I complied, driving into her with controlled force, watching her come apart above me. When her first climax hit—her body shuddering, inner walls pulsing around me—I nearly followed her over the edge. But I held back, determined to bring her higher, to ensure she was beyond thought before completing our bond.
“More,” I demanded, rolling her beneath me without breaking our connection. “I need more of you.”
In this new position, I could thrust deeper, harder, watching her face as pleasure overwhelmed her again and again. Her nails raked down my back, her legs wrapped around my waist, her body offering everything I’d craved during our separation.
When I felt my own release approaching, the base of my cock beginning to swell with the knot that would seal us together, I slowed my pace, looking directly into her eyes.
“Miri,” I said, my voice rough with restraint. “I need to know you’re certain. Once I mark you, once we complete this bond, there is no undoing it. You will be mine, as I will be yours, until death separates us.”
Her eyes, dark with desire but clear with certainty, met mine without hesitation. “I’ve never been more certain of anything,” she said, one hand coming up to cup my face. “Mark me, Lor. Make me yours completely.”
Those words, spoken with such conviction, broke the last of my restraint. I lowered my head to the curve of her neck, inhaling her scent, feeling the pulse of blood beneath the delicate skin.
“Now,” she begged, her body tightening around me as another wave of pleasure crested. “Please, now.”
My teeth sank into the soft flesh where her neck met her shoulder, piercing the skin with precise pressure. The taste of her blood exploded across my tongue—copper and salt and something uniquely Miri. The bond flared to life between us, a rush of sensation that transcended physical pleasure.
To my surprise and fierce joy, she turned her head and bit me in return—her blunter human teeth breaking the skin at the base of my throat. The reciprocal mark completed the circuit, the bond flowing between us like lightning.
The feedback loop of pleasure was beyond anything I could have imagined. I felt what she felt—the stretch of my cock inside her, the sharp-sweet pain of my bite, the building pressure of approaching orgasm. And she felt what I experienced—the tight heat of her body gripping me, the primal satisfaction of claiming my mate, the intense pressure building at the base of my cock.
With a roar that would have terrified her neighbors if her walls weren’t sound-insulated, I drove into her one final time. My knot swelled fully, locking us together as my release pulsed inside her in endless waves. Ropes of seed spurted from me, filling her so completely that excess spilled from where we were joined, soaking the sheets beneath us.
She came with me, her cry of pleasure muffled against my shoulder, her body convulsing around my knotted length. The bond between us amplified every sensation, creating a feedback loop of pleasure that seemed to go on forever.
When the most intense waves finally subsided, I carefully rolled us to our sides, my knot still firmly locking us together. She lay draped across my chest, her breathing gradually slowing, her body occasionally shuddering with aftershocks that triggered answering pulses from my still-sensitive cock.
“That was...” she began, then stopped, apparently at a loss for words.
I stroked her hair, a deep, rumbling sound of contentment emanating from my chest. Her face pressed against me, I felt her smile.
“You do purr,” she murmured, sounding delighted and exhausted in equal measure.
“Only for you, my kassari,” I replied, my arms tightening around her. “Only for you.”
She hummed contentedly, her fingers tracing lazy patterns on my skin. The bond between us hummed with shared satisfaction, a living connection that would only strengthen with time. I felt her presence in my mind now. Not thoughts, exactly, but emotions, impressions, a sense of her that would never fade regardless of physical distance.
“How long?” she asked, gesturing vaguely to where we remained joined.
“At least an hour,” I told her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. “Perhaps longer. Our bond is intense.”
“Good,” she sighed, snuggling closer. “Because I’m not letting you go anytime soon. Not again.”
I purred louder in agreement, my tail curling possessively around her thigh. Mine. At last, completely mine, as I was completely hers.
Phil would be insufferably smug when he learned the bond was complete. The jungle would celebrate. Legion would note it in their diplomatic records.
But none of that mattered compared to the simple perfection of this moment. My mate in my arms, our scents mingled, our bodies joined, our futures irrevocably intertwined.
Home, at last, was not a place. It was her.
EPILOGUE 1
MIRI
Phil drapedhimself across my shoulders like a living scarf, his vine-body pulsing with contentment as I adjusted the comm array for the third time that morning. Sunlight filtered through the woven canopy of my treehouse—a strange hybrid of Legion tech and jungle craftsmanship that had become my second home.
I stretched, feeling the pleasant ache in my muscles from yesterday’s jungle patrol with Lor. Six months in, and I still couldn’t believe this was my life: splitting time between Earth and an alien planet, sleeping with a warrior from beyond the stars, and somehow still managing to record the most successful season of my cryptid podcast to date.
