LOGINBrie
At first, I feel nothing but his mouth on mine. He inhales, but otherwise, is still as stone. The tension between us is so thick I could drown in it, and I wouldn’t bother saving myself by coming up for air.
I pull away just a touch–just enough to take a shuddering breath. Maybe this was a mistake. I’m not sure what I was thinking kissing him back, but… here I am, wondering when he’s going to start laughing at me.
Logan’s nose brushes mine as he closes his eyes. His hands drift to my waist, and my eyes flutter closed as his grip tightens. He takes a step toward me, then another, until I’m forced back, until my shoulders hit the wall. Time moves in slow motion as his lips brush the corner of my mouth, and he groans.
Logan presses me to the wall and kisses me hard enough to steal my breath away. I rise on my toes to meet him, my lips parting as I try to suck in another breath, but his
LexaKaleb’s hand rests on my lower back as the guards move from the gate to the Glade. The small door cut within the metal of the ancient gate that towers so high I have to crane my neck to look up at the top of the wall gives way, and instead of constant shuffle, thunder of hammers and whining of saws, the Glade is… silent. I’m used to people looking at me now–stopping what they’re doing to turn in my direction, to follow me with their eyes. I’m not prepared for the bows. The bobbing of heads. The quiet, suffocating awe. Kaleb’s fingers curl into a fist at the base of my spine, but I move with him like this is just another day, another day we’ll spend in the sparring ring together when things were easy between us. When none of this had happened yet. People gather in doorways or peek through open windows. Children stop their games to watch us pass. I look everyone in the eyes, questioning the curious glances–the uncertainty. But they keep bowing. To Kaleb, of course. Tension ris
ArisMaddy and Isaac’s home in Maatua is shockingly cozy in comparison to the castles and palaces each side of the family calls home. Myself included, seeing as I still haunt the ancestral, gloomy castle older than the dawn of time itself in Veiled Valley. Here, in Maatua, it’s nothing but wide, open skies and the softest turquoise water, with sand like butter, so light it falls like snow through my fingers while I watch the tide roll in. A dark-haired, violet eyed little girl kneels a few feet from the tide line, dutifully dusting sand from a massive clam shell Kieran gave her, while my three-year-old nephew is a few yards away, squealing against the gentle waves lapping his toes while he hunts for more shells. I’m not sure how long I’ve been out here with them–Skye, Kieran, and Fallon, who’s currently seated in my lap, double chins and chubby cheeks rosy as she watches the bigger kids play. An hour, maybe? Maybe more? The private beach stretches as far as the eye can see. No one
Lexa“Now what?”Kaleb moves in, reaching for me. I close my eyes as his fingertips graze my cheekbone, and I don’t fight it when my body instinctively leans into his touch. It’s short lived. His thumb grazes my cheek like he’s counting the freckles before he pulls away, and then I’m alone, in a kitchen so dated yet opulent, hungry and confused. I find a little box of cookies, and that’s going to have to be enough unless Silas returned here with his entire staff, but… I think we’re the only two beings in the house as it stands. I should probably gather the gown in that stairwell, but I have no idea where the stairwell is… but I’m sure, based on the raised voices I heard moments ago, that Silas is already well aware of the situation now. He finds me after twenty minutes. I’m still in the kitchen with my knees tucked to my chest perched on a bench beneath a wide window letting in light from his back garden. He glances at the empty box of cookies before moving toward the stove, which
KalebLexa isn’t in bed, and I haven’t slept this long and this hard in a very long time. Those are the first thoughts that come to mind when I squint into the sunlight pouring through the windows on the far side of the room, alerting me that a new day has dawned and all wolfish abilities are now gone again, stripped away. I draw my hand across the sheets, settling it against my chest instead, willing myself to move from a bed that smells like us knowing damn well what happened last night is the beginning of the end. I find Lexa within seconds, her body casting a long shadow over the foyer as she speaks in low tones to Silas, who shouldn’t be here. Both turn when I come into view, lumbering down the stairs while actively buttoning a shirt I found in the armoire in the room I’ve always used when I stay, which is rare. Silas wastes no time. “A conversation needs to be had,” he states, stepping past Lexa into the light of the foyer. I hold out my hand at the base of the stairs, but L
KalebI’m fucked. My chest aches as I put distance between me and Lexa, walking steadily through Pantharas toward the castle, resisting the urge to shift. Shift, for what would be the first time in years. My body sizzles with fragments of desire left untouched. This is a damning night, to say the absolute least. My hair is slightly damp with sweat, tucked in soft curls around my fingers as I run my hand through it, trying to force my mind back to reality, but it’s currently trapped between my mates legs. It’s the mate bond. There’s no other explanation for this need to claim and consume her, bending her to my will, and she wants me to. Lexa, who has never knelt for any man, any king, knelt for me. Lexa, who could kill a man with her bare hands, begged me to fuck her, to take her as mine, and I regret not doing it then and there, leaving my mark on her skin with my cock buried deep, unburdened, not thinking of the future we won’t have and the risk of a child–a beast like me–taking he
LexaKaleb exhales sharply, shuddering, as he draws his fingers out of my pussy. They glisten, and he closes his eyes, pressing them back in slowly, tenderly, his thumb drawing a lazy, achingly slow circle over my clit. I’m torn between the sharp ache of dizzying pleasure simmering in my belly and the defeated, almost lost look on his face, yet I still arch into the touch, whimpering his name, tears of want beginning to shimmer along my lower lashes as he draws a sharp moan from my lips. “I can’t take it,” I plead, on the verge of sobbing. “Kaleb, I need you. I want you inside me. Please–I’ll do anything. Goddess, I’ll do anything–” Another sharp moan echoes against the stone walls of the stairwell when he curls his fingers inside of me. I throw my head back, my neck bent, and while I cry out, he closes his mouth against the base of my neck, his teeth grazing my skin. The fine threads of our bond shiver, sending a rush of heat fanning over my skin, settling deep in my belly. “You’r







