Page 122 of Rebirth

My eyes widen a little. “And the result?”

“One hundred percent integration.” His gaze bores into mine.

“What does that mean?”

He’rox pauses again before answering. “You are at peak health. Even healthier than you were before and…your ba’clan…”

“You succeeded in creating something new.”

His ears flick. “I succeeded in creating something new.”

“You succeeded in saving me.”

He does not reply to that. Instead, “I will run the tests one more time. I need to know you are safe.”

My heart warms while at the same time, my ba’clan pulse with impatience.

My gaze slides to the tentacles writhing at my back, and I consciously move them. I still haven’t gotten used to them. To the way they move on their own if I let them, or the way I can create them from thin air.

And yet…it also feels like this was all meant to be.

“And if the cure is the serum you gave me?” I ask. “The one that’s granted me all these powers…”

“If we give humanity the same powers you’ve received…it could do more harm than good.”

His words hang in the silence that envelops us because I can’t argue.

He’s right.

Just what happened to Unity is proof enough.

So I wait. I watch him do the tests. I allow him to realize that it’s over now. That we’re on the right path. That the Gryken haven’t won.

I know he feels responsible for what’s happened to all those people. For what’s happened to me.

It’s the only thing keeping me on the other side of this wall as I watch him and wait.

Because ever since we left the ground, that intense need to wrap myself around him has returned.

With no ba’clan, the shadows that play underneath his ridges look smooth enough for me to run my tongue along them and I lick my lips, wanting to taste his skin.

Hours or minutes pass as I watch him work, never seeming to tire as he does test after test. Until finally, I press my hands against the barrier between us once more.

“He’rox.” My one word is like a command, and he lifts his head and looks at me. “Come to me.”

A moment passes between us and I think he will not oblige, and if he doesn’t I intend to break the wall—or at least attempt to do so.

But He’rox suddenly stands at his full height, hands hanging limp at his sides. His ears flatten against his head as he stares at me. So I repeat my request.

“Come to me.”

The ba’clan pulse in anticipation as He’rox moves away from the light matrix and accesses the barrier, an oval hole opening as he steps into the room.

Slowly turning, I face him.

We stand there, looking at each other before my body moves. The tentacles and my ba’clan disappear as I throw myself in his arms, my body melting into him, molding against his.

As soon as our lips touch, a shudder of delight goes through me, shooting straight to my core and I whimper as I flick my tongue into his mouth.

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