Page 127 of The Hunter

Closing her eyes, Lacey pressed her forehead to his headcrest. Her throat was tight, making her words thick when she spoke. “Is this why you pulled away from me?”

Telok caught Lacey by her hips and eased her back on the bedding. She opened her eyes as he leaned his upper body over her, arms braced on either side of her, hair falling forward to hang around his face. Eyes intent upon hers, he stroked her hair back from her face. “Yes. I felt the strand that tethers us. Felt its pull growing stronger and stronger. Every time I saw you”—he pressed a hand to his chest—“my hearts overflowed.”

Lacey smiled at him even as her eyes stung with tears.

Telok caressed the shell of her ear. “And that made me more afraid than any beast or vrix ever could. Because if you made me feel so much before we had even mated…I knew the agony would be eightfold more than any I have suffered were our tether to be cut. So I fled from you, and I tried to deny this bond.”

Mandibles rising and eyes softening, he wiped away a tear that had fallen from the corner of her eye. “But you are my Lacey. My bold, stubborn, beautiful female. My heartsthread. You haunted my thoughts, my hearts, and you would not stay away, just as I could not stay away from you.”

“You stalked me and watched me like a horny pervert,” she said with a chuckle.

“You have always been mine to gaze upon.”

Smirking, Lacey reached up and trailed a finger down between his eyes and nose slits to the center of his hard mouth. “And I thought you ran away from me because I stank.”

With a growl, Telok gently knocked aside her arm and dropped his face to her neck, lightly scraping his mouth, with its faux fangs, against her skin, tickling her. She laughed, delving her fingers into his hair.

And then he drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a loud, rumbling purr before his tongue slipped out to lick the bitemark on her shoulder. A shiver swept through her as the desire smoldering in her core rekindled, making her pussy clench and her nipples harden.

“I ran because your scent makes me want, kir’ani vi’jatai. Because I cannot resist.”

Lacey nuzzled the side of his face. “I know that didn’t start as an endearment. Why do you still call me little thorn?”

“Because even when I do not see you, I feel you. Like a thorn in my hide…but one I cannot bear to pluck. I do not care if it is joy or pain, I want to feel you always.”

Her breath caught, and her heart quickened as a profound emotion filled her, staggering in its intensity while also making her feel so light she could simply float away.

Love.

How could it be anything else?

Brimming with happiness, she grinned and kissed his headcrest. “I can’t tell if I should be offended or not, because that’s actually very sweet.”

Telok chittered and raised his head to look down at her. “So am I sweet, or a jerk?”

Lacey chuckled. “Well, right now, you’re being a sweet jerk.”

CHAPTER 29

As Telok stared down at his mate, his chest filled with pride, joy, and desire, with gratitude and tranquility. Her hair was spread around her head, the dim orange light making it look like fiery threads ran through it. Her green eyes were half-lidded, still bearing a hint of sleepiness, but they gleamed with happiness as bright as the sun. And her lips were curved in an affectionate smile just for him.

She looked so soft and warm, so content. So beautiful. Seeing her like this, being with her like this, made him forget the anguish of his past and the potential pain of the future. There was only now. The two of them, alive, their bound hearts beating for one another.

Tomorrow he would worry about the looming threat of the kurghests. But tonight… Tonight nothing mattered but her.

But us.

He wanted to lose himself in his mate.

Telok drew in her scent. Grass and goldcrests warmed by the sun, fragranced with crisp, floral notes of cleanleaf. But there was something headier beneath those. Her arousal. He’d smelled it when he’d drawn her into his arms, and it had only strengthened in the time since, blanketing his mind like mist settling over the jungle floor and rousing his need for her.

There was also a hint of his own scent—of his seed.

It wasn’t nearly strong enough for his liking, but he could remedy that.

His slit parted against the press of his stem, which was eager to plunge back into the hot depths of her body.

“Ah, my Lacey.” Telok stroked the back of a claw down her cheek. “Let us learn what clever words you will share when this sweet jerk is buried in your slit.”