Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
I gave myself entirely to him as his heart bled black and billowed with such hostile yearning. Tears pricked of love and loss as he towered over me, spread my legs so he kneeled between them, then planted his hands on either side of my thighs.
His gaze landed on my exposed flesh. Shadows swirled from his back, gathering around us, forming the bubble of midnight that was becoming so familiar. The silver ring around his smoky gaze glowed brighter, and with a strangled inhale, he bowed over me. “In all my lost memories and the ones I’ve remembered, I can say without a shred of doubt that I’ve never felt this way about anyone else.”
I froze as his lips pressed to my stomach.
Sensitivity darted through my blood, swirling right in my core.
“I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you.” He kissed my tender skin, his lips riding the waves of my shallow, quickening inhales. “Never needed anything as much as I need you. And that...” He nipped me before slipping off his knees and folding onto his belly, directly between my spread legs. “...means I could become lost to obsession.”
I couldn’t catch a breath as his nose skated over my belly, dragging down, down...down.
His tongue traced a long, wet, hot line, dipping dangerously close to the part of me that swelled and throbbed.
“It would be so easy to forget about everyone else,” he murmured. “To not care about anyone else. To only care about what I want. And what I want, Runa...” His mouth pressed against my centre. “Is you.”
My hands fisted in the wolf pelt as my chest came off the ground. I gasped and shook, trying to stay in this world when every moment with him threatened to steal me into another.
“I want you,” he breathed into my core. “Like this. At my mercy. Finally aware of how much I feel, how much I hurt and ache and crave.”
Waves of anger fed off him as his mouth captured every private piece of me. Rage at those keeping us apart, despair at my bind to Aktor, fury at not being able to keep me.
His tongue darted out, dipping inside me.
Lust swamped.
Need unfurled.
His hand landed between my breasts, branding me, controlling me. With strength that came from night and shadows, he pinned me onto my back and licked me.
Brazenly, possessively.
I cried out.
I tensed and melted, shuddered and froze.
A primal, gravelly noise vibrated in his chest as he licked me again. “You’re not going back to them, Runa.” His tongue dipped inside me, drawing another whimper from my throat. “Being apart from you sends me too far into the dark. I need your light, your heat, your life.” He nipped me, sending pinwheels of sparks through every bone. “I need you with me, so I stay mortal. So I don’t become the monster prowling inside me.”
His hand slipped between my legs.
I panted as he stroked me, his tongue and finger moving in a deviant dance. My skin glowed brighter, its golden hue bouncing off the shadows cocooning us. My mouth parted wide as he pressed a single finger inside me.
I lost myself.
I sank into the darkness with him.
I accepted the absolute truth that he was right. I’d never felt this way about anyone else. I knew I never would. It wasn’t from finding each other in this lifetime but the universe-deep knowledge that we, us, this, was fundamental.
I didn’t just love him.
I was because of him.
I needed him to exist—just like light needed night to function.
“I’m going to show you just how much we belong together.” His finger pressed deeper, his tongue lapping up every desire he wrung from me. “We aren’t opposites but mirroring refractions. I’m done fearing visions and beasts. I’m done allowing elements and lightning to control our fate.”
I moaned as he inserted a second finger, stretching me.
My eyes refused to open, my body heavy, wet, and begging.
My golden glow switched to the pearly luminescence that only appeared when I tapped fully into my power. Sunlight poured through me, drenching me in warmth and need. So, so much need.
Darro licked around where his fingers entered me, his tongue tasting me, dragging me deeper into a corrupted world of—
“Selfishness,” Quelis hissed. “A world so sickeningly selfish.”
I flinched at the trespass.
I squeezed my eyes closed and focused on the heartlink. I poured trust and lust into the male between my legs and—
“The wolves might have given up. Rivoza and Vetak too, but we won’t stop so easily. It’s too late to save you. But...we have to try for the others. For all those you condemn to death with your selfish choices.”
A fireball blew through my head, delivering a horrifying vision.
I walked on the bottom of the dried-up seas.
Every droplet had evaporated from my fires.
Every life was incinerated.
Colossal skeletons dotted the desiccated oceans.