Chapter 86
Chapter Eighty-Six
Evelyn
Steam rolled through the cottage’s upstairs bathroom as Evelyn and Kade emerged from the shower. In the mirror ahead, Evelyn spied the alpha tattoo shimmering from her mate’s fingers to his elbow. Without the right light, Kade’s new mark was practically invisible.
As was hers.
Evelyn brushed her hair as Kade combed his beard, attention fixed on the mirror.
“Bjorn will be furious,” she said absently.
He humphed. “That’s nothing new. He’s always angry about something.”
“I suppose the difference is he won’t be able to do anything about it.”
Kade paused, eyeing her through his reflection. The edges of his lips tilted into a proud smile. “Indeed. I—we’ll lead the Drengr warriors to the Void, whether he likes it or not. He’d be a fool to make a move against us. He risks losing favor.”
Evelyn sighed. “He’ll lose werewolves regardless, Kade. Now that Eldrick has left, demonstrating it can be done, others will follow, and there’s many that believe in the prophecy, and therefore you.”
“As well as you.” Kade stepped closer, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He brushed his fingers underneath her chin and tilted it up, making her peer up at him. “Do you feel the alpha magic?”
“Yes.”
Among the many senses Evelyn had gained since returning from the Otherworld and giving the Sun Goddess’s flame to the Gray Wood, like heightened sight and smell, she had a unique awareness of the Vadon Mountains—how the roots twisted through the dirt and distant creeks curved through the rocky terrain, glacier water rushing over weathered rock.
Whenever she closed her eyes, the gentle tune of songbirds greeted her silver flame, and everything smelled distinctly of rain and pine.
Kade studied her, golden eyes drinking her in. “You didn’t hesitate when Eldrick asked.”
Evelyn raised a brow. “Should I have?”
His brows pinched as he ran a finger across her collarbone. “It binds you to these lands, not as though you can’t ever leave, but—”
“I’m aware of what I agreed to.”
“I know.” Kade shut his eyes and exhaled.
Evelyn grasped his hand, tracing the delicate lines running through his palm—the ones untouched by the alpha mark.
“I feel at home here, especially in this cottage and most certainly when I’m by your side.
You’re my home, Kade, and the promise of what we’ll build together—a future for werewolves and witches, a family—is what I fight for because I can see it and taste it as if it’s nearer than ever. ”
Truth and vulnerability bled from Evelyn’s words. So much had happened so quickly, but they were ready for this. Evelyn had gotten her magic back, and it was more hers than ever. Kade had mastered his powers and possessed the sword of ancients, and she had the ever seed.
They were more than ready.
Yet in the morning, they’d journey back to the Void to prepare for war, and the unknown lay on the horizon.
Evelyn took a shaky breath. “There is still so much we must face, but I believe in us. Of course, I’d be lying if I weren’t a little afraid. We’re going to war and . . .” Evelyn shook her head, ridding herself of intrusive thoughts. She’d not think of the worst.
“I don’t want to take this for granted. The here and now.
Us together, bound in more ways than one.
I want to cherish tonight, not because I believe or fear it is our last, but because it is special.
We—our decisions, challenges, and triumphs—are special because they led us to this moment. I believe it in my bones.”
Kade had moved closer as Evelyn spoke, entering her orbit.
Fresh soap wafted from his skin, mixing with his own scent.
He swallowed, hesitant. She gazed up at the man she’d fallen in love with.
Every day, she swore she fell a little more.
It was easy, surrendering to someone so patient and supportive.
It didn’t hurt that Kade was dashingly handsome in all his rugged glory either.
With muscles rippling across every inch of him, he appeared to have walked straight out of the Otherworld, a god all along.
Evelyn’s lips parted as hunger bloomed in her belly. Kade grasped her wrist and planted kisses across her palm and down her forearm. He tugged her to his chest, and Evelyn released a small gasp as she leaned against him.
“I like the word cherish.” His words came out gravely.
Evelyn raised a brow. “What exactly does it mean to you?”
Kade smiled, his eyes blinding. “I’m much better at showing than telling.”
She laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. I’d say you’re pretty good with words, huntsman.”
“Well, then. How about this?” Kade laid his lips against her throat.
Slowly. Gently. “I’m eternally grateful that you chose me, no matter what we face.
” He placed a kiss right under her left ear and the sensation sent a jolt of electricity to Evelyn’s toes.
“Your unwavering resilience has the power to buckle my knees, Evelyn Carson, and it inspires me every day.”
Evelyn closed her eyes, and Kade planted his lips on her shoulder.
She lost her senses as he unraveled her with a feather-like touch.
She blinked through the haze, finding him staring down at her.
His amber stare ensnared her, rooting Evelyn in the infinite expanse of their bond and love.
She didn’t need to hear his next words—their power glistened in his eyes and already beat in her heart.
“My love for you spans wider than the realms, and it’ll burn longer than existence. No matter what world or lifetime, my soul will always belong to you.”
Wetness traveled down Evelyn’s cheeks, and gods, she’d not realized tears had sprung in her eyes. Silent, real. She grasped Kade’s cheek, sending her love down the tethered threads of their bond.
“I love you, Kade Drengr,” she whispered. “There’s nothing in this world that brings me more honor than being your mate.”
Kade’s next kiss pressed against Evelyn’s lips, and amid the bliss of his touch, she heard the plop as her towel dropped to the bathroom floor.
Another followed as Kade lost his own. Their nakedness fueled Evelyn’s eagerness, and as she arched under his touch, he grabbed her ass and lifted her into the air.
Evelyn wrapped her legs around his waist and drove her fingers through Kade’s hair. Past their molding lips and brushing tongues, she realized they were moving. Warmer air greeted her goose bump-laden skin, and the fire in their bedroom crackled in the background of their ensuing pleasure.
Two souls beat as one, both their powers awakening. Flame collided with the moon, and Evelyn’s toes tingled with promise.
Kade laid Evelyn on the bed, the furred blankets sticking to her damp back. He broke their kiss and remained standing at the edge, his admiring gaze as molten as the fireplace.
“Gods, every inch of you is beautiful,” he said, leaning down to nip under her breasts while tightening his hands around her waist. “And mine.”
Evelyn reached down and grasped his length. He hissed between kisses as she ran her hand up and down it, relishing in how rigid it grew from her touch.
“Yours,” she declared, “it’s all yours.”
Kade’s fingers found where Evelyn loved it most, drawing tortuously slow circles over the bundle of nerves, sending her closer to the edge of existence he had mentioned earlier. His tongue lapped over her nipples, one after the other, and Evelyn arched off the bed, whimpering his name.
“I need you,” Evelyn breathed.
She hooked her feet behind Kade’s backside and pulled him closer between her legs. He gripped her hips and yanked her to him, giving her what she begged for. His length brushed against her ready sexy, and a deep growl rumbled through Kade’s chest.
Fucking flames, the sound had heat blooming in her belly.
She’d never tire of this, of him, of how their bodies came together.
Fervent, hungry, and brimming with love.
Evelyn swore she’d crave their pleasure until her dying breath.
How could she not when Kade stared at her like nothing else existed or when his hands traced the curves of her thighs like he penned poetry?
Evelyn’s heart beat to the tune of their bond, and at the other end of the frayed thread, Kade’s own matched the same tempo.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
What a beautiful, methodical song.
Tonight differed from the thermal pools, even disparate from when they first completed the mating bond in the small cottage in Drystan. They were whole again, anew. Souls reborn, powers reignited.
Kade lined himself at Evelyn’s entrance and pressed in. Inch after glorious inch, her walls opened and clenched around him, and when he finally reached the hilt, they both released an agonized shutter.
“Moons, Ev,” he breathed and then started rocking into her.
Evelyn relished the feeling—the ache, his size, the glorious friction—and traced her hands over his shoulders and arms. She mapped his rippling strength to memory as he moved inside her. Thoughtfully, lovingly.
But fucking flames, need coursed through Evelyn like raging fire, and her body begged for Kade’s beastly and untethered side.
“Please,” she rasped, widening her legs.
Kade smirked and lifted one of Evelyn’s legs, hooking it over his shoulder.
He sped up his pace, and Evelyn swore she fell through oblivion again, the rafters above transforming into a scattering of stars. He drove into her again at a mind-altering angle—
“Oh.”
Kade bent closer and swallowed her cry in a bruising kiss. Evelyn couldn’t think straight, let alone see or touch, through the thin line between pleasure and pain. She held onto her mate, entangling her fingers in his hair, and surrendered to the pleasure he gave.
He released her leg, and Evelyn repositioned her limbs around his waist again. He caged her face with his hands, and they began breathing the same air, chest to chest.
Kade reached with one hand to where they came together, finding the bundle of nerves aching to be touched. Evelyn writhed as he drew rapid circles, showing no mercy.
Take it, love, he said down their bond.
She moaned, allowing her body to open further and draw him in deeper as she wrapped her legs tighter.
Kade lay his forehead against hers and, with his other hand, dragged Evelyn’s arms over head.
He grasped her hands and pressed them into the furred blankets.
They were so entangled and tightly joined, Evelyn didn’t know where she ended or he began.
Yet, there was the thread that connected them, an unyielding anchor that grounded them in the world’s chaos.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Blue flashed through Kade’s golden gaze—rippling and magnetic. “I love you.”
In his stare, Evelyn witnessed her own eyes reflecting silver back at her.
“Beautiful,” he whispered. “So godsdamn beautiful.”
With a will of its own, Evelyn’s flame ignited at her fingertips. Kade’s power surfaced too, and silver and blue danced together amongst their intertwined digits.
Warmth of the gentlest kind caressed Evelyn’s skin, and she sighed with contentment at feeling all of Kade, especially the power he once feared.
Magnificent, she said.
Evelyn held Kade tighter as he drove into her again and again, her release building and building. They became lost in their pleasure, moans, and haughty breaths.
War awaited them in the days to come, and yet the curse creeping across Sorin receded from the magnitude of power radiating off Evelyn and Kade.
It didn’t fear the flame or the moon, though.
It recoiled from abundance compared to its emptiness—from the love Evelyn and Kade had found and forged, the challenges they’d triumphed over, and the hardships they’d grown from.
Together, they’d created light and love, and deep in the Vadon Mountains, it rose brighter and stronger than the curse.
Their powers exploded in a cosmic wave of silver and blue. They both found release. Evelyn’s walls constricted around Kade’s length as she screamed his name, and he roared hers, his beastly cry loud enough to be heard for miles.
Sparks and flames floated around them, clinging to them like sunshine and snow. Breathless, Kade stilled inside her, whispering endless words of love. He held Evelyn while blissful aftershocks wrecked her limbs and oblivion burst through every cell of her being.
A thousand argent and sapphire threads wove a tapestry of their love. Evelyn’s flames hardened it, and Kade’s power tempered it, until their mating bond transformed into something as unbending as a blade and impenetrable as stone.
Nothing could break them, not even death.