Page 167 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

Kit leaned closer, until his mouth was almost touching mine, and I could feel his warm breath against my lips as I inhaled. Like he was breathing life into me with each exhale, pouring something essential from his lungs into mine.

The thread coiled around my heart wound tighter with every shared breath, connecting us in ways I didn’t have words for. My entire world narrowed to this—Kit’s eyes, his breath mingling with mine, the overwhelming certainty that something fundamental was shifting between us.

Then it happened.

The thread didn’t just pull—it fused. Like molten metal cooling into an unbreakable bond, or a frequency finally tuning to perfect clarity after static. The connection settled deep within with a heat that flushed through me. And I could feel him. Oh, how I could feel him. Not his physical presence, but something deeper. The depth of his love, his devotion to me since the day we met, the fierce protectiveness that had driven him to stalk me.

“I can feel it,” I whispered in wonder, tears pricking my eyes. “Kit, I can feel you. Properly this time.”

Kit’s hands cupped my face, thumbs stroking across my cheekbones. “How does it feel?”

I opened my mouth to answer, to try to capture the sensation in words—the completeness, like I’d been walking around missing something vital and suddenly discovered it had been there all along. Like coming home after a lifetime of wandering. Like finding the other half of my soul.

But there were no words big enough for this feeling.

Instead, I pulled his head down and kissed him.

The moment our lips touched, the world exploded into light and sensation. I felt like I was floating, weightless and perfect and exactly where I belonged. Every nerve ending sang with electricity, and Kit’s emotions flooded through me—love so fierce it stole my breath, gratitude that made my chest ache, and a bone-deep satisfaction that whispered mine, finally mine.

When we broke apart, both gasping, I could see the same wonder reflected in Kit’s eyes. The same overwhelming sense of rightness.

“Felix,” he breathed against my lips. “Sweetheart. My mate.”

The tears came then, silent but fierce, spilling over his lashes and down his cheeks. I reached up to catch them with my thumbs, tasting salt when I kissed his cheek.

“Happy tears?” I asked.

“The best tears,” he confirmed.

His expression changed—wonder giving way to something else. Something… hungrier. His nostrils flared slightly, and his grip on my face tightened. “Fuck, Felix.” His voice had dropped to that gravelly tone. “Your scent…”

Before I could ask what he meant, Kit’s mouth was on my throat, lips and tongue moving against my skin with desperate hunger. He nuzzled into the crook of my neck, breathing me in like I was oxygen and he’d been drowning.

His tongue dragged across my pulse point, hot and wet and claiming, and my back arched off the rug involuntarily. He moved lower, mouth exploring every inch of exposed skin with single-minded devotion. Along my collarbone, down to the hollow of my throat, across the sensitive skin just above my heart.

“You taste even better now,” he groaned against my skin, the rumble of it seeping into my bones.

“What do I taste like?”

Kit lifted his head, sparkling eyes meeting mine as his tongue swept across my chest in one long, deliberate stroke. My skin burned for more, heat rushing to thicken my cock.

“Like the forest after rain, when I’m all alone, just me and the trees,” he murmured. “Like happiness. Like warm vanilla.” His lips curved in something too sharp to be called a smile. “Like mine.”

That growl reprogrammed something fundamental in my code.

“And now,” Kit continued, settling more of his weight on me. “I’m going to make sure you smell like me for the rest of your life.”

His mouth found my nipple without warning, sucking hard enough to short-circuit my nervous system. Then his teeth grazed the sensitive peak—not quite a bite but sharp enough to turn my spine into molten copper.

I screamed.

The inhuman sound that tore from my throat belonged to something wild.

It bounced off the wooden walls until I slammed my hand over my mouth.

Kit pulled back with a wolfish grin that was all predator, all satisfaction.

“Have you found something else for your list?” he asked.