Page 58 of Zayrik

And it wasn’t letting go.

I held her after, both of us breathing hard, tangled in heat and a silent embrace.

Her face was buried in my neck, and for the first time in too long, I didn’t feel like I was bracing for the next fight.

The tether between us thrummed low and steady under my skin.

Strong. Alive.

The tension hadn’t vanished.

But something had shifted. Something real and binding now lived between us.

She pulled back just enough to look at me, her fingers brushing the mating marks on my arm.

“You okay?” she murmured.

I laughed under my breath, running my hand slow down her spine. “Better than okay.”

She smiled. Small. Real. Only for me.

And then....

“Proximity alert,” Nav’s voice cut in, dry as ever. “Unidentified vessel approaching at high velocity.”

Nyla froze. Her fingers tightened around my arm, and through our bond, I felt her spike of fear. The heat of her touch still buzzed beneath my skin, but now tinged with adrenaline.

I didn’t move. Didn’t let go. Instead, I held her closer for just a moment, memorizing how she felt in my arms.

But the warmth in my chest was already hardening into instinct.

The mating bond between us thrummed sharp and bright. No longer quiet, but urgent.

A warning bell sounding through every nerve in my body.

My mate was in danger.

“They found us,” she whispered, but there was steel beneath the words now. The warrior in her already surfacing.

“Looks like.”

She slid off me, grabbing her jacket in fast, practiced movements. I watched her transform from the passionate woman in my arms to the survivor I’d first met. But now I knew what lay beneath that armor. Now I knew what she felt like when she let her guards down.

I yanked my shirt over my head, pulse already recalibrating. Combat mode snapping into place like muscle memory. The bond between us thrummed with shared purpose, shared determination.

We both knew what came next.

What we had to do.

What we’d do together.

She caught my wrist before I could turn, the touch electric even now.

Her eyes met mine. Stormy. Fierce. Ours now.

No more hiding. No more pretending this wasn’t exactly where we were meant to be.

“We’re finishing this later.” A promise. A declaration.

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