Page 15 of Deserted

“Mine,” he growled as he pushed inside, stretching me exquisitely with each careful inch. “My kassari. My mate.”

I cried out as he filled me completely, the sensation so perfect it bordered on pain. He stilled, giving me time to adjust, his body trembling with the effort of his restraint.

“Yours,” I agreed, not understanding the full meaning but feeling the truth of it in my bones. “And you’re mine.”

That admission unleashed him. He began to move, long powerful strokes that hit something deep inside me with each thrust. I clung to his shoulders, nails digging into his skin as pleasure built with shocking speed.

“Harder,” I demanded, wrapping my legs tighter around his waist. “I won’t break.”

He snarled, baring teeth that were sharper than human, more predatory. The sight sent a thrill through me that I couldn’t explain—shouldn’t want—but did.

“Bite me,” I begged, the words spilling from me without conscious thought. “Mark me. Claim me.”

His rhythm faltered for just a moment, his eyes widening with surprise before darkening with primal hunger. “Do you know what you ask for, little flame?”

“I don’t care,” I gasped as he hit a spot inside me that made stars explode behind my eyelids. “I need it. Need you.”

His pace increased, driving me higher, building a pleasure so intense it bordered on unbearable. His mouth descended to my neck, breath hot against my pulse point.

“It will bind us,” he warned, even as his hips maintained their relentless rhythm. “Forever.”

“Yes,” I moaned, tangling my fingers in his hair and pulling his mouth closer to my neck. “Please, Rhaekar. Make me yours.”

With a growl that vibrated through my entire body, he sank his teeth into the junction of my neck and shoulder—not breaking skin but applying exquisite pressure. The slight pain combined with the pleasure of his cock driving into me pushed me over the edge. I came with a scream, my inner walls clamping down on him as waves of ecstasy crashed through me.

He followed immediately, his release triggering another wave of pleasure that left me sobbing his name. I felt something strange, a physical change as he swelled inside me, locking us together as his seed pumped deep. The sensation was foreign but perfect, prolonging my orgasm until I could barely breathe through the pleasure.

We stayed joined, panting, as aftershocks rippled through us both. His teeth released my neck, his tongue gently soothing the mark he’d left.

“My kassari,” he murmured against my skin. “Mine at last.”

I woke with a gasp, heart pounding and legs tangled in the protective blanket. My skin buzzed like it remembered every touch from the dream, my center throbbing with phantom pleasure so real I had to press my thighs together to ease the ache.

When I dared glance over at the space beside me, I saw that I was alone, the emergency lights cast a strange glow around me. And, I wasn’t sure whether I was disappointed in myself or him?

6 /RHAEKAR

I wokewith my claws dug deep into the heat shield, my body rigid and aching in ways that would make a Legion medical officer prescribe immediate isolation. The scent of her—citrus, spice, and the unmistakable musk of arousal—filled my lungs with every desperate breath. My fate mate had dreamed with me. Had begged me to claim her. And stars help me, every cell in my body demanded I comply.

“Make me yours,” she’d said in our Unity dream. The echo of her voice still vibrated through my bones, a siren call that threatened to shatter decades of discipline in seconds.

I didn’t dare move. Not with my cock painfully engorged beneath my regulation pants, not with my tail twitching like a live wire seeking a ground.

My fingers flexed, claws retracting with effort. I needed to get up. To move away. To put distance between us before I did something irreversible. Like pin her beneath me. Like taste her again, this time in reality instead of dreams. Like sink my teeth into that perfect junction of neck and shoulder where I’d marked her in our shared vision.

Kassari. My fate mate. The most revered bond in Rodinian culture—and I’d found mine in the least convenient location inthe galaxy, at the most inconvenient time possible, in the form of a fragile Terran female who had no idea what was happening.

Brilliant work, Reaper. Exemplary mission parameters.

I forced myself to breathe normally, to regain control of my heart rate. The Legion had trained me to withstand torture, to ignore pain, to function despite catastrophic injury. Surely I could manage one small human female and her intoxicating scent.

A merciful interruption came in the form of a loud mechanical clunk from somewhere deep in the shelter’s systems. It was followed by a high-pitched whine that any engineer would recognize as bad news. I seized the opportunity like a drowning man grabbing a lifeline. “Environmental controls,” I said, my voice embarrassingly rough. “Stabilizers failing.”

Her brow furrowed, confusion replacing the heat in her eyes. “Is that... dangerous?”

“Yes.” Probably not as dangerous as staying here with her, but she didn’t need to know that. “System needs manual override. I must attend to it.”

I sat up in one fluid motion, keeping my back to her as I fought to calm my rebellious body. My tail, the traitorous appendage, swished behind me with obvious interest. If tails could talk, mine would be shouting obscenities at me for moving away from her.

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