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Brow pinched, her gasps burrowing into the base of his spine, Luna tossed her hair aside and presented her throat. But he had something else in mind.

Trailing kisses up that perfect column, he whispered into her ear, “I would have you like you first had me.”

Another roll and she was on her back as he pumped into her welcoming sheath. He hooked her knees over his arms, scooped both hands beneath her, and showered attention on one hardened peak then the other, scraping his fangs to a spot just to the left of her breastbone beneath the scars.

Only then did he notice that the wounds she’d inflicted on herself were completely healed. That he had no choice but to bite her on his own and give them what they both wanted.

And fuck, how he wanted.

Emotion swept over him when he nuzzled her there—Luna’s.

A plea for him to unleash his ferocity upon her, to better their chances. Her longing for the marks to be as permanent as his were, as her scars were. Her secret sorrow that it might not be possible.

“Then I will remake them,” he rumbled against her soft sublimity. “Day after day. Night after night. For the rest of forever.”

“Please,” she begged, and he was lost.

Brand struck like an angry viper, nothing gentle about the claiming as his fangs sank in. Luna bowed off the bed on a silent scream. Their frenzied kiss on Argoph’s balcony, the small taste he had of her earlier…

They were nothing in comparison to this.

Her essence flooded his mouth and he gulped it down, the taste of coppered strawberries hitting just before a crushing wave of power. Instead of buckling under the weight of it, his own rose up to meet it head on. As their deepest parts curled around and around one another, Brand was stronger than he’d ever been.

Luna wrapped her arms around his head, holding him there as she babbled lyrical nonsense, her pleasure and his rolling back and forth in an infinite loop between them.

Letting go at long last, Brand settled back on his haunches and hauled her with him, mercilessly pounding up into her. “Do you feel that, little moon, how perfect it is?”

“Yes,” she panted. “Yes.”

He groaned when she grasped his horns, arms straining as her thighs flexed and she met his advances with her own. As her breaths stuttered and mingled with his.

“Exquisite creature.” Brand flattened one hand against her spine, following its curving path to grip her nape, and tangled his fingers in her wild mass of hair. Held her closer. Fucked her harder. “Mine.”

Luna whimpered, pressing her forehead to his. “Mine.”

A kiss and their gazes met, his future staring back at him like an endless, azure sky. Limitless. Fathomless.

They had the same thought at the same second. Both of them surged forward, sinking their fangs into the spot where neck met shoulder. It was impossible to discern whether the sounds were his or hers, whose lungs were heaving, which body was in control.

In that suspended moment, Brand and Luna were more one being than they’d ever been.

He saw through her swirling eyes. Tasted through her mouth. Salt and pine attacked his senses. The low gravel of his voice was music to his ears.

Weeping, fucking moons.

Every time they joined it was an out of body experience. Absolutely absurd and equally as addictive. He would never get enough of her.

Luna went taut and they parted, gasping in tandem, her core clamping down around his straining cock as she arched back and froze. His fingers worked faster over her clit, hips thrusting harder to make up for her stillness, even as she pulled him over that intangible edge with her.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Every time, it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, surpassing the last. “That’s it, Luna. Come apart for me. Take me with you.”

“Brand.”

At the sound of his name on her lips, all-consuming ecstasy coalesced at the base of his spine, his sack pulling up tight. With a wracking shudder, they broke, his essence spilling into her as she twitched and trembled between smothered cries.

“I love you,” he murmured, and she melted into him. Brand smoothed her hair, raining kisses on her shoulder, her temple, her cheek. “Above all else, no matter what happens tomorrow, know that I love you, Lunara.”

Her fervent response came through in the bond, her hand landing on his jaw as she sighed. Brand laid them down and her power swelled, all of the mess they’d made lifting away before the blankets settled over their bodies.