Page 123 of The World Undone

But she was stronger than he was here. Her control of the situation, her desire, increased as he watched her, flooding her with a renewed sense of need.

He stalked forward, one step, then another, until his chest brushed against her.

It was a tenuous game of control that Max was weaving here—taking it, then sharing it. Dominating him, then letting him dominate. I could feel the cracks it created through his shield, could sense the fanghole I knew and loathed beneath the surface, fighting for breath.

She struck first, baiting him as she tore off at a run.

He went after her, growling in frustration when she disappeared from his grasp, only to be standing where she’d just started.

This time, when he ran, she didn’t move. She stayed there, smug, excited, filled with an anticipation that had my own dick hardening again.

She pounced on him before he reached her, and then they went down, the two of them a pile of limbs, teeth, and lust as they fought for control, for dominance.

In one smooth shift, he pressed her back into the ground, his arm around her throat as he sank into her—dick and teeth.

Their fucking was rough, feral, filled with equal parts fear and need—the anger I’d sensed before louder now, until it was the only thing I felt, like it was ballooning in his chest.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, twisting until she was on top, controlling the devastating pace he’d tried to set—pushing him harder, faster, as her teeth pierced his neck.

Her claws raked down his back as they took their fill of each other.

“Darius,” she moaned, her lips tracing up to his, where they clashed together, each stealing the other’s breath as their movements turned more fluid, more tender.

“Don’t.” His voice cracked, half whisper, half beg, and the shadow magic gripping him flooded through our bonds. “Max.”

The wave of energy was heavy and angry, clutching my chest with pure force until all I saw was red, all that I felt was rage.

I choked on it, losing myself in its embrace as I tried to carry the weight of it. But it was crushing, suffocating.

He’d held this for years?

All of it? On his own?

My eyes swam, but when I turned back to Max, she seemed only strengthened by the power, like it called to her—shaping and sharpening, molding within her as she softened the edges of the magic’s need to take.

She pulled it from him, then pulled it from me, slowly at first, and then all at once—until my lungs remembered how to fill with air again.

Her eyes were luminous, glowing briefly, as she siphoned it through her, settling and sculpting it.

There was a flash of light, like lightning through the room, the floor rumbled and shifted for a moment, then everything went still.

“Don’t.” Darius clutched Max, his face pressed into her neck as he held her in his arms, shaking quietly. “Please. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m?—”

“Shh,” she pressed her lips to his head and held him to her, legs wrapped around his back as the two of them rocked. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

“Please, you have to promise,” he whispered, his body racked with sobs now, clutching at her like she couldn’t get close enough, no matter how tightly they held onto each other. “You can’t leave me.”

She stilled at his words, her eyes searching, until they met mine. Power still radiated from her, but the glow was diluted with tears now.

“I can’t lose you.”

23

MAX

Islept for a few more hours, curled in between them both, sinking into their warmth, the simple rightness of feeling their skin against mine.

It took some finesse, but I shifted the shadow magic across the bonds, letting it fortify and strengthen them, rather than linger inside of any one of us.

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