I begin to move, each thrust deeper than the last, our bodies finding a rhythm as ancient as the forest around us. It’s just us. Skin against skin. Breath mingling with breath. Her heartbeat syncing with mine until I can no longer tell where I end and she begins.
The soul shard glows brighter with each passing moment, its light bathing us both in amber-gold radiance. My wolf rises in me, clawing its way to the surface, demanding completion. From the way Astrid's eyes shine, more gold than human now, I know her wolf is doing the same.
"I feel it," she whispers, her voice roughened with desire and something wilder. "The wolf—she wants?—"
"I know," I murmur against her throat, my teeth grazing the sensitive skin there. "Let her take what she wants."
Her hands slide into my hair, gripping tightly as she pulls my mouth to hers. Our pace quickens, the tension building between us like a gathering storm. I can feel her everywhere. Her essence intertwines with mine.
"Mine," I growl against her neck, feeling the exact spot where the wolf demands I mark her.
"Yours," she agrees, her voice barely human. "And you're mine."
Her head turns, finding the corresponding spot on my shoulder, her teeth scraping experimentally. The sensation sends a jolt straight through me, making me groan.
We move together, climbing higher, the pleasure building to a point that seems impossible to contain within mortal flesh.
As ecstasy crashes through us both, my teeth find the junction of her neck and shoulder, breaking skin. At the same moment, her teeth sink into my shoulder, completing the circuit. Blood mingles with blood, soul with soul.
A surge of power explodes between us, the soul shard's light intensifying until it's almost blinding. I feel her spirit merge with mine, the wolves within us howling in unison as the bond snaps into place like the final piece of a cosmic puzzle. This connection is electric, alive—two spirits entwining like ancient vines, separate yet unified. Through it, I sense her courage, her fierce determination, her unwavering heart.
Then something entirely different occurs. I feel the moment the soul shard comes back to me.
The sensation is cataclysmic. Where our spirits merging was a connection forged, this pours into the hollow space inside me like liquid light, filling cracks and wounds I've carried for centuries. The relief is so profound I cry out, my entire body convulsing with the force of it.
Colors sharpen. Sensations intensify. The weight of my fragmented existence lifts as though a mountain has been removed from my chest. Tears spring unbidden to my eyes as the chaos that has haunted me since I first split my soul finally quiets, replaced by a silence so pure it rings like crystal.
The darkness that has shadowed me through centuries dissolves like mist in sunlight. Complete. I am finally, blessedly complete.
And yet, paradoxically, I am also more connected to another being than I have ever been. The bond with Astrid remains, a golden thread linking us eternally, but now I face it as a whole creature rather than a fractured one.
As the intensity begins to ebb, I lick the small wound I've created, tasting the copper of her blood and feeling the mark already healing into a silvery scar, a visible and permanent sign of our bond. Pride swells in my chest. Now my signature rests upon her skin, declaring to all our kind what my soul has known from the beginning…
I am hers, as she is mine, until the stars themselves burn out.
She does the same to the bite on my shoulder, her tongue gentle against the mark she's left. The sensation sends a shudder of profound surrender through me. We are equals in this bond, neither master nor servant, but perfectly balanced halves of a greater whole.
"I can feel you," she murmurs, her eyes wide. "Not just physically. I can feel... you."
"And I you," I reply, brushing sweat-dampened hair from her forehead. "It will always be this way now. No matter how far apart we are, you will carry me with you, as I will carry you."
A small smile curves her lips. "So, what now?"
"Now," I say, carefully rolling to my side and bringing her with me, unwilling to separate our bodies just yet, "we rest. And tomorrow, we take the next step in our journey together."
The thought of tomorrow brings a complex tide of emotions. This perfect solitude cannot last. Avalon awaits with its politics and dangers. After losing her once, every instinct screams to keep her hidden away, protected, mine alone.
But I know better. We both have roles larger than ourselves. Neither of us would choose to be selfish over helping to protect others.
"Together," she repeats, the word holding new weight between us.
As she nestles against me, her body fitting perfectly against mine as if designed for this very purpose, I feel a completeness I've never known.
Whatever challenges await us, whatever enemies we must face, we will confront them as one.
I press a kiss to Astrid's temple as her breathing deepens, sleep quietly claiming her.
Mine, whispers the wolf.
