Mated to the Warrior Beast

Skhal’s expression reminded Jayah of a fish who’d been smacked with a rock to stun it senseless. Her stomach went cold as her mate blinked, then blinked again.

There was a frozen, breathless moment when she feared he might draw away from her and her heart screamed in protest. Without thought, she tightened her grip on his shoulders, clinging, pulling him nearer.

But he didn’t draw away… he began to talk.

“I couldn’t have mated before, Jayah. If I’d taken another female the bond would have formed between us and if she died, or I did, I would never have been able to come to you… our people mate once, for life, Jayah. Always.”

“So do mine,” she whispered, still holding him as he trembled and for the first time she couldn’t tell if it was from desire or fear… or something worse. “But the act… the act doesn’t bond us unless the bond already exists. Anima… we can have sex with whomever… the bond… the bond is deeper. It’s more.”

He nodded, then his breath released in a rush.

Bracing on one arm so that the muscles bulged like rippled marble, he took her face in his other hand, his fingers curling to the back of her neck, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw.

“The bond—this bond between us—” he rasped, “you’ve never felt that… felt this, with anyone else?”

.....

“Never,” she whispered, gripping him. “Please, Skhal, you’re my mate, I would never—”

“Hush,” he whispered, dropping to take her mouth, his tongue delving, as he gripped her hair and tugged her head back.

Jayah surrendered, feeling the tension in him mingling with sheer desire. She whimpered as he pulled her head back, then kissed his way down, nipping at her chin, the soft skin under her jaw, then opening his mouth over her throat.

“Mine,” he growled, his teeth pressed against her skin, shuddering as he eased himself into her, cautious at first, then thrusting home when she cried out and arched to meet him. “Mine… you are mine, Jayah… only mine…”

He dropped to his elbows, both hands in her hair, the words tearing from his throat as they rocked together.

Jayah felt the slide of him inside with such a wave of tingling joy that she shuddered, a fizzing pleasure coursing through her veins until every inch of her skin hummed and pulsed with it. She slapped at his back as she pulled him closer, closer, always closer.

Skhal’s breath, hot and sweet, thundered on the skin of her throat, feeling like ice where it had been wet by his kisses. Her entire body responded to him, pulling, seeking…

She couldn’t breathe, only sucking at the air in short gasps between the frozen moments as her body came alive, and that fizzing in her blood began to twirl and… live.

Something inside her had come alive—a piece of her soul.

A call broke from him, humming in the air of the cave, fluttering against her skin and tugging at her heart. It called to that piece of her, tangled and elusive, but growing. A piece of her that no hand could touch, and yet his kiss, his voice, his body seemed to stroke like a gentle, tantalizing finger.

He groaned and shuddered, clearly struggling for control. Jayah might have soothed him, but she trembled, the pressure of pleasure within her building and she prayed, she prayed he wouldn’t stop.

He took her mouth and their tongues danced, but then he groaned again and simply hovered over her, their breaths mingling, his lips brushing hers with every thrust.

His fingers were so tight in her hair it should have hurt, but instead she felt only the heat coursing between them, the call of his blood, his soul, to hers.

And as her pleasure climbed, as she began to cry and call for him, that life within her gathered breath, twisting, twirling, spinning, throwing light and heat into her veins that pulsed through her with her hammering heartbeat.

Then, as Skhal gasped her name, his body shuddering, as he pleaded with her to follow him, as both of their bodies began to tense and climb that impossible wave, Jayah felt something so pure, so real, pour into her veins… shed by that piece of her soul that was suddenly thrust out of her chest as she broke apart.

She cried his name, her fingers digging into his shoulders as they both fell apart—but beyond the pleasure, beyond the joy, that piece of herself bled out of her and into him, their skins suddenly pulsing in time, their heartbeats in sync.

Jayah, mouth open in a silent scream, arched against him as her very soul seemed to leave her to embrace his.

Then she broke, her body shivering to an impossible release, her heart twisting, driving, rushing to return to her, as if her very existence had exploded, mingling with his, then came roaring back to her.

As Skhal collapsed over her, his warmth and weight a blanket of joy and safety, Jayah panted, blinking, waiting to make sure her heart still beat, that her life still lived.

He had… he had changed her.

Tears welled and she blinked them away.

Skhal, still panting, groaning, his body twitching with his release, still murmuring her name against her skin, must have scented the tears, because he jerked his head up suddenly, cupping her face.

“Jayah, my love, I hurt you? I’m so sorry—”

“No, no, silly man… no,” she smiled through the tears, pulling him against her and kissing his handsome cheek. “No… you are… you were beautiful. My heart… my heart is singing, Skhal. You’re mine. You’re truly mine. I am… I am undone. And it’s beautiful.”

He checked and double-checked, whispering love and reassurance to her. But she couldn’t stop smiling, and the tears passed quickly.

Though the joy… the joy didn’t pass at all. As they lay together, resting, watching, still learning, Jayah reached for him through the bond, awed to feel him even more deeply in her heart than he was in her body.

“You’re… impossible,” she whispered, then kissed his neck. “You are impossible, and you’re mine.”