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"You cannot hide from me now, vra-ka shei," I murmured, my hand sliding from her throat to frame her jaw. "Every wall you build out of logic, I can feel it tremble. I can feel the truth behind it."

"It's cheating," Lyra whispered, her breath hitching as I shifted my weight, pulling her smaller body firmly against mine.

The moment our bare skin connected fully, a jolt of pure static snapped along my markings. The Alu'un-ka didn't just link our minds; it turned our flesh into a magnet. Her warmth seeped into my chest, and the phantom ache of the distance I had travelled to see Valra evaporated instantly. I wrapped my arms around her, burying my face in the curve of her neck, inhaling the sweet, heady scent of the jasmine mist and the deep, heavy musk of my own seed still coating her.

As I held her, the bond thrummed, a localised pressure that began to heavy my blood. My length, already thick and resting against her thigh, hardened in a single, demanding pulse. I felt her reaction to it immediately through the tether—a sudden, sharp spike of arousal that made her core clench, sending a wave of slick heat between her legs.

She wanted me again. The realisation made the beast in my marrow roar with satisfaction.

"Kaelen..." she gasped softly, her fingers curling into the muscles of my back. She tried to shift her hips, trying to accommodate the massive bar of iron pressing against her, but a sharp, pained whimper caught in her throat. Her body was too spent, her tissues too swollen from the initial stretching of the night.

"Stay still," I growled softly, my hands instantly pinning her hips to keep her from agitating the soreness. "You are too tender, Ly-ra. Your human flesh cannot take another drive so soon, no matter how much your mind begs for it."

"But I want to feel you," she panted, her eyes dark, blown out with a fierce, stubborn frustration that I adored. "I want the ache to stop."

"There are other ways to quiet the hunger," I whispered against her lips.

I slid down her body, my hands caressing the aching, bruised skin of her ribs and the soft swell of her belly. I used my tongue to soothe the dark marks I had left on her hips, tasting the salt of her skin, tracing a slow, deliberate path downward. When I parted her thighs, the scent of the grotto hit me like a physical blow.

The fluid of my release was still slowly seeping from her, mixing with the clear, dripping wetness of her own desire. It coated her petals, making them glisten in the dim light of the hut.

"Kaelen, wait—" She gasped, her hands reaching down to grasp my hair as she tried to pull away, startled by the intense vulnerability of the position.

"No."

I didn't let her move. Instinct took over. My tail slid up from the furs, thick and muscular, coiling with careful, deliberate precision around her neck. I didn't constrict it to choke her—just enough to apply a heavy, grounding pressure against her pulse point, a sensory dominance that forced her head back into the furs and locked her in place so she wouldn't strain her aching muscles. The pressure sent a spike of pure, submissive pleasure straight through the bond, her mind fracturing at the dual sensation of my tongue finding her sensitive spot and my tail holding her fast.

I drank her down. I used my tongue to slide deep inside her entrance, lapping up the mixture of my own glowing seed and her sweet, volatile nectar. I swirled against her sensitive, swollen walls, pushing her over the edge with a relentless, heavy friction.

She buckled against the bed. Her fingers clawed at the air, her breath caught in her throat under the weight of my tail as her climax built into a towering wave.

"Kaelen—please⁠—"

The contraction was violent. Her walls clamped down on my tongue, and with a sharp, breathless scream, her body completely fractured. A heavy, hot torrent of her release erupted from her, squirting directly across my jaw and face. I didn't pull back. I stayed buried in her, swallowing like I was dying of thirst, drinking in the very essence of her surrender until her body went entirely limp beneath me.

My tail unwrapped from her neck, sliding away as I dragged myself back up her body. I was covered in her, my face slick, my eyes glowing a feral, satisfied amber.

Lyra was completely spent, her chest heaving, her eyes unfocused as she stared up at the ceiling. The friction in her mind had finally gone quiet, replaced by a deep, vegetative peace.

"Rest now, little star," I murmured, leaning down to press a wet, messy kiss to her lips, letting her taste herself on my tongue.

She stilled at that—just for a heartbeat, her eyes cracking open to find mine, something soft and startled moving behind the exhaustion. She didn't ask about it. She didn't have to. I felt the warmth of it bloom through the bond instead, quiet and unmistakable, before her lashes fell shut again. "The sun is bleeding out. The Great Horn has blown, and I must make the announcement to the Nest soon. Sleep while you can."

The sun was bleeding its last crimson rays across the canopy, painting the upper terraces of the Nest in shades of rust and gold. The time had come. The low thrumming of the drums was already shaking the dust from the thatched roofs below—the gathering call. The tribe was waking from their post-Solstice torpor, hungry for the Alignment’s final ritual. They were hungry for their Master to name his prize.

I stood at the edge of the terrace, strapping the heavy leather bracers onto my forearms. My hands were steady, but the golden markings swirling across my skin were unruly, rippling with an erratic, brilliant light that betrayed the quiet storm in my chest.

Behind me, the hide door rustled.

Lyra stepped out into the dying light. She was still wrapped in the heavy local furs, her movements slightly stiff, a subtle testament to the depth of our joining. But her eyes—those sharp, brilliant blue spheres—were completely clear. She looked down at the gathering crowd below, her small jaw clenching as she braced herself for the trial ahead.

The bond between us flared, sending a sharp spike of her anxiety straight through my neural pathways.

Stay close, her mind whispered, a silent plea that struck my consciousness with the force of an order.

I didn't answer in words. I stepped to her side, my massive frame casting a long shadow over her. I reached out, my calloused fingers slipping into her much smaller hand, squeezing until the spike of her fear smoothed out into a steady, resonant thrum of trust.

"They are waiting," I murmured, my voice a dark, protective rumble. "Walk with me, Lyra. Let them see what the stars have given us."