Page 58 of Tell Them That I’m Coming

I lose myself in the sensation, wishing it could last forever.

But it doesn’t, despite my pleas to the gods above, and when we finally come apart—my heart stuttering in my chest the moment I start to climax around him until I’m sure it’s stopped beating at all—it’s not really apart, is it? He stays with me, forehead to mine, hands steady, grounding, as though he intends to anchor me to this moment for all eternity. As I cry his name into his mouth as my body bucks and pleasure washes over, then when he buries himself deeply inside of him as he finds his own release… he wants to claim me.

And, without either of us meaning to, that’s exactly what he does.

I already told myself that, in his way, Rafe gave me his own version of the mate’s promise. From the moment I recognized him as mine and subconsciously decided I would keep him, in my thoughts, in my actions, I made my mate’s promise back to him.

In the throes, as Thane empties his seed inside of me, I couldn’t guard my essence if I had a sword to my throat, warning me against sharing everything that I’ve ever been and ever will be with this male. I gave it to him freely, never expecting that he’d instinctively return it.

He didn’t just fill me with his cock and his seed. He gave me everything and, in doing so, finalized our mate bond.

Can he tell? Did he feel it? He doesn’t say anything, and I decide that that’s a ‘tomorrow’ conversation. For now, I feel the loss of his body as he rolls to the side, tugging my naked form on top of him. He slaps beside him, grabbing for his discarded cloak. Once he snags it, he spreads it out over my naked rear, covering us both up with it.

Only then does he slip his hands beneath the fabric, wrapping his arms around me, holding me close as though he can’t bare to let me go.

“You have my heart, Alana of Sombra,” he whispers into the night.

I snuggle closer, echoing a line from the mating vow. “You have my everything.”

For as long as I can give it to him, that is.

Thane falls asleep first. Considering he sleeps rarely, constantly on alert for threats, I’m pretty proud of myself. Having me close, making me his… for the first time since we met, he relaxes, snoring long before the endorphins and the sensations wear off for this newly mated to fall asleep.

I don’t mind. I check on Binx with our soulbond, assuring us both I still have one with my ungez, and I was right. He ate enough dried meat to have him dozy, though he promises that he’ll keep one glowing eye open for threats while I curl up with my mate.

My mate…

Eventually, though, the exhilaration that came from bonding to Thane fades, replaced by a fullness somewhere other than my cunt. It’s my brain, and I’m too boneless to understand it at first.

Until, right before I drift off to a well-deserved sleep myself, a vivid memory pops into my head, almost like the visions on the screens in Mom’s home world. In the afterglow of being mated to Thane, I try to push it out. I’d heard Mom talk about the essence exchange she had with Dad being like something she called a ‘download’. Everything that’s Thane is suddenly in my head, but I’m not ready to sift through it yet. I’ll have a lifetime to learn about him, and even longer to avoid seeing things that I don’t want to—like who taught him how to deflower an unmated female like that—but for now, I’m ready to snuggle up close to him and dream…

But the memory isn’t a dream. It’s real, and the part of me that is Sombran recognizes it as a result of the essence exchange and our new finalized bond.

I gave him everything I am, he gave me his, and with his seed in my cunt, it’s his essence working its way through me now.

And, for a few terrible seconds, my heart seems to stop for a second time—for real as I don’t even breathe—as I realize that what I’m seeing it’sn’t just one of Thane’s memories, but a recent one. I let it replay, and though my heart starts beating again, it’s shattered into a thousand pieces before the first thump.

In the memory, I’m looking down at the hairless slaver, Finch. The second slaver is dragging the dead one by his poots while Finch looks up at me with fearful eyes.

“You already took the other shadow demon we captured. You could have let us keep the female. The queen would have paid handsomely for her.”

“If you think Celeste will pay when she can just steal the demoness in the prophecy, you are an addled slaver indeed, Finch.”

His face goes tight. “Like how you stole the male? We could’ve fetched a hundred gold coins at the Court.”

“Yes, but if I sent him as a gift to the queen, that’s more gold off my debt. And you let me because you know that I out-rank you. Now flee this woods before I decide to take your head like I took his.”

“Yes, my lie⁠—”

“Aht.”

Finch bows his head in supplication. “Aurex.”

“That’s better,” I hear myself saying in Thane’s voice. “Now be gone. I have a demoness to catch up to.”

A demoness… me.

Because he’s working with the slavers.