Page 67 of Alastair
“The seal is gone.” His voice was rough. “The warding on my soul shattered. Which means we’re feeling the full force of our bond for the first time.”
“How is that possible?” I had a theory. One I refused to say aloud, for it was incredibly cheesy and embarrassing to think to myself, let alone share with someone else. But maybe it was like those fairy tales claimed: true love’s kiss could break any spell. Including ones that blocked two souls from connecting.
“Whatever the reason… it’s given me the freedom to do this.” Lazarus tightened his grip on my nape and kissed the edge of my mouth before placing another to my lips. “And this.” More followed, light pecks around my lips before he softly sighed and kissed me so deep my head spun. Little growls rumbled in his chest.
He couldn’t get enough of me.
Pride perked up at that thought.
With the seal no longer in place, the floodgates opened up, releasing the surge of feelings that had been concealed behind it. For the first time, I was feeling the entirety of our fated mate connection. And shit was it powerful. I had heard from my brothers how finding a mate overpowered everything, of how the pull was too strong to resist.
Now, I knew what they meant. Decades with Joseph didn’t even begin to touch the intensity of my emotion for Lazarus in that single instant. Flutters swarmed my stomach and flew up into my chest cavity, bouncing around my rib cage. My heart squeezed, then pumped differently, each beat sending tingling heat through my circulatory system.
Fitting that his soul weapon was a whip made of lightning. As Lazarus claimed my mouth over and over again, my blood electrified, zapping through my veins.
I broke the kiss to suck in a lungful of air. He’d, quite literally, taken my breath away. The break allowed for a question to push forward. “What are we doing? What does this mean?”
The seal might’ve been gone, but he was still under direct orders to reject me as a mate.
“I’m not sure,” he answered, lines forming at the edges of his eyes as he stroked my bottom lip with his thumb. “I’ll need to speak with the council.”
“What if they order you to reseal our bond?” I braced myself for the answer I was certain would come.
“I’ve made my choice,” he said, surprising me. “After a lifetime of shoving aside my own wants, I’m finally taking something for myself.” He leaned in, grazing my nose with his. “You.”
My stomach fluttered.
“Kissing is different than I imagined,” he then whispered. “Your lips are so soft, like silk.”
Wait.
“Is this your first kiss?” I asked, sure I was mistaken. I had to be.
“Yes.”
I felt my eyes go wide.
Lazarus snarled his upper lip. “I’m unsure whether or not I should be offended by your shocked state. I’ve dedicated my life to my realm. There was no desire for anything beyond that.”
“Until me?” I asked, nuzzling the edge of his smooth jaw.
“You’re a temptation like no other,” he responded, lowering his face to my neck. “The only thing I’ve ever desired is you.”
A possessiveness overtook me then, and I crashed our lips back together. He groaned in the back of his throat and knotted his fingers in my hair, holding me in place. Mine were the only lips he’d ever tasted. I was his first.
“His only,”Pride hummed.
I melted into the kiss, breathing in his winter apple scent and feeling like I was walking on air. The joy I got from soaring among the clouds reached me even with my feet planted firmly on the ground.
That joy turned to a bubbling anticipation as a memory surfaced. Something Vepar had said during the attack on our mansion when they’d come for Light Bringer. He had jumped on Lazarus and pinned him down, muttering in his ear,“You smell just as pure as I remember. How much fun it would be to soil you.”
Pure.
I pulled from his lips. “Does this also mean you’re a virgin?”
There was some pride to be had in making an angel blush. Color flooded his cheeks, the rosy flush noticeable even with nothing but the moon illuminating the courtyard. It made his surly expression less effective. Maybe even a little cute—a word I never thought I’d use to describe him.
“Enough of these questions,” he said.
