoulder.
Fangs first. Then canines. Both breaking skin.
His blood hit my tongue.
The taste was intoxicating, pure him. My vampire side sang with satisfaction, wanted to drink deeper, wanted to take and take and take. But my wolf snarled possession, demanding I mark him, claim him, make him ours.
I bit down harder, fangs sinking deep. Felt his blood flow warm across my tongue. Drank once, twice, tasting him, claiming him, marking him in a way no pure shifter ever could.
Through the bond—still forming, still connecting—I felt his shock. Then his pleasure, overwhelming pleasure. Then, his complete surrender. He grunted, again and again until at last he tightened his embrace, trembled, and then came inside me as he gasped for breath.
Yours, his wolf acknowledged, submitting. Yours, mate, always.
The bond blazed. The magic in the bond wasn't just shifter gold. It was laced with silver—vampire magic mixing with wolf.
Complete, my wolf replied.
We were marked forever, his wolf and mine, his magic and my hybrid power all tangling together, weaving into a bond that had never existed before. We’d entered uncharted, unprecedented territory.
I felt his wolf, finally at peace. But I also felt my vampire nature reaching toward him through the bond, claiming him in a way that went beyond wolf magic. He shuddered beneath me.
"Sable," he choked out. "Goddess, what—"
"Both," I managed. "You're bonded to both. Wolf and vampire."
He could feel them both—my wolf, fierce and sated. My vampire, hungry and possessive. Two halves of me, both claiming him. Both loving him.
"Is it too much?" For a moment, fear spiked. What if bonding with a hybrid was too overwhelming? What if—
"No." His hands gripped my hips, pulled me closer. "No, it's perfect. You're perfect."
The bond carried his certainty to me. He meant it. He wanted all of me. Wolf, vampire, everything in between.
The relief was staggering.
“I need you,” he whispered into my ear. “I need you again. Now.”
He pulled me up onto my knees and positioned himself behind me.
My ass slapped against his hips as we moved together, still desperate, still needing each other.
The bond amplified every sensation. I felt his pleasure and mine, feeding back and forth, building higher.
My wolf howled with satisfaction. My vampire side purred with possessive delight. Both finally, finally complete.
When the climax hit, it hit both of us simultaneously. I cried out, vision whiting, every nerve firing at once. Through the bond I felt his release, felt his wolf's deep satisfaction, felt his human heart overflow with love.
The bond sang…
Then we collapsed.
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. My heart hammered against my ribs. Every part of me felt different—rewired, remade, more.
Rhys pulled me against his chest. His breathing was as ragged as mine, his heart pounding where my cheek pressed against his skin.
I lifted my head to look at him. His eyes were still more gold than brown, his expression dazed.
"You okay?" I asked.
A breathless laugh escaped him. "I don't know. I can feel you in my head. Like you're right here." He pressed his hand to his temple. "Is that normal?"
"I don't know." I paused. "Nothing about me is normal."
"Thank the Goddess for that." His hand moved to my neck, fingers ghosting over the bite mark. I hissed at the sensitivity, and he froze. "Sorry—"
"No, it's—" I caught his hand, brought it back. "I want to feel it."
He touched the mark again, gentler. "It looks different," he said quietly.
I blinked. "Different how?"
"I don't know. It's a claiming bite, but—" He traced the edge of it carefully. "There's something else. Like a shadow around it. Or maybe a shimmer? I can't tell."
"Let me see yours," I said.
I shifted to look at his shoulder where I'd bitten. The mark was clear—two sets of punctures. Canines from my wolf. Fangs from my vampire side. Both deep, both bleeding slightly, both permanent.
And around it, just like he'd said, there was something else. A faint shimmer in the air, like heat waves, but darker. Silver-black, shining with golden hues.
“Vampire magic and wolf claiming,” Rhys cocked his head. “Hell of a cocktail.”
"Yeah." I searched his face for regret, for doubt. Found none. "Is that a problem?"
"Are you kidding?" He caught my hand, pressed it against his chest over his heart.
"Sable, I can feel both parts of you. Your wolf is right here," he tapped his chest, "fierce and strong and finally settled.
And your vampire side. She's—" He paused, searching for words.
"Possessive. Hungry. Powerful. And she chose me too.
" His hand stroked down my spine. "I felt it the moment you bit me.
I felt both sides of you claiming me. Your wolf and your vampire.
It was—" He made a sound halfway between a laugh and a groan.
"Intense doesn't even begin to cover it. There’s still a throbbing in my head. "
"Too much?"
"No." He held me tighter. "Perfect. It was perfect."
Relief flooded through me. I'd been afraid—terrified, really—that he'd feel the vampire magic and recoil in the moment.
"You're not scared?" I asked.
"Of you? Never."
“Of what could happen. Having a completed bond with a hybrid who’s never really been part of any single pack.”
His thumb brushed across my knuckles. "I'm bonded to the strongest person I know. Why the hell would I be scared?"
Something in my chest loosened. "Most shifters would be."
"I'm not most shifters." He pulled me back down against him. "And you're not most anything."
We lay there in silence, wrapped around each other. His wolf wasn't restless anymore. Wasn't tearing at him, wasn't in pain. Just settled.
Complete.
With my head on his chest, I sought out his inner energy, his soul. The place where only blackness had resided.
And it wasn’t like before. My breath hitched and I pushed up from his chest to look him in the eye. “You’re changed.”
"Makes sense, my wolf has his mate. Both halves of her." He caressed my cheek. "He'd been going feral since I rejected the bond. Now he's finally at peace, with all sides of you."
"Good." I traced my fingers along his collarbone. "Because with me, you get all or you get nothing."
"I want it all." His hand cupped my face. "I want everything."
"You have it." I let the bond carry my certainty to him as I sank back on his chest. "Forever.”
“No take-backs." He squeezed me and I felt his love swell through our connection. "I like the sound of forever."
I laid my head on his chest again, but this time I could tell what was different.
Sensation rushed through him, an unveiling.
Whatever had been hiding his true essence was fleeing like dust in the wind.
"Rhys, the blackness I used to see in your soul isn’t the same.
A shroud has lifted in you.” I pressed a kiss to his chest, right over his heart.
“Instead of emptiness, there’s a sense of waiting.
In the shadows. The blackness isn’t sinister anymore. "
I glanced up at him and found him looking expectant, like he was afraid to believe what I was trying to tell him.
“Rhys, I think we’re undoing the curse.”
A sigh escaped his lips, and his eyes shone in the reflection of the moonlight through the window. He pulled me tighter against him. His chest rose and fell, and I sensed the hope that coursed through him.
But exhaustion was creeping in. My body felt wrung out, satisfied, complete. Through the bond, I knew he felt the same.
“Logan and Eve are expecting us to join for dinner tonight in the city,” I murmured. “We should sleep.”
"Probably," he said, but neither of us moved.
The city hummed outside the window—distant traffic, the low pulse of music from somewhere below, the constant background noise of Dallas at night. Inside the room, it was just us. Our breathing. Our heartbeats. The bond connecting us.
I smiled against his skin.
Through the bond, I felt his wolf's answering contentment. Felt his vampire-touched magic settling into place. Felt his human heart, full and certain and mine.
The bond pulsed once and then settled into something steady and permanent and completely ours.
Forever.
As my mate said, no take-backs.
I ran my finger down his abs, knowing that we’d consummate this bond again before going out for dinner. Rhys shivered under my touch. I lifted my hand and looked at him, unable to stop the smile that was bubbling up inside me.
Until I saw the strange look on his face.
My stomach dropped. "Rhys?"
He suddenly sat up, cradling his head between his hands.
"Rhys? What's happening?"
He clutched his head, the vein at his temple pulsing beneath his fingers. "The bond lifted a fucking shroud, all right—and it’s not just your heart I feel beating in me anymore."
"What do you mean?" A jolt of terror spiked through me. "Is something wrong with the bond?"
"No. Not the bond." He stood abruptly, stumbling toward the window. His whole body had gone rigid. "The curse. For the first time in ages, I can feel—" His voice cracked. "I can really feel—."
Tears streamed down his face.
"Wyatt," he choked out.
His brother. His lost brother. The one I’d seen in the auction hall those years ago when he’d taken the wrong side of history.
"Rhys, that's not—"
"He's here." Rhys pressed his palms to the glass, staring down at the city below as his shoulders shook. "Right now. Out there. I can feel him. He's standing right fucking there."