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Before I can stop him, he buries his face between my legs and cleans away every last drop of my virginity with his tongue.
“You’re an animal,” I moan, tugging his horn.
“You love it.” His chuckle tingles my tender pussy, and I gasp. He might be right.
I love this. All the darker urges, doing the things I’m not supposed to be doing. Admitting that feels freeing and arousing. His complete, utter devotion to every part of me is grounding. Somehow, I know no curse, threat, or lie will sway his feelings for me. He’ll never leave me on purpose. He never did. Myfingers flutter to the wound at my neck. This lover I once called a monster is my mate.
My mate.
The word doesn’t sound frightening anymore, nor is it foreign. With Fox, it’s just right. It’s home.
When we’re dressed again, the cold seeps in with reality. Styx is still frozen. We’re no better off working on a plan to release him. I touch his wing as Fox scours the treasure trove of ancient artifacts, lifting, shaking, and sniffing items.
“Maybe I should do it,” I mumble. “Take his place.”
“What?” Fox’s head whips my way. “Absolutely not.”
I round on him. “It’s what your true queen would do, right?”
“No.” He gestures at Styx. “He would never approve, especially now we know he’s somehow broken his seal. In fact, he’d be your most avid supporter.”
My brow arches indignantly. “You mean my most obsessive, possessive, macho-protector who thinks he knows what I want better than me?”
His lips part. “I, ah . . .”
“I’m kidding.” My brief laugh sobers as his complexion blanches. “Fox, you need to lighten up if we’re to survive being mates.”
“Mates?”
“Yeah, well.” My cheeks heat. I look away. “I figured if we both marked each other, that’s what it meant. And, I mean, I, um, feel a connection to you so?—”
He strides over and cups my face, shutting me up. “You’re beautiful when you bluster.”
The heat in my cheeks now burns. “Thanks?”
A full belly laugh throws his head back.
“Shut up, Mr. Abs and Dimples, and...shut up.”
Fox’s heart-stopping smile remains as he returns to his treasure hunt, and I refocus on Styx with butterflies in my stomach.
“But seriously,” I say. “What if I activate this swapping spell? What would happen? Would it give you another year to devise an alternative plan?”
I trace the hewn shapes of Styx’s arms, the dips and valleys, and the spiky collarbone. I rest my ear against his stone chest and listen for a heartbeat. I’ve never met him, yet it feels like I have. Maybe it’s the portraits I carried around for years or what we did in this temple cave, but he feels familiar. They all do.
“I’m going to tell him you hugged his naked statue,” Fox taunts me.
Ha! If he only knew I almost broke his penis. I slide him a wry look. “You’re going to be impossibly vexing now that we’ve fucked.”
“Naturally. Who else knows which buttons to push on you?”
Despite myself, I smile, then tell him to shush while I stretch my senses and listen against Styx’s chest again. There. A sluggish beat. “He’s alive.”
Fox comes up behind me and swipes his finger around my nape, shifting my braid to the other side. His melancholic reply steals my breath. “I know, love. We can’t really die. I don’t think.”
“Do you think it hurts him?”
“Pain only comes from being apart from you.”
