Page 13 of Catastrophe

He dipped his fingers between my legs, swiping through my wetness and caressing my clit. “You are so wet, my sunlight. So ready for me.”

I nodded and bit my lip to prevent a lusty moan escaping as he curled a finger inside me and stroked. “So ready. Please, Baelen.”

“Please what?” While his teasing grin would have ordinarily annoyed me, I was too lost in my want for him and wasn’t ashamed to beg for it.

I still couldn’t feel my bond with Charlie, and with Zaide’s bond being devastatingly quiet, I missed the usually imperceptible buzz of our connections. A cold draught seemed to blow through me with their absence.

Since being reborn in this world, I hadn’t been without a soul bond. So, if Baelen would have me, I was going to take him. I needed our bond, and I wanted my soul mate. Now and forever.

“Please fuck me. I need to feel you. I want you inside me.”

CHAPTER 4

BAELEN

Ifroze. My cock throbbed, and my fangs ached at her lust-filled demand. I should have expected it, but I got too lost in the softness of her skin, and the smell of her want and the catches in her breath, which turned to moans.

“What?” I croaked and then coughed to clear my throat.

Clawdia, also still now, looked up at me with wide, vulnerable eyes and asked in a sad whisper that made my heart sink, “You don’t want to?”

I’m completely ruining this.

I leaned into her, cocooning us, and tried to ignore the feel of her wet heat against the length of my cock. “Sunlight, I want you. So much. But this will cement our bond. Are you sure you want that?”

Her frown deepened the lines on her forehead. “Do you not?”

“I do,” I quickly assured her. “I just …”

Her lips twisted when I hesitated too long. “You just?”

“We haven’t discussed it. Mating is forever. I … want to make sure you’re … ready.”

I hadn’t stumbled over my words so much since I first learned them. I sighed, sat up, and rubbed my face.

Clawdia also sat up, disbelief creeping into her expression and voice. “You’re making it seem like I could turn you down. We are soul mates.”

Soul mates. I know what soul mates are. I know the damage they can cause each other.

While staring into her beautiful violet eyes, I couldn’t imagine a future where we didn’t care for each other. But I knew it could happen. I’d seen it. Being soul mates guaranteed nothing.

I sat on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands to avoid her penetrating gaze. “Soul mates aren’t inevitable, Sunlight, nor do they need to be together. Soul mates are a sign you are on the path the Fates set you on, but they are not essential. You can walk that path alone or completely deviate. You have the choice. You lose nothing but a potential partner on your journey if you reject them.”

Rustling and the popping of bedsprings alerted me to Clawdia’s movements, but I startled when my hands were parted and she peered at me from her position kneeling on the floor.

She whispered, almost furiously, “I don’t understand what you’re saying. I don’t want to reject you. What about me asking you to fuck me feels like rejection?”

“I know it’s not rejection.” Yet.

I had never believed myself to be a poor speaker before, but at that moment, I couldn’t believe anything else. Perhaps too many years alone ruined my ability to express myself. But I would try regardless, because the pain in her eyes was killing me.

I explained, “I’m not telling you to reject me. I’m saying there is an option since you seem to think that soul mates have to be together.”

“That’s information for other people, but I want to be with you.” She scoffed and pushed my hands away as she stood up. “I know what I was asking for when I asked you to fuck me. I know it cements the bond. I understand you wanted to confirm that I was all right with us gaining a bond, and that would have been fine, but you're pushing me away with talk about not being essential?”

“Sunlight—” I tried to interrupt and reach for her hand as she paced in front of me, but she batted me away.

“No. I’m talking, and you’re listening.” Her eyes flashed, and her face flushed with anger. It wasn’t an expression I’d ever witnessed on my soul mate before, and despite not being a male prone to nervousness, I swallowed and steeled myself for the coming rant.

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