"This is insane," she gasped against his mouth.
"Completely," Cade agreed, pressing her back against the cellar wall. "But I can't stop."
"Don't stop," Lyra said, and the words came out fiercer than she'd intended. "Don't you dare stop."
The bond between them flared brighter, and suddenly stopping wasn't an option for either of them. Cade's hands were everywhere—tangling in her hair, skimming along her sides, pulling at the fabric of her shirt with an urgency that suggested he'd been thinking about this for far longer than the few days they'd known each other.
Lyra's magic was responding to every touch, every kiss, every ragged breath. Golden light flickered along her skin like living jewelry, and she could feel her power twining with his until she couldn't tell where her magic ended and his wolf began.
"Lyra," Cade said against her throat, his voice rougher than she'd ever heard it. "Tell me to stop. Tell me this is too fast, too complicated, too?—"
"It's all of those things," Lyra interrupted, her hands already working at the buttons of his flannel shirt. "And I don't care."
The admission seemed to snap something in Cade's control.
One moment he was a man teetering on the edge of restraint. The next, he was all heat and hunger, a storm breaking loose. His hands gripped her like she was the only thing tethering him to this world, dragging her flush against him, his mouth claiming the curve of her neck with a groan that was nearly a growl.
"Fuck, Lyra," he rasped against her skin. "I’ve been trying to stay away—trying to be good—but you make me forget everything."
Her fingers fisted in his shirt, yanking him closer, because she didn't want good. Not now. Not after everything. “Then forget,” she whispered, breathless. “I want all of you.”
His wolf surged forward in answer, and suddenly she was lifted off the ground, her legs wrapping around his waist on instinct as he pinned her against the cool stone wall. The chill of the rock was nothing compared to the heat rolling off Cade’s body. He was fire and want and something deeper—something that felt like home.
Lyra gasped when his hips pressed between her thighs, his cock already thick and hard against her clothed center. Even through their clothes, it made her whimper.
“Feel that?” he growled, rutting against her slowly, deliberately. “That’s what you do to me. Every time you breathe,every time you look at me like you don’t know how fucking gorgeous you are—it drives me insane.”
Her back arched. “Then do something about it.”
That was all the permission he needed.
Their mouths met in a crash of tongues and teeth, the kiss messy and consuming. Cade kissed like he fought—dominating, demanding, but with a reverence that made her ache. His hand slipped beneath her sweater, splaying wide over her ribs before dragging up to cup her breast.
"No bra?" he murmured, voice wrecked with arousal as his thumb grazed her nipple. "You trying to kill me, witch?"
"Maybe," she managed, though the word was broken by a moan when he took the peak between his fingers, pinching just hard enough to make her gasp.
“Say you want this,” he growled. “Say you want me.”
"I do," she breathed. “I’ve wanted you even before I understood why. I want your mouth, your cock, your wolf—I want all of it.”
A sound tore from his throat. Animal. Worshipful.
Then they were moving—staggering across the cellar until he found a thick, timeworn rug and laid her down like she was something sacred. Magic shimmered through the air, humming with the echo of the founders, but Cade’s presence made it feel safe, grounded. Their clothes vanished with impatient hands and careless magic—flannel tossed aside, leggings peeled down, boots kicked across the room.
And then she was bare beneath him, bathed in the rune’s ethereal blue glow, her skin kissed with golden light that sparked at every brush of his touch.
“You’re so beautiful it hurts,” Cade murmured, tracing reverent fingers down the curve of her hip, the inside of her thigh. His voice was low and wrecked and far too sincere. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to stop needing you.”
“Then don’t,” she said, threading her fingers into his hair, guiding his mouth where she wanted him.
He kissed a path down her body—between her breasts, across her stomach—pausing just long enough to breathe her in. And then his mouth was on her pussy, hot and wet and greedy. Lyra cried out, back bowing off the rug as he licked her like he was starved. His tongue swirled over her clit, firm and unrelenting, while his fingers slid through her folds, dipping inside her with maddening control.
“Gods,” she gasped, fingers tightening in his hair. “Cade—fuck—don’t stop?—”
He didn’t. He groaned against her, the sound vibrating through her clit like thunder. Every flick of his tongue pushed her higher, the bond between them glowing hot and gold in the space between their bodies. Her magic pulsed out, responding to his touch, illuminating the shadows and setting the rune aglow.
“I can taste your magic,” Cade growled, lifting his head just enough to meet her eyes. His lips were wet with her, his gaze burning. “It’s everywhere. Inside me. Wrapped around my cock even when I’m not inside you yet.”
