*Maddy*
I didn’t mean to mark him. It was something inside me that overwhelmed all rational thought and momentarily blurred my ability to reason. Like some force had overpowered me completely and drove me to madness.
I’m panting as he holds me against the tile wall, hot water streaming over us and mist lifting from the dark stone floor. I look down, trying to rein in my ragged breath and thundering heartbeat as I watch glitter swirl into the drain.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper so softly I’m sure he can’t hear it over the spray of the water. But his mouth is trailing down my neck and over my shoulder, leaving hot kisses in his wake. I close my eyes, my heartbeat thumping madly in my ears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I don’t know what happened. Isaac, I–”
His hands grip my hips as he presses into me from behind, hard and fast. I yelp in surprise but the sound turns to a deep, cry of ecstasy that has my toes curling and head falling back. He holds me there, sheathed to the hilt, our bodies joined, and pants in my ear, “Do you know what you’ve done?”
I shake my head even though I know exactly what just happened. I marked him. I claimed him as a mate when I had no right to do so. I whimper as he pulls out halfway and thrusts into me over and over again until each press of his cock has that warm, tight tension rippling through my core and over my stomach and thighs. Is this a punishment? Because if so, I’d bite him over and over again without any remorse.
He presses his hands against the wall, and I reach up to grip his wrists for dear life as he absolutely ravishes me, like he has little control over himself right now. I lean my head back into the crook of his shoulder and beg him for more, and his hand comes around my throat, not tight enough to hurt, but firm enough that I’m forced to look up at him as I come undone around him.
“Maddy,” he rasps, running his thumb over my lower lip before leaning down to kiss me. “Oh, Maddy, what have you done to me?”
I want to shatter into pieces at his tone. There’s hurt there–pain, too. But something else I can’t make sense of, something rooted from deep longing and desperation. Something, I figure, that sounds a lot like love.
He holds me tight as he spills himself inside of me, his hand clasping one of my breasts. When he finally pulls out and turns me to face him, a smear of his blood covers his chest for the space of a breath before the water washes it away.
I don’t realize I’m crying until he caresses my face and wipes my tears away one by one. “Why are you crying? Did I hurt you?”
“I hurt you,” I whisper, but he shakes his head, his eyes softening to something kind and warm instead of the feral desire that had been there only moments ago.
“You didn’t hurt me. I’ve been through worse. I’ve been stabbed, Maddy. That was nothing.”
“Who stabbed you?” I exclaim, a little shocked.
“Ella,” he laughs, and now I’m even more shocked. “It was many years ago. I’m still not sure if it was an accident or not.”
“What? Never mind. I don’t think I want to know.” This turn in conversation isn’t easing the painful grip that primal urge to clamp down on his shoulder still has on my heart.
He tilts my chin to look up at him. “You marked me, didn’t you?”
“I don’t remember even thinking about doing it. I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry–”
He turns the water off and pulls away, stepping out of the shower and grabbing some nearby towels. He wraps me in one before tying a towel around his waist, his naked, wet body gleaming in the misty room. “Don’t apologize to me anymore.”
I swallow hard as I step out of the shower and watch him towel dry his hair. Goddess, he’s beautiful. Like something carved from stone, every detail of him drawn from perfection itself.
And he’s mine, at least for a few more hours. It’s not enough time.
My heart breaks with every passing second, but in the bedroom my spirits are lifted by a little snack and some champagne.
“Maddy,” he says, still only wearing a towel as he leans against the dresser, picking through a fruit platter. “Did you know you’re in heat?”
The piece of pastry I’d been lifting to my mouth falls from my fingers. “What did you just say?” I’d hallucinated, surely.
“You’re in heat right now,” he says again, eyeing me. I’m standing only a few feet from him dressed in a white silk robe that does nothing to cover my nakedness underneath.
“I am not.”
“Your wolf is back,” he says, matter-of-factly.
“It’s not.”
“So, you think you just blacked out and claimed me as your mate?”
“I–no. That’s not–”
“Your wolf is back,” he repeats, his eyes shining with what looks like pride. “Congratulations.”
I can’t do more than stare at him right now. “How do you know? And how would you know that I’m–that I’m in heat?” My cheeks go pink with a heated blush.
He stops picking at the fruit platter and straightens up, walking toward me in a predatory kind of way that makes me blush deeper and has chills of anticipation shooting down my spine. I take several steps backward, the back of my thighs eventually brushing against the foot of the bed. He doesn’t stop pursuing me until he’s only inches away. His chest trembles with a rasping breath as he reaches out to untie my robe. I don’t stop him.
He slowly slides the robe free of my shoulders, teasing me with his touch as the silk brushes over my breasts. “I can sense it. My wolf can sense it. I’ve never felt this way before, about anyone,” he says low in his throat, every word clipped and deliberately clear. “I lost control in the shower,” he admits. “Now I want to take my time.”
My breath catches in my throat as his mouth tilts over mine.
“I’m going to mark you, Maddy,” he says against my lips, the words whispering over my skin. “Because if I don’t, I may lose control again. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine. Mate.”
He backs me onto the bed, and I’m lying on my back. He rises over me, nudging my knees apart to give him access to what he most desires. I’m throbbing for him, desperate for his touch in any way he wants to give to me.
Mate. The word rings through my head and further blurs my senses. Could we really be mates? Is this what the feeling is deep inside me?
I arch my hips to meet him as he slides the head of his cock over my entrance, teasing me. Testing me. Trying to get me to beg.
My arms are limp, my hands resting on the pillow above my head. The light of the chandelier turns Isaac’s body gold as he slowly slides into me with such tenderness I could cry.
I am crying, I realize, as a tear slides down my temple and into my hair. My lips part, but the only sounds are soft moans as he picks up the pace, grinding his hips into mine. I arch into his touch, meeting him thrust for thrust, until my body is tingling all over, and a rapid warmth rushes through my stomach and thighs.
‘I love you.’ I say it in my head, unable to say the words aloud. I can’t do it. Not when the sky outside is already turning a pale purple, and the stars are beginning to fade. How long do we have? Hours? Minutes?
“Come for me,” he rasps against my neck as he strains, every muscle in his body flexing.
I blink several times to rid my eyes of the tears blurring my vision and take his face between my hands, pressing my nose against his. His cock slides deeper into me, parting and stretching to the point of pain, and the tension in my body breaks free, washing me in tingles of pure pleasure.
“Isaac,” I breathe, barely able to keep my eyes open. “Oh, Goddess, I–I—” I suck in my breath and hiss, arching my back as his teeth graze just above my left breast. He bites down slowly but hard enough to draw blood directly over my heart.
And suddenly the room spins, the world tilting on its axis, and I’m thrust through what feels like time and space itself. That long lost, primal magic I’d been born with, blessed with, ignites once more.
I see him for who he is for the first time. I feel it deep in my bones, so deep it touches my soul, and I feel that divinely made silver thread stitch across my heart, connecting me to his.
“We are,” I whisper, tears in my eyes as he collapses to the side of me, panting. “Isaac, this whole time. Did you know this whole time?”
He doesn’t answer. He only pulls me to his chest, and we lie there tangled in the sheets. I listen to his heart beat slow to a gentle thump, thump, thump.
“The moment I saw you at my ball three years ago, I knew. I felt it then, but I didn’t know what it meant, or if it meant anything for you. I thought maybe–maybe you wouldn’t be able to feel the bond because of what I am, but I knew, Maddy. And I looked for you until it became clear I’d never have a chance to know you. And then I ignored it, and lied to you, and tried to convince myself that what I felt wasn’t real, but when you marked me I knew for sure. I knew you felt it. And I’m so sorry we don’t have more time.”
* * *
Isaac watches me from the far side of the room as I sit in bed, still naked, finishing off some of the chocolates that the maids had left behind when they decorated our room for our wedding night.
He slowly snaps his leather vest into place over his chest and begins to put on the matching arm guards as he keeps his eyes on me.
“What?” I ask, a little tartly.
“I have one rule,” he says, and for a moment my stomach sinks at the thought of whatever he’s about to say. We’ve already discussed what just happened between us. My chest still aches from his mark. My heart is threatening to crack at the thought of him leaving in a few moments. But, we said no goodbyes. No formal ones. Who knows, we agreed, what’s going to happen next? The mate bond came as a surprise to both of us, especially since Isaac believed for a long time he wouldn’t have a mate. Yet, here I am, sitting naked eating chocolate bonbons in his bed.
That has to count for something, right?
“Oh?” I tease, popping another chocolate into my mouth.
“No eating in bed.”
I frown at him as he gives me a little smile. “Why not?”
“Crumbs in the sheets,” he shrugs. “We’re not entirely animals now, are we?”
“I like to eat in bed,” I argue. “I prefer it, actually. And I am the Luna now, aren’t I?”
“Are you pulling rank with me already, my dear wife?” Sarcasm laces each word, but I grin at him, unable to stop myself.
“I’ll eat in bed while you’re gone. You’ll never know.”
He walks toward me and leans over the bed, caging me in and pressing a kiss to my forehead. “You don’t care about rules, do you?”
“No,” I admit, closing my eyes and breathing deeply, lavishing his scent. “I need to get dressed now.”
It’s only 4:00 in the morning, but outside the sanctuary of our bedroom, the sounds of activity are abundant. Everyone is awake, everyone is moving, everyone is readying to see Isaac, Cassian, Maddox, and the others off to battle.
My throat tightens at the thought. Isaac notices when I go rigid, trying to stifle the sob threatening to leave my lips. He rests his forehead against mine and says, “No more goodbyes, not today, not ever.”
“Not ever.”
Because I’ll see you again in the next life.
That had been his promise, and I knew he meant to keep it.
My promise was that I wouldn’t follow him into death trying to save his life.
And that’s not a promise I think I can keep.