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  Her fingers tangled in his black curls and held his head still as her lower body ground down with twisting rotations, stealing his breath.

  Staring fixedly at his mouth, she whispered with something like reverence, “Mine.”

  “Then take it,” he whispered back.

  And somehow, his invitation for her to take his mouth was even more intimate than her taking of his sex below.

  Her eyes flicked up to his.

  She knew this. She understood what it meant to him.

  The joining of their bodies was part of Mating. They could blame it on his need to heal with her blood, or her addiction to his body because of the Blood Contract. The confounding, irresistible chemistry between them that had been there from the first.

  But a kiss was different. A kiss was completely by choice. His choice to give to her, and her choice to take it.

  She did.

  Tenderly, she pressed her plump red lips to his and licked the seam of his mouth with her shy, wet tongue.

  He parted his lips to give her better access, and she entered him with a voluptuous swoop, as she clenched tightly around his sex below.

  She stroked his tongue with her own, sucking him into her mouth and delving back into his. Over and over, she came into him, her tongue undulating with the rise and fall of his hips as he pumped slowly and deeply against her core.

  “Taste so good,” she slurred the words into his mouth, drunk on the feel of him.

  Her hands left his hair, roved back down his body, to grasp one hard globe of his ass in each palm, her fingernails digging into his skin as she squeezed him tight.

  “All mine,” she breathed into him, sucking on his tongue, clenching around his tortured cock.

  “Yours,” he echoed, thrusting as far as he could into her with the small movements she allowed him.

  And suddenly, it wasn’t enough. He needed more.

  “Release me,” he growled, turning his face slightly away, making her chase him with her mouth.

  “No,” she said in a mulish tone. “Having too much fun.”

  “Eveline…” he warned darkly, bucking hard against her, the rest of his body shuddering with the strain of trying to break her immobilization spell.

  She watched his struggles in avid fascination, mesmerized by the uncontrollable quaking of his skin and muscles. The sheen of perspiration that covered his entire body. The way the tendons of his neck stood out in stark relief. The delineated streaks of his veins just beneath his skin.

  “Beautiful,” she sighed, her mouth parted, revealing the tips of her sharp, blood-coated fangs.

  His blood.

  “Release me,” he commanded again, his words barely coherent, mangled as they were, squeezed through tightly clenched teeth.

  “Oh very well,” she relented.

  And set him free with a wave of her hand.

  “History and Future are two sides of the same coin. Like a constantly rolling sphere, the Cycle of Life does not necessarily follow a straight line; it could curve into a better, brighter Path, or a darker, bleaker Path, based on the force of choices made…”

  —From the Zodiac Scrolls

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Mmph.”

  A shortened breath was all Eveline got out before she found herself suddenly flat on her back with a beautiful pagan warrior unleashed—above her, all around her, pounding full force inside of her.

  His big hands held her hips exactly where he wanted, levering her slightly up off the ground at an angle, locking her legs around his waist, as he powered into her with violently controlled thrusts.

  Violently, because the effort of controlling his movements made his entire body shiver and quake, as if there was a storm inside of him, churning beneath his muscles and skin, rattling the bones of his frame to get out.

  To get at her.

  Everything within him was concentrated on her. She could feel it in her own veins, the blood she’d taken from him roiling and burning with unquenchable desire. The seed she’d milked from his body melded with her own juices, marking her indelibly from the inside out. She could feel his power raging through his physical shell. As indestructible as he seemed, his flesh and bones could barely contain the elemental hurricane within.

  Alend.

  “Mine,” he growled, spreading his thumbs wide at the base of her hips.

  His hands were so broad, his thumbs met in the middle as he flexed his grip on her, both of them pressing directly down on her pulsing clit, making her scream with the intensity of the orgasm he unleashed.

  His body jerked as her inner muscles bore down on him, clenching brutally around his sex. But he only picked up the pace, thrusting deeper, harder, faster into her, drawing out and multiplying her climax until she felt everything dissolve, leaving only euphoria.

  Just when she thought he reached the point of no return, all at once he slowed, pulling out to the tip, letting her tingling, tender flesh spasm around emptiness, letting her know the sharp contrast of not being filled to the brim by him.

  Eveline whimpered with desperate loss, even as her orgasm continued, though it had started to ebb and shimmer like the waning of tides.

  “Tell me what you want, little sprite,” he rasped huskily beside her ear, leaning over her body protectively and possessively, caging her in on all sides.

  “You,” she murmured, her nether lips sucking voraciously on the plump head of him that he allowed her to keep within her entrance.

  “This?”

  Slowly, painstakingly, he pushed his thickness deeper, making her grasp greedily at every vein, every ridge.

  “Y-yes,” she stuttered, a mess of frayed nerves and effervesced blood.

  “Tell me.”

  Eveline twisted her head from side to side, nearly insane with need.

  “Your c-cock. P-please…please…”

  He shoved all the way inside with a jolt, triggering another orgasm like the resonant, vibrating bang of a gong.

  “Holy hairy Friar Tuck!” she yelled, her body coming apart with bliss at the seams.

  “Slow or fast, baby?” his sinful voice flowed over her.

  “I—what?” she mumbled distractedly.

  “Slow…”

  He pulled out again to the tip in one agonizingly slow, smooth motion, dragging every note-worthy inch of him through her clenching, throbbing core.

  “Or fast.”

  Then rammed home with a sharp thrust, giving her one— two— three— hard and fast pumps that made stars explode before her eyes.

  “Oh my fucking gods!”

  “Language, Eveline,” he chastised through a clenched jaw, his big body trembling with something like mirth.

  Her only consolation was that his suppressed laughter at her exclamations was tempered by the gritty undertone of his fraying control.

  “I like that,” she rambled. “I like when you call me that. That thing that you said before…”

  “What?”

  Pump.

  “Little sprite?”

  Pump and grind.

  “Eveline?”

  Bam! Bam! Bam! In rapid succession.

  “Or…”

  A slow, meticulous retreat, until only the plump head of him teased her entrance.

  Damn the infuriating male! He knew what she wanted to hear!

  Eveline was drenched in sweat, wrung out and helplessly shaking with the force of his lovemaking.

  Heavens above! Her orgasms kept on building, never ending, blowing her equanimity into smithereens!

  “Baby…” he purred low, nipping her earlobe as he thrust hard and swiveled his tight ass to grind against her pleasure center deep inside.

  And Eveline completely dissolved into a puddle of greedy, needy want.

  “Yesssss,” she breathed, her hands clawing into his silky hair, holding him to her as tightly as she could.

  He pulled out to the tip again despite her strong legs scrabbling to keep him deep inside.

  “Alend…” s
he moaned.

  “Hmm?”

  “Uhn,” she grunted when he plowed slowly through her tunnel again, lighting up her entire vaginal canal with orgasmic sparks.

  “Please,” she breathed, grabbing onto his thick wrists with desperate hands and digging her nails in.

  “How do you want my cock, baby?” he reminded her of his original, long forgotten question with another slow retreat and plunging thrust.

  “Oh gods! You big bully!” she thrashed, delirious with pleasure, “Anyway you want to give it to me. Just give it to me now!”

  All at once, he jerked her to him, rising to his knees and sitting on his heels. He held her torso in place as he began to piston into her, flexing his thighs, snapping his hips, clenching his buttocks.

  He was wild, and she was wild with him. Clawing, biting, bucking, she gave as good as she got. Holding tightly onto him. Riding his magnificent cock. Surging back and forth with her hips in counterpoint to his.

  “Eveline,” he groaned in guttural abandon, holding her gaze as he gave her everything he had.

  “Alend,” she answered, her eyes shimmering with all the emotions she couldn’t express, didn’t know how to put into words.

  This male! How he felt inside her, all around her. She never wanted this feeling to end.

  She’d do anything to have him. Keep him. Cherish him. She’d never share even one single taste or morsel of him. Her beautiful, magical, Eternal Mate.

  Her Dark possession.

  She pulled him to her and fused their mouths together as they reached their zenith at the same moment.

  White-hot ecstasy exploded through their bodies, igniting their souls, melding their hearts together as one.

  She would never be the same again. He’d changed her forever. She felt awed and overwhelmed in the throes of her transformation. Fiery sparks danced and crackled in the air around them like electricity arcing across a live, exposed wire.

  She pulled slightly back to look into his obsidian eyes, her fingers gently caressing his sharp, angular jaw.

  In the heavy gusts of breaths that followed, as they shuddered and shook in each other’s arms, Eveline licked her lips, trying to form the words she wanted, needed, to say, but didn’t know how.

  But just as she opened her mouth to speak them, their bubble of bliss was interrupted by Rhys’ warning shout—

  “Incoming! He’s right behind me!”

  The eagle-man had found them.

  *** *** *** ***

  Ramses grunted when, not even ten seconds after he and Eveline had righted their clothes, Rhys barreled into him like a cruise missile, losing his eagle form on impact.

  “Can’t shift back,” Rhys winced as he painfully rose to his feet. “Direct orders.”

  Ramses pushed Eveline in his direction and barked, “Take her. The exit is half a mile or less away. Go into the forest and hide.”

  “I’m not leaving you!” Eveline immediately argued. “I can help!”

  Ramses didn’t look at her, merely sending a silent command to his Chosen. He wasn’t going to waste breath convincing her. Her safety was nonnegotiable.

  Rhys grabbed Eveline’s hand and tugged hard. She stubbornly tried to dig her heels in.

  Ramses didn’t stay to watch. Rhys would do what needed to be done to protect Eveline.

  He began running in the opposite direction, hoping he could head off their pursuer and buy Eveline and Rhys a bit of time.

  The eagle king was here to finish the Challenge, wasn’t he? Ramses was more than ready to accommodate him.

  Soon enough, toward the middle of the cavern, Ramses could hear the eagle warrior’s approach—a whistle in the still air, the flap of giant wings.

  He stood still with his feet planted heavily on the ground, his fists at his sides, and closed his eyes.

  Though his wounds weren’t fully healed, Eveline had recharged him with the gift of her body, the richness of her blood. He didn’t have time to analyze it, but somehow, she’d awakened the long-dormant power within him; he could feel the Element Earth coalescing in his veins, fortifying every cell.

  He tested his rediscovered strength by flexing his hands, and watched with satisfaction and relief as the ground beneath him rumbled and shook, making loose pebbles dance. Overhead, the ceiling was dotted with a collection of stalactites. He would have preferred larger formations like lava pillars to work with, which he could have crushed to create a barrier in the tunnel, but the shark-teeth rock daggers from above definitely gave him an edge.

  And then, almost before he could fully brace himself, his Challenger rocketed into him from out of nowhere, plowing him across the stone ground with so much force, the floor broke apart in a jagged explosion of rocks and debris.

  Because Ramses had managed to turn his body to stone upon impact, the flesh on his back remained intact rather than flayed entirely from his bones. Even so, his body burned and screamed with pain.

  Gritting his teeth, he jacked his legs into the eagle warrior and flipped the other male over his head with tremendous force.

  But before his opponent crashed against the cavern wall, he spread his wings like a parachute and halted his backward momentum in a split second, and gathered speed to come back at Ramses.

  Ramses was ready this time. He flung out his hands at the same time stalactites broke from the ceiling and shot toward the eagle king like conical lances.

  The other warrior dodged the missiles with blinding speed and deftness, continuing to advance upon Ramses. One stone dagger jabbed into his thigh, another struck his chest, but the male merely swiped at the protrusion and broke it off, letting the sharp tip remain embedded in his flesh as if he didn’t even feel it.

  The wounds didn’t slow him down one iota, and he charged into Ramses again at full force, leading with a whirlwind of hard fists, knees, elbows and feet.

  Ramses was more than willing to engage in battle, keep him occupied so that Rhys and Eveline could get to safety. He grabbed the warrior around the neck in a deadly headlock, letting the blows glance off his stone-hard body.

  Immediately, his opponent realized the difference. Ramses was no longer holding back. This was not a repeat of the fight the night before. Not only was Ramses focused this time, but he was also exponentially stronger, more powerful.

  The two males wrestled each other on the ground, the eagle warrior shifting parts of his body into animal form with blinding precision—a talon swipe, a clawed foot kick, a hard jab with his eagle beak.

  Distantly, Ramses wondered why he didn’t shift fully into eagle form. Beasts were strongest in their natural forms, and he was the King of the Skies, according to Rhys. Beasts preferred to battle as animals.

  Suddenly, the other male expanded his wings and lifted both of them off the ground, ramming Ramses directly into the ceiling full of stalactites.

  Thanks to his stone shell, Ramses merely broke the sharp spires of rock rather than getting impaled upon them. But the collision still jarred his bones and made the back of his skull explode with pain.

  Before he could counter, his opponent shifted his grip to his ankles and hurled him like a discus across the cavern.

  Unlike the eagle king, Ramses couldn’t stall his momentum with wings, so he crashed into the cavern wall twenty feet away with enough force to put a warrior-sized crater into the solid rock.

  While he shook off the staggering effect and readied for round three, his Challenger totally changed tactic, shooting off the ground like a torpedo in the direction of the tunnel exit.

  Fuck!

  He was still going after Rhys and Eveline? But why? Wasn’t he here to finish the Challenge? Wasn’t Eveline simply bait?

  Ramses’ thoughts churned as he hauled ass after the eagle, though the advantage of wings gave the other male an unrecoverable head start.

  He willed the stalactites and rocks in the cavern to hail upon the other male as he shot through, hoping that it would slow him down. He could feel from the vibration in the ear
th itself that some of the projectiles had met their target at least, allowing Ramses to gain on him.

  Just as Ramses rounded the last curve of the cavern, seeing a glimpse of daylight ahead, the eagle king reached Rhys and Eveline at the same time.

  Rhys in his humanoid form was no match for the Beast. Without the ability to transform, he couldn’t even defend himself when giant talons swiped deep, bloody streaks across his back, sending him flying into the opposite wall of the cave with a resounding thud.

  “No! Stop it!” Eveline cried, swinging in Rhys’ direction.

  But before she could make a move, she was swept up into the eagle warrior’s arms as he flapped his great wings to carry them out of the cavern.

  Not again.

  Ramses reached the mouth of the cave as well and leapt up to grab onto the eagle king’s foot. He sent a few loose boulders toward the eagle to bombard him and keep him on the ground, while also trying to avoid hitting Eveline.

  But the other male deftly dodged the falling rocks and continued to gain speed up and out of the cave.

  Ramses managed to hold on, and together, the three of them ascended up the side of the mountain; Eveline in the eagle warrior’s arms, Ramses dangling from his foot.

  The weight was slowing him down, Ramses could tell. In his half transformed humanoid form, his wings were smaller than what Ramses imagined to be his full Beast form. With three bodies to carry, his own and two others, his ascent up the mountain wasn’t easy or smooth.

  But there was little Ramses could do to stop him. Not while Eveline was there. He could probably survive a plummet to the ground himself if he forced the eagle to crash; Eveline might not.

  Ramses could tell that Eveline had the same thought when she looked down at him and their gazes locked. There was nothing either of them could do until the eagle king let them down on solid ground.

  Up, up, up, they went, the air getting thinner and colder the farther they climbed.

  At least the eagle king had a tight hold on Eveline and didn’t try to dislodge Ramses from his leg. In fact, it was almost as if he wanted all three of them to be together; Ramses just didn’t know why. But he would soon find out.