He bent his head and kissed her, drawing her plump lower lip between his teeth for a moment before burying his face into the tender crook of her neck and shoulder. Caging her between his forearms, he thrust deeper, faster, giving her what she needed to push her over the edge. Her long legs came around him as he rode her, her crossed ankles clamped down on his ass like a vise, holding him close, her arching body demanding as much as he had to give.
And he wanted to give her everything.
Not just now, like this, but in every way.
He wanted to hear her tell him that she could never have this with another male. That she was his, as he knew with a soul-shaking certainty that he belonged to her.
Forever.
The thought became a vow as her firelit gaze locked on his and she surrendered to the tremendous force of her climax. Her cry boiled out of her, throaty and wild. Sharp fingernails scored his back, searing lashes that made him roar with satisfaction as she broke apart beneath him in wave after wave of powerful release.
His own orgasm was rolling up hard on him too. But before he gave himself over to it, he wanted to witness Brynne coming again.
Hell, he would never have his fill of that beautiful sight.
Not even if they had as long as forever to be together.
He grasped her hands and started to drag them above her head so he could send her off the cliff of another climax, but she evidently had other plans.
On a sexy, animalistic snarl, she flipped him onto his back. Her long sable waves tossed around her shoulders as she straddled him, their bodies still intimately joined. His cock heartily approved of the change in position, and so did he.
Brynne sat atop him, her body on full display as her hips rocked and undulated, her wet core grinding against him as she took him impossibly deeper with each merciless slide of her body over his. The arcing twists and spirals of her dermaglyphs were flushed with deep colors, playing across her smooth skin like a living work of art. He reached up to touch the lacy patterns that adorned her breasts and belly, his gaze and fingers worshipping every extraordinary inch of her.
“So lovely,” he murmured, sliding his hands down to her hips as she settled into her own fevered tempo. “I may never let you out of this bed.”
Her answer was a low, pleasured moan. A sensual shudder slid through her body. Her breath turned ragged, a sexy panting that made his arousal coil tighter at the base of his spine. Fuck. He was trying to keep a leash on his orgasm, but she wasn’t making it easy for him.
Arching as she pistoned on his shaft, her breasts jutted out, nipples as dark and plump as little berries. He reached up to touch them, rolling the pebbled peaks under his palms and fingers, reveling in the frantic little sounds she made as her climax started to overwhelm her.
“Zael…” His name was little more than a gasp as she bowed sharply and lost herself to her release.
She closed her eyes, tipping her head back on another shivery cry. Her sex gripped him like a sleek, velvet glove. Each tremor that shook her sent vibrations rippling along his shaft.
He kept moving beneath her, taking control of their tempo in order to prolong her pleasure. And his own.
He growled with satisfaction as she came again. But the sudden explosion of hot, liquid heat on his cock was more than he could handle. Snarling with the ferocious need that owned him now, he pumped into her one last time and his orgasm boiled out of him in a scalding rush.
She collapsed atop him, a warm and pleasant weight on his chest as his body shuddered with aftershocks. He was still hard inside her, even after the staggering blast of his release.
Her fingers lightly caressed his bare chest, tracing the contours of his muscles. He sucked in a slow breath when he felt her lips press warm and wet at the base of his throat. His cock twitched reflexively, along with every nerve ending in his body.
He wanted to feel more than her kiss at his throat.
Holy fuck, he wanted it with a certainty he could not deny.
Brynne went utterly still now.
He knew she must sense the change in his body. Hell, she had to be able to hear the sudden throb of his pulse, hammering in anticipation—in need of what only she could give him.
She reared back, silent. Barely breathing.
Her hot amber gaze was filled with deep affection as she stared down at him. But he saw anguish there, too. And when her eyes drifted away from his face and down to the exposed column of his throat, he saw a longing in her that rattled him to the core.
She wanted this too.
She wanted him, in the same irrevocable way that he wanted her.
As a mate.
Bound together by blood.
When she would have retreated even further, Zael slowly shook his head. He reached up, sliding his palm to the back of her neck. Her pulse was racing, throbbing as heavily as his.
“Don’t run away from me now, Brynne. Come back here where you belong.”
She didn’t resist him as he pulled her to him and swallowed her broken moan with his kiss. Her fingers delved into his hair, clutching at him as their mouths came together in a heated, hungry joining.
The slight abrasion of her fangs against his tongue sent a current of white-hot need licking through every fiber of his being. He dragged her deeper, thrusting into her mouth as his cock began to thrust inside her sex.
She moved with him in an increasingly urgent rhythm, until they both were lost to the frenzy of their desire for each other.
And the deeper need that refused to be denied.
Brynne tore away from his kiss, breathless and panting, her eyes shining more fiercely than stars. Behind her parted lips, her fangs gleamed.
He smoothed his hands over her beautiful, transformed face. “You’re mine, Brynne. My blood already knows it. So does my heart.”
He tugged her down to him, and this time when their kiss ended, instead of pulling back, Brynne lowered her head to the side of his throat. Her tongue brushed like silk across his carotid.
Zael growled in response, his pulse hammering in permission and demand.
She answered with a pretty moan that vibrated straight into his marrow.
And then she closed her mouth over his vein and sank her fangs into his flesh.
CHAPTER 32
Brynne moaned as the first taste of Zael’s blood rushed into her mouth.
Quicksilver and exotic, it was nothing like the pungent copper red cells of the humans she had fed from all her life. But then, she should have known Zael’s blood would be a powerful, intoxicating force. Like the male himself, his blood dominated her senses, owning her from the very first taste.
Each sip she took from his vein streaked into her system like liquid fire, awakening her every nerve, fiber and cell. She couldn’t get enough. Drinking from him made her feel as though she’d been dying of thirst for centuries and was only just coming to life for the first time.
He had done this for her—awakened her, brought her to life. Dragged her out of the shadows and into a brilliant, irresistible new light.
He’d done all of that for her from the moment they met.
Now this.
His blood would live inside her forever. That bond was unbreakable. It settled on her so profoundly, she wanted to weep with the power of it. Wherever either of them went now, together or apart, she would always feel him. She would know his joy and sadness and every pain.
But in a troubled corner of her conscience, she also knew that if the day should come that he looked at her in all her monstrous worst and felt regret for this moment—for having brought her into his life, she would feel that too.
Right now, all she felt was his love.
Her heart overflowing, she licked her tongue over the punctures her fangs had made, sealing the wound. Zael’s arms were warm and strong around her as she lifted her head to look at him. He held her in a sober, unblinking stare. His blue eyes had never seemed so dark or so solemn.
For a moment—one terrible, brie
f moment—she worried that she would see doubt in his handsome face. Or worse, the beginnings of the revulsion she dreaded might one day come.
But the bond told her something different. So did Zael, as he tightened his hold on her and flipped her beneath him on the bed.
His mouth came down on hers in a kiss so primal and raw, it nearly unraveled her on the spot. He was wild with passion now, and she felt every measure of it in the bond that now linked her to him.
“Oh God, Zael.” Her voice was little more than a broken, panting sigh.
It was all she could manage. She had neither breath nor voice as he spread her out and began a fevered exploration of her body with his lips and wicked tongue.
Her pleasure exploded now that it was combined with his. The blood connection to him multiplied her ecstasy, and the power of her desire twined with his was almost too much to bear. She arced off the mattress as his mouth latched on to her clit. Hot and wet and relentless, his tongue licked and sucked and teased her swollen bud. When his finger slid inside her sheath and began to thrust in time with his mouth’s torment, she spiraled toward a pleasure she could not contain.
Her orgasm crashed over her like a tidal wave. It swept her high and left her shattered, totally at his mercy.
And he gave her none.
She was still soaring, every nerve ending electrified and vibrating with bliss, as he prowled up the length of her body, then entered her on a low snarl of possession. He drove deep, deeper than she thought possible. Her head tipped back on a gasp, her hands fisting in the sheets as he rolled his hips, hard and fast and claiming.
“Look at me, love.” His rough command brought her searing gaze back to him. “Watch me take you. Know that you’re mine. Tell me you feel it.”
“Yes, I’m yours. I feel it, Zael.” She stared up into his eyes, swamped with pleasure and emotion. And so much love. It filled her with a growing, powerful light. His light, inside of her now. “Oh God, Zael. I feel…everything.”
“Show me.” His gaze burned with intensity as he pushed her higher, ever higher. “Let me feel it too, Brynne. Let me taste it, right now.”
She frowned, uncertain she understood. Afraid to hope.
But the truth was there in his eyes. It was in the emotional connection she had to him now—the one he was asking her to complete with him. He wanted this. He wanted her bond.
Would he want it when she was at her worst?
The question scraped at her coldly. Yes, he had seen her in the throes of blood thirst. He knew what she became then.
But to feel it in his own blood? To know the savagery that filled her when she was less Breed than monster?
Bonding him to her meant bonding him to everything she was, including the part of her that was Ancient. How could he ever look at her with desire—or with any kind of affection—if she let him take that hideous part of her into his own soul?
The fear that he would regret it made her veins freeze up.
The very thought that he might one day look at her in revulsion or loathing was too much for her to bear. Especially now, when he was holding her so lovingly, making her wish for things she could never have.
“Zael, no.” Extricating herself from his embrace, she pushed away from him and scrambled to the edge of the bed.
“What’s wrong?”
The concern in his deep voice made her wince in misery. When his hand came to rest gently on her shoulder, she flinched. Stood up abruptly and moved out of his reach.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t do this. Neither should you. Please… You should go.”
“Go?” So much confusion in that one word.
He got up from the bed and walked toward her. His face was drawn with bewilderment, and with tender affection. Seeing his care for her now only reinforced the dread that if she let things go any further with him, that love would turn to disgust.
“I can’t do this, Zael. Drinking from you was a mistake.”
“It sure as hell didn’t feel like a mistake to me,” he shot back, anger overtaking his disbelief. “It felt right. And I know you felt it too.”
She shook her head. “I can’t do this, Zael. Not here. Not now. We shouldn’t even risk being together until after the alliance is decided. You said that yourself.”
“Fuck the alliance.” His reply exploded out of him, his voice clipped and harsh. “This is about you and me, Brynne. Nothing else matters to me.”
“Not even the colony?”
She knew it did. And if he tried to deny it, she could see that he knew she’d call him on the lie. She had only been on the island for a few hours and she could plainly see that for all of his wandering, this place and its people had been his only semblance of home. His infrequent returns and brief stays hadn’t diminished the fact that for most of his immortal life, the people here had been the closest thing to family he’d ever had.
He would never truly turn his back on them, and she would never belong here.
No matter the outcome of the alliance they had been entrusted to make happen.
“I shouldn’t have taken your blood, Zael. It was selfish. The most selfish thing I’ve ever done. I can’t let you make it worse by shackling yourself to me too.”
“Are you joking?”
His anger and confusion had now hardened into pain. She felt it vibrate in her veins as he stepped closer to her. She retreated deeper into the shadows of the small room.
“Zael, please… I want you to go.”
“Brynne.” He reached out to her.
“Go!” It was the beast that lived inside her that shouted the command at him.
She felt her nails harden into black talons as her misery morphed into desperate fury. Her skin prickled with the eruption of her alien dermaglyphs, the tangled patterns rising to the surface to cover most of her body.
Zael stood motionless, his handsome face unreadable. But she could feel his reaction in his blood. It wasn’t fear or anger. It was pity.
She steeled herself to the hurt. “Please. Just go.”
She turned away as he slowly retrieved his clothes and put them on, knowing if she watched him start to walk away from her, she might be tempted to call him back.
He didn’t make her suffer the waiting for long.
The room lit up with a sudden blast of light.
Then he was gone.
CHAPTER 33
Brynne didn’t sleep at all that night.
Her own misery would have been enough to keep her lying awake until the soft light of dawn began to fill the small cottage, but she also knew Zael’s restlessness through her bond to him.
He was as unhappy as she was. But he was angry too. He was confused and hurt.
Because of her.
Because she was too weak to admit what she wanted—him, as her forever mate—and too scared to believe he could ever look past the abomination that she was.
He had gotten an irrefutable reminder of that in the moments before he’d left her.
Self-directed rage had brought her monster out in all of its hissing, lethal worst. He’d seen it, and he had felt sorry for her. She’d felt his pity. The sting of it still burned like acid in her throat…and in her heart.
Maybe he finally understood just how impossible any kind of future would be for them. Maybe seeing her like that again was just what he’d needed to admit that she was right. They were from two different worlds, and although she’d never had much to call her own and even less to return to now, he had everything waiting for him here at the colony.
The last thing she wanted to do was jeopardize that for him by shackling him to her through a blood bond.
Even if pushing him away had felt as though it were killing her inside.
She couldn’t deny that a shameful part of her had hoped he might return to the cottage and demand another chance to convince her.
Nor could she pretend that she wasn’t disappointed when the knock came on her door that morning and she found Neriah waiting ther
e, instead of Zael.
“Hi, Brynne.” The girl smiled cheerfully in greeting. “The council is going to be meeting soon. Zael’s on his way there now. He asked me to come and fetch you, if you’re ready?”
“Oh.” He was already there. Already adjusting to the distance she’d insisted upon. She schooled her expression into one of pure professionalism, even though an ache was tearing open inside her. “Of course, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
She barely registered Neriah’s bubbly chatter as they walked up the cobbled street to the council chamber building. Her steps felt heavy, her heart pounding rapidly in anticipation of seeing Zael again after the terrible way she’d ended things with him.
He waited inside alone, facing the vacant dais. His stance was rigid and somber, his tall, muscular frame clothed in a fresh white linen tunic and pants, his burnished mane of golden hair still damp and curling at the ends from a recent shower.
Every cell in Brynne’s body lit up at the sight of him, her senses evidently unaware of just how stupid she’d been in pushing him away. He wasn’t hers now—after yesterday, maybe not ever again—but her body didn’t seem to recognize that.
Nor did her blood.
Her veins throbbed as she watched him go utterly still when he realized she was there. She felt the spike in his heart rate, too, as he pivoted slowly to watch her as Neriah took a seat near the back of the chamber and Brynne approached him at the dais.
“The council’s delayed,” he informed her, his tone level, even though his gaze was heavy with all the words he wouldn’t say. “I’m told they should be here soon.”
“Do you think something’s wrong?”
He shrugged. “It probably took some extra time for all of the elders to reach an agreement.”
As they waited a few minutes in awkward, uncomfortable silence, she couldn’t keep from recalling Tamisia’s hard stare in the courtyard, or the skepticism she had expressed toward the prospect of the alliance.
That concern only deepened as the council of elders appeared from an adjacent room and began to file into the chamber to take their seats. None of the six revealed anything in their expressions, but Tamisia would not even look at Zael or Brynne.