by Kali Argent
Launching herself at Syrie, she tackled her sister to the mattress, hugging her with all the strength she could muster. Of course, the female grunted and cursed, doing her best to wrestle free, but Jael kept a tight hold on her as she hooked one arm around Osian’s neck and dragged him close.
“Damn it,” he sputtered, “this is not okay.”
“I love you guys. You know that, right?”
“I am not a guy,” Syrie spat.
Jael ignored her. “You’re going to love Earth.”
“What?” both siblings shouted in unison.
“Xi said you agreed to come back to Earth until I’m finished with my work. Thank you! You two are the best.”
“I didn’t,” Syrie denied, still trying to shove her away.
“Never going to happen,” Osian added, grunting when she swooped in to kiss his cheek. “Okay, okay, I might go.”
“You will go.” Standing in the open doorway, Xi folded his arms over his chest and glared at all of them. “You will go to Earth, and you won’t complain about it. Understood?”
Both siblings groaned, but Jael couldn’t stop smiling. She was also pleased to see Xi looking much healthier now. “Hello, big brother.”
Relaxing his threatening posture, he returned her smile and stepped deeper into the room. “Hello, princess. How are you feeling?”
“Amazing. I feel like I could climb a mountain.”
“No!” all three of them shouted at her together.
Jael rolled her eyes. “Calm yourselves. I’m not really going to climb a mountain. I’m just saying that if I wanted to, I think I could do it.” Releasing her two struggling siblings, she bounced off the bed and bounded into Xi’s arms. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“I will always protect you,” he responded solemnly.
“We all will.” Rising from the mattress, Syrie came over to join them, pressing against Jael’s back and winding her arms around them both.
Even Osian found his way into their huddle. “Always,” he promised. “If you want us to come to Earth with you, we will. We just want you to be happy.”
“I am happy.” She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve so much love and joy in her life, but she promised herself that she’d never take a single moment of it for granted. “Hey, I thought you said group hugs were unsanitary.”
“Shut up,” Syrie mumbled. “We’re having a moment.”
Yes, they were, but they were also crushing her, and considering she’d been in bed for four days, it wasn’t doing her bladder any favors. “Umm, can you let go of me now? I really need to pee.”
Laughing, they dispersed, releasing her before she accidentally embarrassed herself.
“I need to return to my patrol,” Syrie said. “I’m glad you’re okay. I’ll come visit you later.”
“Same here.” Osian cuffed the side of her head lightly. “Stay out of trouble, sister.”
“Xi,” she said when they were alone, “where’s Luke?”
It hadn’t escaped her notice that he was absent, but she’d assumed he had wanted to give her time alone with her siblings. He was always doing things like that for her. Still, it had been a while now, and she hadn’t expected him to display such self-restraint.
“He’s meeting with Vasere Snowden.”
Not what she’d expected. “Why?”
“You’ll have to ask him. He should be back any minute.”
Knowing he was okay and on his way to her, she relaxed and nodded. “I’m going to go clean up before he gets here.” Ancestors above, she could only imagine what she looked like. “If you see him, will you let him know I’m awake?”
“Of course. Go on, then. I’ll let your mate know he’s needed.”
Thanking him again, she hurried down the short hallway to her bathroom. Once she’d relieved herself and brushed her teeth, she showered quickly, taking extra care to thoroughly wash and condition her tangled hair.
Stepping out of the shower, she briefly considering magicking on a fresh set of clothes, but ultimately, decided against it. Hopefully, Luke would already be there waiting on her, and she had plans for her mate that didn’t require either of them to be dressed. Since Xi had mentioned speaking with Luke, she assumed he’d left her house. Just in case, though, she made a small concession and wrapped herself in a black, fluffy towel before leaving the bathroom.
She wasn’t sure if she should check her living room or her bedroom for him first, but as it turned out, she didn’t have to look at all. Leaning against the wall across from the bathroom door, Luke had his arms folded over his chest and an enormous grin on his lips.
“There she is.”
“Who?” Jael actually looked up and down the hall before she realized he was referring to her. “Oh. Right.”
Laughing, he scooped her up in his arms and squeezed her so tightly the breathed whooshed out of her lungs. She threw her arms around his neck, hugging him just as hard.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. “Stars, I’ve missed you so much.” All of a sudden, he tensed, his head snapped up, and he deposited her on the floor with a huff. “If you ever scare me like that again, I swear—”
“You’ll what?” she challenged.
Exhaling loudly, he rubbed both hands over his face before looking at her again. “I will lose my fucking mind, that’s what.” This was apparently the point where he realized she was wearing nothing but a towel, because he stopped talking, and a deep scowl pulled at his lips. “What the hell are you wearing?”
“A towel.” Obviously.
“What if your brothers had still been here?”
“Which is why I’m wearing a towel.”
“Damn it, Jael!”
His irrational anger was kind of cute. “Fine,” she said with a shrug. “I’ll go change.”
He caught her by the wrist when she started to walk away. “I didn’t say that.”
“Oh?” Turning into him, she lifted her arms to encircle his neck, letting the towel fall to the floor. “Did you have something else in mind?”
Luke groaned, his hands tracing the lines of her body. “What am I going to do with you?”
“I can think of a few things.”
“You are trouble.”
Stars, she loved that smile. She loved his humor, and his serious side. She loved it when he called her ‘beautiful’ and when he whispered her name. There were so many things about him to love. She’d tried to tell him on the ship, but he’d told her to wait, to tell him when she was better.
Well, she was better now.
Pushing up on her toes, she brushed their lips together and sighed. “I love you, Lucas Brighton.”
His nostrils flared, and the muscle in his jaw ticked as his gaze burned into hers. “Say it again.”
“I love you.”
“Again.”
She laughed but indulged him. “I. Love. You.”
Groaning, he grabbed her naked backside and hoisted her off the floor, spinning them around to anchor her against the wall with his massive body. “I love you, beautiful. I love you so much that I think I’m going crazy sometimes.”
Her heart hammered against her breastbone, and her pussy clenched as her core slicked with arousal. The embers of desire smolder in her belly, warming her from the inside out, and a violent shiver raced down her spine when he dipped his head to claim her mouth in a hard, possessive kiss.
Stars, she’d missed this. Miss the feel of his hands on her, the taste of his lips. There had been a moment on the ship when she’d feared she’d never experience those things again. That fear was gone now, but she still wanted him, needed the affirmation that she was still alive, and he was still hers.
“Luke,” she gasped, wrenching her mouth away from his. “Please. I need you.”
Shoving a hand between their tangled bodies, he slid two fingers along her crease and dipped inside her. “Ah, damn,” he groaned. “So wet for me already.”
Every nerve ending sizzled, making he
r delirious with lust. She didn’t need the foreplay, didn’t want his restraint. With a few mumbled words, she stripped him bare, moaning when his heavy erection slipped along her folds and brushed against her clit.
Without speaking, she fisted his thick cock and guided him to her entrance, flexing her thighs to pull him deep into her aching core.
“Fuck,” he moaned against the side of her neck, rocking his hips in slow, measured increments. “I wanted to go slow, take my time with you.”
“Don’t want slow.” Arching away from the wall, she thrust down on his rigid shaft, pulling a strangled growl from him. “Move, Luke. Please.”
“As you command.”
Locking his arms around her, he spun them around and marched the few feet to her bedroom door, kicking it open with his foot. Inside, he tumbled them onto the bed and rolled her beneath him, hooking an elbow behind her knee to spread her wide.
“Is this what you wanted?” He eased his hips back, then slammed them forward, driving in to the hilt in one, hard plunge.
“Yes!” Jael cried, bowing up from the bed as her inner walls strained around his invasion. “Fuck, yes. Please!”
His eyes burned with a feral light, and his fingers dug into her thigh as he began a fast, unrelenting pace. Their mouths crashed together in a tangle of lips, tongues, and teeth, and she bucked beneath him, desperate for anything he would give her. Every inward stroke stretched her, filled her completely, and pushed her closer to the brink.
It wasn’t sweet and romantic. It wasn’t slow and tender.
No, their coupling was frenzied and primal, beautiful in its chaotic passion, and she craved every incredible moment of it.
When her release slammed into her, stealing her breath and sizzling her nerve endings, everything else faded except for her mate. In that moment, nothing else existed. Nothing else mattered. He surrounded her, filled her, consumed every part of her.
Moaning and writhing, she called his name, holding tight to his shoulders to anchor herself when she careened over the edge and shattered.
His shouted cry followed soon after, and his rhythm faltered as he pumped through his own climax, spilling himself inside her.
Collapsing onto the mattress, he rolled to his side, gathering her into his arms and bringing her with him. Neither of them spoke for a long time, content to hold each other while the warm breeze from the open window dried the perspiration from their skin.
“Don’t fall asleep on me,” Luke murmured long minutes later. “We need to clean up and get dressed.”
“Huh?” Her brain was still fuzzy, and while she understood the words, they didn’t make much sense. “Why?”
“You are mine.” He punctuated each word with a kiss to her lips. “I’m never letting you go, Jael, and I don’t want to wait another minute to make it official.”
“Wait.” The haze of lust vanished instantly, and she levered herself up on her elbow to stare down at him. “You want to bond with me right now? Right this second?”
“I’ve already talked to Vasere Snowden.” He smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “He’s waiting for us at the Jade Temple, so we should probably hurry.” Capturing her hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed each finger, watching her through half-lidded eyes. “What do you say, beautiful? Will you be mine forever?”
“By the ancestors, Luke! Are you serious?” From the moment he’d stepped out onto his front porch and fainted, she’d dreamed of this moment. In her mind, he was already hers, and she his, but to bond with him in the way of her people was a blessing she never thought she’d receive. “Yes! Oh, neelum, yes!”
It took another few minutes for him to finally stop kissing her so they could make it out of bed and into the shower. From there, they managed to make themselves presentable fairly quickly, though she’d had to repeatedly scold him for trying to lure her back to bed when they were already keeping Vasere Snowden waiting.
While Luke dressed, she used a basic charm to dry and style her hair into an elegant knot at her nape. Then, with just a thought, she donned a strappy, midnight-blue dress that plunged low between her breasts.
“Do you think this is appropriate?”
Luke looked her up and down and grinned as he finished pulling on his black loose-fitting pants and shimmering gold tunic. “Yes, but honestly, you look gorgeous in anything.”
“Flatterer.” Not that she minded. “Are you ready?”
Once he’d fastened the last buckle on his boots, he rose from the edge of the bed and held his hand out to her. “Ready when you are.”
The wards around the temple prevented anyone from teleporting directly inside, but she could get them close. Taking his hand, she smirked when he turned toward the bedroom door as if he intended to actually walk all the way across the jungle.
“Neelum?”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Yeah?”
“Hold on.”
Everything went black, there was the familiar sensation of falling, then her feet landed on the soft grass in the gardens that surrounded the Jade Temple.
“You could have warned me.” Luke bent over and rested his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. “Can we just walk next time?”
Delighted with him, Jael laughed as she helped him upright and took his hand again. “Come, neelum. Vasere Snowden is waiting.”
Past a pair of enormous, ivory pillars, through the high arching doorways, and over a wooden bridge that spanned a flowing stream, she led him toward the back of the temple. Flowers in every shape and color bloomed from the vines that crawled along the windowed walls and dome-shaped ceiling, and she brushed her fingers against the star-shaped leaves that encroached on the stone pathway.
“This looks like a botanical garden,” Luke mused. “I like it.”
Since she didn’t strictly know what that was, she just hummed and bobbed her head.
The back of the Jade Temple ended not with another glass wall but butted up against a waterfall that flowed and into a circular pool of shimmering green water. A stone column jutted up from the center of the small pond, its planes etched with the markings of their ancestors. The colorful saona flowers surrounded the base, and at the very top, encased in a gold setting, the emerald Adderstone of the Southern Isle pulsed with an inner glow.
“Nice of you to join us.” Standing at the edge of the pool with all three of Jael’s siblings, Vasere Lynx Snowden smiled as they approached. “I was beginning to think you became lost on the way.”
“Not lost.” Luke gave her a salacious look. “Just a little distracted.”
“Luke!” Her cheeks heated with embarrassment when the Vasere laughed and her siblings groaned. “I apologize, sir.”
Like many unmated males, the Vasere was average in height and lean in build with sharp cheekbones and an angular jaw. Physically, she wouldn’t consider him imposing in any way, but his title alone intimidated the hell out of her.
“No need for apologies.” He reached a hand out to them, his long, elegant fingers beckoning them closer. “Someday, I hope to find a mate who will distract me often.”
Her siblings groaned and grumbled under their breaths, but the Vasere’s easy smile calmed Jael’s racing pulse and soothed her anxiety. As they walked toward him, he held his other hand out toward the waterfall, twirling two fingers in a lazy circle, summoning the Adderstone from its perch and into his palm.
“You know what to do?”
Jael nodded as the Vasere pressed the stone into her hand, and she was surprised to find it cool to the touch. She hadn’t prepared any words to say, and she worried that she might make a fool of herself in front of her siblings and the ruler of their island.
“Hey, beautiful,” Luke whispered, slipping a finger under her chin and tilting her head back. “You good?”
The instant she met his gaze, she forgot everything except how much she loved him and how badly she wanted him to be hers forever. Taking his hand, she placed the jewel in his palm and co
vered it with her own, holding it between them.
“I promise to love you every day until my last breath. I vow to walk beside you through this life and into the next, to be your confidant, your companion, and your friend. My heart will belong to you and you alone for all the days of our lives. From now until forever, I am yours.”
Luke’s hand shook where it held hers, his eyes filled with love and wonder as he leaned in to brush their lips together.
“I promise to love you every day until my last breath,” he said, his mouth still just an inch from hers. “I will be your protector, your anchor, and your shelter in the storm of life. When you stumble, I will catch you. I will never let you fall. You will never be alone. You brought sunlight into my life when there was only darkness, and I will spend the rest of our lives endeavoring to make you happy. From now until forever, I am yours.”
Her eyes filled with tears as she arched up to claim his lips again in an achingly tender kiss.
When they pulled apart, she chanted the binding words that would unite them as one, repeating them until the stone between their joined hands glowed even brighter and turned warm between their palms. Beams of golden light flowed from the Adderstone, twisting together and winding around their hands in intricate knots that imprinted on both their skin and their souls.
When the light dimmed and the stone cooled, Luke wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his chest. “I love you,” he whispered against her ear. “More than anything.”
There were still things to discuss, decisions to be made. They would return to Earth for a short time, but after that, she couldn’t say where they’d go. Right then, none of those things mattered. They were just variables, and as any good scientist knew variables could always change.
“I love you, too, neelum. So much.”
Whether it was Earth, Xenthian, an Alliance space station, or a deserted crag in the middle of some far-off galaxy, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the location that made it home.
Sure, they’d face challenges. They wouldn’t always agree. There would be times when she’d probably want to strangle him, and she’d likely drive him insane in the long years to come.
They’d put each other through hell, and they’d come out on the other side, stronger than ever.
