Kat
I caught the scent of Arik as my mind fluttered back to awareness. He surrounded me, warm and male and with that hint of musk that told me his griffin was close. The surface beneath me shifted, rising, and I realized I was draped across Arik’s chest, my cheek pillowed on one firm, sleek pec. A naked pec. All of him was naked—I could feel every inch of tantalizing skin against my own, which meant I was naked too.
And alive. I hadn’t expected to be alive.
Vague memories spun up as my brain clicked online: fighting Maddox, my power surging, the headache from hell. Somewhere in there I thought I glimpsed Arik with his arms around me, keeping me safe, and a pair of electric-green eyes that made no sense. I let myself drift, let the jumble in my brain slowly settle into place as I lay beside my mate, my limbs tangled with his, breath in rhythm with the heartbeat beneath my cheek.
My mate. Tears gathered behind my eyes. My mate.
A purr rumbled through the chest beneath me—the animal stirring with pleasure. “My mate.”
That voice… Not Arik’s, but deeper, with more gravel and growl, a bit of a caveman in it. His animal was speaking to me. The voice I’d heard the night of the matebond, that had been the griffin, not my imagination.
A tear escaped, warm and tingly on my skin, as I responded. “My mate. My griffin.”
“Yours.”
Arik stirred. Could he hear us speaking?
Hard arms and long legs tightened around me. Arik turned, his head dropping to bury in my hair. I had a moment to wonder if it was a rat’s nest up there before something down there caught my attention.
The griffin wasn’t the only one happy to see me. “You’re awake,” I said.
Arik’s chuckle was low and rough. “So I am.” One hand slid down my spine, sweeping pleasure through my nerve endings. At my rear it stilled, provided the counterpressure for the thrust of his stiff erection against my belly. Arik groaned in my ear.
The doorknob rattled. “Arik?”
Grim. I figured the door was locked or he’d already be inside. Either way, I wasn’t sure I cared—Arik was moving, shifting. His mouth found my nipple and sucked, shooting pulses of agonizing pleasure from my breast to my pelvis. A whimper escaped me.
“Arik! I thought I told you later for that, didn’t I?”
Arik lifted his head, the slow, tight retreat of his mouth pulling a cry from me. When his gaze met mine, I found a mix of dismay and frustration that had me choking on a giggle. “It’s later, isn’t it?” he yelled back. Heat smoldered when he glanced down at my breast, the tip hot-pink and tender from his attention. Propping his head on one hand, he brought the other to my breasts. Circling and tugging fingers had my eyes rolling back in my head even as I held my breath, waiting for Grim’s response. I felt fine, more than fine; surely I was okay to be with my mate.
My mate. The thought reminded me of everything that hadn’t been settled between us. His animal had claimed me; why hadn’t Arik? Or was sex all he wanted from me?
When I laid my palm on Arik’s chest and pushed, he seemed to forget Grim sputtering outside the door. Well, after a gruff, “Fuck off, healer!” Then to me, “What is it? Are you okay?”
The tender way he looked at me, traced his fingers down the side of my face… My throat closed on a swell of emotion.
“Arik, what are we doing here?”
His brows crinkled together. “I brought you from the compound. You needed to rest after—”
“No. I mean”—I waved a hand in the air, searching for the right words—“what are we doing, the two of us?”
“I thought that was obvious.”
The way his mouth curved when he gave me that sexy smile of his usually scattered any intelligent thought. Not today. Tonight. Whenever it freaking was. “I’m serious.”
“Me too.” His body arched, pressing his arousal into my belly as he brought his lips to mine. “I love you. Is that what you’re getting at?”
Pain shafted through my heart, stealing my ability to speak for a long, long moment. “Then why won’t you keep me?” I finally managed to whisper.
The confusion in Arik’s expression cleared at my words. “That’s right. You were asleep.”
“What?” My mind might not be functioning on all cylinders at the moment, but I didn’t get the leap. “I don’t—”
Arik rested a fingertip on my mouth. “Kat…”
Again with the tenderness. I wanted to close my eyes, escape, but I couldn’t; I had to soak up every minute I could get, no matter how much it hurt. No matter how much my heart screamed for him to claim me, soul as well as body.
“You almost died,” Arik was saying. “It makes sense that not everything is clear.”
What isn’t clear, damn it?
“Kat, I am keeping you.”
What? Since when?
As if sensing my questions—or maybe I was projecting, who knew?—Arik leaned down over me, his hard chest pressing into my sensitive breasts, his warm breath brushing my mouth before his lips took its place. “I am keeping you. Forever. You’re my mate; I won’t let you go. I was a stupid asshole to even think I could try.”
Yeah, you kinda were a stupid asshole.
A quick grin took over his lips, then faded into worry. “I don’t know how I’ll give you everything you need, but we’ll figure it out. I promise you, we’ll figure it out.”
His lips settled on mine, coaxed mine open, allowing his tongue inside. For long moments I let him distract me from the thought uppermost in my mind. But when the kiss ended…
“For a thousand-year-old male, you’re not that bright, are you?”
Arik scooted down a bit in the bed. “Hmm?” He didn’t stop until his head was level with my breast. The soft, wet slide of his tongue across my straining nipple caused my core to clench. The tender skin crinkled even harder against the cool rush of air after the heat of his tongue.
What had I been saying? “You’re…not…uh…”
Arik licked my other nipple. “Okay.” A nip. A bite. A gentle suck drew my fingers to his head to hold him in place.
“Arik, I— Oh, don’t stop.”
He feasted; there was no other word for it. Arik devoured me until I couldn’t think about anything but his mouth, his tongue, his teeth. When his fangs descended and he dragged them gently across me, leaving faint white trails along the creamy skin of my breasts, I felt myself go liquid between my legs. Arik had to feel it; his thigh was fitted hard against my opening. Except then his thigh was replaced by two hard fingers that slid straight up inside my body, and I detonated at the very first stroke.
I vaguely registered Arik’s voice in my head saying, “See, she’s fine. Go away, Grim!” and the sound of footsteps retreating from the door while I fought to get my breathing back to normal.
“Why was he still out there?” I finally managed to mutter. The flush on my cheeks wasn’t all from orgasm. And just because he’d embarrassed me, I gave Arik a good smack on the chest. The orgasm insured it was a girlie smack, so I wouldn’t damage anything. “You…you…male!”
My mate chuckled. A kiss on my forehead turned into a mumbled, “They worry, Kitty Kat. Just like I do.”
Oh. But… I shook my head at my first instinct, which was to deny that anyone cared one way or the other.
“I’m gonna help you change that,” Arik promised.
I hoped he would. I tilted my head back and pulled him to me, brushed a kiss over the rugged surface of his cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered right into his skin.
Arik leaned back just enough to look at me, to catch the sheen of tears in my eyes. His mouth tightened. “For what?”
“For bringing me home with you. For finding a healer for me. For teaching me. For loving me.” And maybe most of all, “For letting me love you.” I brought my lips to his, rubbed them gently together. “We just gotta work on your attitude.”
Arik snorted, but then his eyes closed, but not before I saw them go wet. He melded our mouths together, his hand gripping my thigh and lifting. His body moved on top of mine, against mine, into mine. I closed my eyes and opened myself to my mate, mind to mind, heart to heart, revealing all that I was, all that I felt, all that my soul held. Utterly bare before him.
Our matebond clicked into place.
I gasped into his mouth. Arik thrust deep inside my body as he filled my mind, flooding me with himself, drowning me in the emotion spiking inside him. He stunned me, his love so much deeper, so much more than three little words tripping off his tongue.
He loved me, absolutely, completely. To the depths of his soul. And God, I wanted that love, more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. Wanted him all for my own. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he would be worth it. We would be worth it.
That Arik wanted me just as much shook the foundation of everything I’d ever believed.
Opening my eyes, I saw my mate above me, his beautiful body straining with each surge and buck against me, his eyes wide open and glowing, his animal joined with the male as the two of them saturated themselves with their mate. I widened my legs, letting Arik drive in deeper, and expanded our connection, letting the griffin see how much I needed and wanted him. In response, Arik’s wings unfurled around us, throwing off the covers and taking their place around my overheated body.
So soft. So good. I pushed up as Arik bore down, taking all of him once, twice, and then I seized around him, dragging him over the edge with me this time.
A while later, when breath was no longer ragged and our bodies were worn out, Arik said, “We should probably get dressed,” though he stayed wrapped around me, his cock inside me. I touched his mind and found no intention of moving. Such a simple thing, but it brought a smile to my swollen lips.
I, however, needed to move a bit—between fighting and almost dying and sex, my body was protesting. A long stretch of my spine felt like bliss. “I think we need to talk first.”
“Didn’t we already do that?” Arik sounded distracted. I knew why when he clasped the round breasts I suddenly realized were shoved toward his mouth, and buried his face between them. “What were we talking about?” he asked, words muffled in my soft flesh.
I laughed, but even Arik’s all-too-male hunger couldn’t dissipate the tension in my chest. My mate, of course, sensed it. I found myself pushed onto my back, Arik’s frown looming above me. “What? Spill it, Kitty Kat.”
“I’m not going back to the Archai, Arik. Not unless you come with me. I’m not living without my mate.”
His frown softened into a smile. He didn’t make fun of my fear, didn’t dismiss me, just gave me a calm, “Of course you’re not.”
“You’re not going to argue about it?” ’Cause that would be a first.
Arik shrugged a shoulder without releasing his hold on my breasts. “I chose a strong female that can make her own decisions—well, some of her own decisions. Some of them we make together. And some…well, I’ve never been mistaken for a modern male, so we’ll probably argue about the rest. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to not put your safety above anything else.” He hesitated a moment. “I can’t promise you I’ll ever go back to the clan. Sun…we’ve made a start, but that’s all, nothing more.”
Relief filled me. We’d get there; I had no doubt. And being Archai, we had all the time in the world. But I didn’t argue the point. Instead I hooked my leg around my mate’s hip and tugged him deeper, felt a sudden rush as he hardened once again. “I don’t need anything more,” I assured him, “just you.”
Arik’s eyes turned to glowing gold at the feel of me wet and ready around him. His fingers drove into my hair, gripping my skull to position me for his hungry kiss. I opened my lips, let him fill me, inside and out. Soaked in the words of love he whispered into my mind, over and over, urging me to believe him. He didn’t have to—I already did. He loved me. I saw it in his eyes, felt it in his body, and when we linked like this, doubts became a thing of the past.
I would never be alone again, and neither would he. We weren’t lost anymore. We’d both come home.