The camp finally settles into uneasy sleep. Hours after the battle, after treating the wounded and posting extra guards. But I can't sleep.
I stand near the cave entrance. A single candle flickers behind me, casting shadows across the stone walls. Energy still thrums through my body. My muscles are tense. My heart beats steady but fast.
I'm exhilarated.
Riven watches me from where he sits on our furs. A slight smile plays across his lips.
"You're still riding the high," he observes quietly.
I turn to face him. My eyes feel bright. "I made the right call today. And everyone saw it."
Riven stands and crosses to me. "You proved yourself today."
"I didn't hesitate." The words pour out of me. "When it mattered, when I had to choose between supplies and lives, I knew exactly what to do." Pride fills my voice. "That's what Sorin saw in me. That’s what you've been trying to show me."
"You're finally seeing it yourself," Riven says.
"I'm becoming something more than a huntress." I meet his eyes. "Something stronger."
The energy between us shifts. The battle adrenaline transforms into something else entirely. Something hotter. More immediate.
I close the distance between us. Reach up. Cup his face with my hand.
"I want to celebrate this," I say. My voice drops low. "With you."
Riven's response is immediate. He pulls me close. His mouth finds mine with fierce certainty. The kiss is electric. Charged with the day's triumph and the mate bond singing between us.
Heat floods through me. The same energy that carried me through battle now focuses entirely on him.
"You're magnificent," he says against my lips. "Watching you own your power today—"
"Show me," I demand. Already pulling him toward our furs. "Show me how you see me."
He comes willingly. His hands find my waist. Pull me closer still.
"I see strength," he murmurs against my neck. "I see a leader who makes impossible choices and stands by them."
His words ignite something in me. I pull at his shirt. Need to feel his skin against mine.
"Don’t tell me. Show me," I growl, my voice thick with hunger, my fingers digging into the rough, calloused skin of his palm.
The air between us crackles, thick with the scent of musk and need. His nostrils flare, his golden eyes burning like embers in the dark, pupils blown wide with the kind of hunger that makes my thighs clench.
He doesn’t resist—no, the beast in him wants this. Wants me. His massive frame towers over me, all corded muscle and primal strength, but I see the way his chest heaves, the way his fingers twitch like he’s barely holding back from tearing into me. Good. I want him to lose control.
The furs give beneath us as I pull him down, his weight pressing me into the softness, his body a furnace against mine. His hands—rough, possessive—slide up my sides, fingers splaying over my ribs before curling under the hem of my top.
A single, sharp tug, and the fabric gives way, baring me to him. His breath hitches, a low, guttural sound rumbling in his chest as his gaze rakes over me, devouring every inch like I’m a feast laid out just for him.
His mouth crashes against mine, teeth scraping, tongue plunging deep in a claiming kiss that leaves me dizzy. I arch into him, my nails raking down his back, leaving red trails in their wake. He growls against my lips, the vibration sending a shudder straight to my core.
His hands don’t waste time—they roam, kneading, squeezing, fingers circling my peaks until they’re stiff and aching for his mouth.
He obliges, his lips sealing around one, tongue flicking in cruel, teasing strokes that make me whimper. His other hand slides lower, fingers tracing the dip of my waist, the curve of my hip, before slipping between my thighs.
I’m already slick, already dripping, and the moment his fingers find my heat, I buck against his hand. He chuckles, the sound dark and filthy, as he drags a single finger through my folds, slow, taunting.
"Fuck—" I hiss, my hips jerking, but he holds me down with his free hand, pinning me like prey.
"You want it?" he murmurs, his voice rough as gravel. "Then take it."
Two fingers sink into me without warning, curling just right, and I gasp, my back bowing off the furs. He pumps them deep, his thumb circling that swollen, desperate bud until my vision whites out. I’m panting, writhing, my fingers clawing at his shoulders as pleasure coils tighter, tighter—
But he stops. Pulls away. Leaves me empty.
I snarl, flipping us in one furious motion, straddling his hips with a dominance that makes his eyes flash with challenge.
"My turn," I breathe, grinding down against the thick, rigid length straining beneath me. His jaw clenches, a vein in his neck throbbing as I rock against him, coating him in my arousal.
I don’t wait. Don’t give him the chance to take control again.
I sink onto him in one smooth, devastating glide, my walls stretching, clenching, as he fills me to the hilt. His groan is raw, animalistic, his hands flying to my hips, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise.
I ride him like I was born for it, rolling my hips in slow, filthy circles that drag every inch of him against my sweetest spots. His grip tightens, his thrusts meeting mine, driving deeper, harder, until the furs beneath us are a mess of sweat and tangled limbs.
The air is thick with the sounds of skin slapping, my breathless moans, his ragged growls. Pleasure builds, hot and relentless, coiling low in my belly until I’m trembling, my thighs shaking, my nails raking down his chest.
"Come for me," he growls, his voice rough with command.
And I do—shattering around him with a scream, my body clamping down as waves of ecstasy crash over me. He follows with a snarl, his release spilling deep inside me, his teeth sinking into my shoulder in a claiming bite that sends another pulse of pleasure through my spent body.
We collapse together, breathless, sticky, ruined.
And when his tongue drags over the mark he left, I know—this isn’t over.
Not even close.