Page 91

The smugness blooms through the bond with horrifying speed.

I groan. “Oh no.”

Mate praises slick.

“I did not praise it. I described a function.”

Mate is healed by my body and pleased.

“Scientific observation.”

Pleased.

I’m too tired to fight him properly, and honestly, he’s not wrong. The ache that should be growing sharper after what we just did is settling instead, fading into a heavy, pleasant soreness.

My body feels stretched, used, and cared for all at once. I don’t know what to do with that, so I keep my face pressed to his chest and hope he accepts hiding as a medical necessity.

He does not. His clawless fingers slide into my hair, gentle but firm, and tilt my head up. The skull looks down at me, ancient and terrible and far too satisfied. No hiding.

I sigh, but the sound comes out soft. “Fine. Yes. I’m pleased.”

The bond brightens.

Ridiculous creature.

My ridiculous creature.

Slowly, carefully, he lifts me off him. Even softened, the withdrawal drags a hiss through my teeth, and distress flashes through him so fast that I press both hands to his chest at once.

“I’m okay,” I say, breathless. “Still okay. Just… feelin’ everythin’.”

Then he gathers me onto his chest, away from the part of him withdrawing back behind that protective seam. I feel his cock slip fully from sight beneath fur and slick-wet skin, hidden again by the slit that slowly closes as his body settles.

I watch it because apparently curiosity survives even exhaustion. Onyx notices, because of course he does.

Learning continues? he asks, amused and warm.

My face heats. “I’m a ranger. Observational skills are part of the job.”

You observe with your mouth.

I bite his chest. “I hate you.”

No.

“No,” I admit, closing my eyes against his chest and soothing the spot where I bit him. “I don’t.”

His arm tightens around me, and the den quiets. His true body stays beneath mine, furred legs warm against my side, slate chest steady under my cheek, skull lowered protectively over my head.

The lantern dims to a soft blue that paints the roots above us in calm light. I feel the bond settling too, no longer sharp with need, but full of afterglow and the strange tenderness of having crossed one more impossible bridge together.

I should probably be overwhelmed. I mean, I am, but there’s no panic waiting under it this time. Not even when I remember the size of him, the hidden seam, the slick, the way his body changed and opened under my hand.

My Little Ember, he sends, softer now. My brave, foolish, hungry mate.

I snort, eyes closed. “One of those was unnecessary.”

Foolish?