Page 92 of Rebirth

I slam into her, driving her against the wall at her back as spend shoots from my tip, pumping into her, filling her to the brim.

I shudder with every jet, pressing into her, never wanting to let her go, and when the tentacles holding her arms release her, my mate leans into me. Arms around my neck. Face pressed into my skin.

My life organ swells with her unconditional acceptance, and when she finally lets me go and places her palms on my cheeks, her eyes now blue with black flecks that pull me back to reality, a hole opens up in my world. One filled with despair and fear.

For my last mission isn’t one I thought it would be.

And I will save her.

If it is the last thing I do, I will save her.

That…is my promise.

CHAPTER THIRTY

SOPHIE

He’rox releases me slowly, catching me in his arms as he brings me back to the floating table and sets me down. He doesn’t move, and as I cling to him, I realize I don’t want him to.

If I could stay here like this with him forever, I wouldn’t change a thing.

But such ideas are dreams. Even I know that.

As my breaths begin to calm down, I inhale deeply. His vanilla scent fills my lungs, but now it’s laced with something else. Like dark smoke. I breathe him in still, enjoying this new scent, because, despite what he thinks, he’s not the monster he’s painting himself to be. Never has been. Even the way he made love to me tells me that.

I drift in the silence, a smile coming over my lips as I realize I can still hear his heart beating. But that realization soon makes me stiffen. Lifting my head slightly, I freeze.

I can hear his heartbeat.

I’ve never heard his heartbeat before.

“I can hear the blood rushing through your veins,” I whisper, lifting my gaze to his. “I’ve never—”

And then I hear something else. Tilting my head slightly, I realize I can still hear the people outside the room as well. Their arguing has stopped, but I can hear…pacing. Small feet. At least, smaller than a Vullan’s. A human female then.

She’s pacing so hard, I can almost hear the agitation in her footsteps.

“And…the others outside this room,” I whisper. “They want to get in.” I turn my gaze back to him. “You locked them out.”

He’rox’s fist clenches on the table, a fine tremor running through it. A reaction he couldn’t control. A memory flashes through my mind—my own shaking hands as I stood before the Corrupted, terrified yet determined. And he’d stood with me. There’d been no tremor then.

Frowning, I focus my hearing, tuning into He’rox’s every inhale and exhale, the faint rustle of his tentacles waving in the air at his back as he shifts his stance and they slowly begin to recede. Sounds I shouldn’t be able to detect so clearly.

“Is this…the ba’clan?” I ask. “Is this why I can sense all these new things?”

He’rox’s black eyes study me intently. Slowly, he shakes his head.

A tremor goes through me as I lift my hands, turning them over. No dark veins.

My neck?

As I shift, He’rox allows me to slide off the table and, as if reading my mind, he activates a section of the wall that transforms into a mirror.

I stand naked before it, He’rox at my back as he meets my gaze in my reflection.

Soft bruises where he gripped my hips stand like a witness to our lovemaking.

At another time, I would blush. But greater things weigh on my mind.

---