“Let go.”
His thumb continued circling the hard bundle of nerves that had my thighs shaking as his demand echoed through the space. I felt like a fucking animal in heat, the hormones clouding my brain enough that I felt high. My consciousness was screaming at me to warn him. To protect the man I loved. Everything else was lulling me into a hot, lust-filled cocoon, my magic desperately wanting to feed and mark him.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I breathed out.
“Maize!” he growled, making me look him right in the eyes. I nearly climaxed at the hunger, possession, and darkness there. “I want to feel your magic mark me. I want you to feed on me. More than anything, I want you to fucking come on my fingers.”
I gasped as he bit down hard on my shoulder, not breaking skin but very much leaving a mark. A warning. One that I couldn’t ignore.
My climax built as everything turned hazy, making his words almost feel as though they were echoing in my head. I could feel the explosion that was about to absolutely rock my body and possibly the space around us.
“I fucking love you,” Chait whispered against my skin. Those words undid me. My magic took over and I gave into it, the pleasure hitting an all-time high.
I was falling over then, into the dark abyss, and there was absolutely no way to stop it. My magic erupted around me, my wings breaking from my back as electric shocks crawled against our skin in pink, blue, and purple patterns. I let out a moan of relief as a feral sound broke from Chait, going from pleasured to almost strangled.
That was when realization hit me.
Immediately, my gaze snapped to his, and panic surged through me, feeling far more myself than before. Fuck. Fuckity fuck. Chait offered me a lazy, pleased smile, his skin paling as he leaned against the tile wall of the tub, his breathing rough despite looking thrilled.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed, feeling like I’d snorted a line of goddamn pixie dust. I felt high, and I offered the man a punishing yet love-filled kiss before I buried my teeth back into his neck, this time for a much different reason. His groan filled the room as he shifted his hips, his cock pressing against me as his magic began to feed back into mine on a loop.
It was happening again.
I was going to kick his fucking ass. The mating bond was forming, and as I drew the poison from his body, I found relief and contentment surging through me. He’d literally saved my life, and I’d fucking posioned him… yet I was happy? Happy because I could feel a burning sensation on my collarbone and knew that I’d somehow marked him. His magic turned nearly suffocating around me as I inhaled the smoky drug-like flavor, pulling away from his neck as everything brightened to neon around us.
Holy fuck.
My magic began to heal my body fully as I laid slumped against a very vibrant Chait, his skin jumping with power as he held me firmly and possessively against him. I could feel how strong both of us were, and I had to wonder how something that had so many benefits could be bad. My brow dipped as memories from the forest began to trickle in, paired with questions.
Where were my familiars?
How had I gotten out there?
A shiver went over me as I remembered the frozen pain of waking in the forest, the confusion of still not understanding how I got there, the memory of a very obvious block… as if someone had removed it, and the dark-eyed woman who had warned me that someone had tried to kill me. I groaned in frustration as I finally pulled away, finding Chait’s cocky and sated smile in place as he watched me through hooded eyes.
A low rumble broke from his throat when my fingers brushed against the small, skeletal butterfly that now rested on his neck. Then my eyes followed his to find a small outlined moon on my other collarbone, opposite the star. His smile grew as he brushed his lips against it, causing me to let out a pleasured sigh.
“Holy hell,” I mumbled. I had so many thoughts running through my head. Honestly, one of them was how I hadn’t realized just how awesome his phantom form could be… I mean, I’d just never considered all the possibilities.
Then the guilt hit.
As if knowing, Chait’s eyes darkened, and his voice was dark. “Don’t you dare apologize, Maize. I can see it right fucking there, so don’t bother.”
“I poisoned you,” I choked out in horror, tears welling in my eyes. How the fuck was he not seeing the problem here? I was a leech! I was a goddamn parasite. Even worse, what if I hadn’t been able to save him? What if the energy I’d taken from him had made the poison work faster—
“You took care of yourself, which is what I told you to do,” he snarled. Then his smile grew. “Well, I guess I took care of you, but same thing. You were fucking knocking on death’s door, Maize. It’s over. It happened. You won’t see me complaining about being bonded to you forever.”
My mouth dropped open as amusement flashed through my chest—unwelcomed, of course.
“You wanted me to mark you?” Poison you. Bind you. Holy fuck, this man was absolutely insane. Honestly, my black heart was squeezing at the concept of him wanting to spend forever with me.
“Never wanted anything more, mon amour.”
“Why?”
He blinked as if confused by my question. “Because I love you.”
I nibbled my lip gently. “I love you too… are you sure, Chait? I mean, we can’t do anything to change it, but…”
My eyes moved down to his new mating mark, a token of my possessive magic. I couldn’t help the surge of happiness that went through me upon seeing it. I knew he was my mate, but somehow it made me feel far better to see it, visually.
Which reminded me… where was Charm? I missed the bastard.
“I love your mark on me,” he admitted, his voice suddenly rough.
A blush hit my cheeks as my vulnerability probably showed on my face. “I love it there… I just feel bad. I was in so much pain and so hungry, and you felt so amazing inside of—”
Chait growled, melding our lips together as he nipped my lip dangerously. “If you say ‘inside of me,’ I am going to be inside of you in a fucking second or less. I can’t handle that.”
“Okay,” I whispered shakily.
A moment of silence, filled with comfort and affection, passed as he rested his forehead against my own. I winced in anticipation as he lifted a hand to the bandages around my head but breathed out as I realized that the injury felt mostly healed. Thank fuck.
“How does it feel?” Chait asked, his voice filled with concern.
“Much better,” I admitted as he helped me unwrap the bandages. I let out a sigh of relief when my hand met the back of my healed head, the matted blood unavoidable in my hair but much better than that terrible injury. A shiver went through me, both in memory and at the fact that my healing was direct proof that I’d literally fed off Chait. I swallowed down an apology, and luckily, the door opened before I could say anything more.
Instantly, the room was flooded with the connection that I’d been craving and siphoning energy from just to stay alive. Something I hadn’t fully realized until seeing him… Charm had been keeping me alive, even if it had been by a trickle.
“Charm,” I greeted, my voice soft as vibrant eyes met mine.
Almost instantly, relief flooded our bond, and I was caught off guard, my eyes truly taking in the two of them and just how goddamn vibrant they were. A flush invaded my cheeks as I swallowed nervously, trying to not feel overwhelmed. For the record, I clearly didn’t have a type, because these men were literally day and night from one another. All of them were so drastically different, but equally as intense and stunning.