That did it. Something snapped in him—I could see it in the sudden flare of his pupils, feel it in the subtle tremor that ran through his powerful frame. His tail curled possessively around my ankle as he bent to press his forehead against mine.
“There will be no going back,” he whispered, his breath hot against my lips. “Once I claim you, once you claim me, not even death will sever what we become.”
“Pretty words,” I murmured, nipping at his bottom lip. “But I’d rather have action.”
He growled, the sound rumbling from deep in his chest, vibrating against my naked breasts where they pressed against him. In one fluid motion, he scooped me into his arms like I weighed nothing, cradling me against his chest as he carried me to the moss bed nestled between glowing roots and protective vines.
The look in his eyes as he laid me down was reverent, hungry, possessive—everything I’d seen in our Unity dreams and more. This wasn’t just desire. This was devotion. This was destiny.
And for once in my skeptical, questioning life, I wasn’t running from it. I was running toward it, arms wide open, heart unguarded for the first time since I could remember.
The bioluminescent fungi pulsed with a soft blue-green glow that painted Lor’s bronze skin in otherworldly light as he loomed above me, his expression fierce with want and something deeper—something that looked dangerously like love.
“Mine,” he whispered, the word both question and declaration.
I reached up, threading my fingers through his dark mane, pulling him down toward me. “Prove it.”
The jungle stirred around us,low and warm, like it approved. Of me. Of him. Of us. The very air seemed to thicken, heavy with anticipation as Lor lowered his body over mine. This wasn’t the frantic coupling I’d imagined—the quick, desperate release after days of tension. No, his eyes told me this would be something else entirely. A ritual. A claiming. The fulfillment of something written in our DNA long before either of us existed.
And then he showed me.
What it meant to be chosen—by fate, by instinct, by a male who would burn down the stars to keep me safe. It was slow, reverent. A claiming made of heat and hunger and the kind of wild tenderness I didn’t know existed outside of fairy tales.
He whispered my name like it was sacred.
I whispered his like it was home.
His hands traced my body with such deliberate care that tears pricked behind my eyes. Each touch was worship, each caress a vow. When his mouth found my breast, the gentle scrape of fangs against sensitive flesh made me arch beneath him, a plea forming on my lips.
“Please,” I gasped, not even knowing what I was begging for. More. Everything. Him.
He smiled against my skin, that rare, beautiful curve of lips that transformed his fierce features. “Patience, kassari,” he murmured. “I want to remember every moment of making you mine.”
The vines around us shifted, responding to some unspoken command—or perhaps to the energy pulsing between us. Thin, supple tendrils slid across the moss, twining gently around my wrists, drawing my arms above my head. Not constraining, not forcing, but offering support, participation.
I should have been alarmed. Instead, I surrendered to their gentle hold, curious and desperately aroused by this new development. Phil remained at the edge of our sanctuary, a respectful guardian, but these new vines—thinner, with a subtle purple-blue luminescence—seemed created for this moment.
“They want to help,” Lor explained, his voice rough with desire. “The jungle feels our bond. It wants to be part of this.”
“Yes,” I breathed, not questioning why this felt so right, so natural. Nothing in my life had prepared me for making lovewhile sentient vines held me open for my alien mate, but nothing had ever felt more perfect either.
The vines adjusted their grip, securing my wrists while leaving me enough freedom to move, to arch, to respond. Another tendril slipped beneath my lower back, supporting me, lifting me slightly toward Lor’s waiting mouth. He growled his approval, the sound vibrating against my inner thigh as he settled between my legs.
Though he’d tasted me before, this felt different—more deliberate, more thorough. His tongue traced every fold, every secret place, learning me like territory he intended to claim for eternity. When he finally centered his attention on my clit, I nearly screamed, the sensation almost too intense after so much teasing.
“Lor!” I gasped, pulling against the gentle restraint of the vines. “I need—I need?—”
“I know what you need,” he rumbled against me, the vibration sending sparks dancing along my nerve endings. “And I will give it to you. All of it. But first...”
He slid one finger inside me, the careful pressure making me whimper. A second finger joined the first, stretching me, preparing me. His claws were fully retracted, but I could feel the potential of them, the deadly power held in check for my pleasure alone.
“You’re so tight,” he murmured, his voice awed. “So perfect.”
The vines around my wrists pulsed in time with his thrusting fingers, as if the jungle itself was helping to build my pleasure. A delicate tendril even slipped down to caress my breast, circling the sensitive peak in counterpoint to Lor’s rhythm below.
When he finally rose above me, his massive body blocking out everything but his golden eyes and the heat of him against me, I was trembling with need. The head of his cock pressed against my entrance, hot and impossibly large. I’d seen him inour dreams, felt him there, but reality was so much more intense—the width of him, the heat, the slight texture of ridges along the underside that I knew would drag against every sensitive spot inside me.
“Look at me,” he commanded softly, and I did, locking eyes as he began to push inside.
