I dig my nails in deeper and Jasper groans. The thrust of his hips has my eyes rolling to the back of my head.

“So tight…” Jasper leans up and uses his thumb to circle my clit. “Need you to come. I’m not going to last long with your cunt cradling me.”

I roll my hips with his next thrust. “Hard and fast, please, Jasper.”

“I love when you say my name,” he murmurs, eyes watching our connection. The way his cock slides into my pussy and out again, wet with my arousal.

“Jasper, Jasper, Jasper,” I whisper into his hair in time with his body moving into mine. Each move hits me right. Fulfills me.

Each roll of his body comes faster, harder, until the desk beneath us rattles with the violence we’re committing on its surface.

The orgasm breaks over me with no warning. I cry out, begging him not to stop. Jasper forges his body into mine and it’s like the levee breaks in his control. He snarls, his cock harder than ever, touching every part of my body and soul and I ride his furious movements.

“Mine,” I whisper. “You’re mine.”

Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, MINE.The mental chanting reaches a crescendo in my mind, along with the rolling pleasure. My hand presses against his chest as if I can feel the thrumming threads of the tapestry that make up his soul.

“Yours,” he gasps back. The air is electric. Every sensation and emotion is bright, close to the surface, about to break free.

And then they do.

My nails sink into his chest. To mark his soul as mine and connect us until the end of time. Jasper gasps and his body freezes on a groan. His cock jerks inside my body, the heat of his release filling me.

But Jasper’s body doesn’t relax, he’s strung taut. A sound escapes his gritted teeth and then his bodyshifts. The hard cock inside me lengthens and grows, becoming more mobile as the air shimmers and scales take the place of the pale skin on his stomach and legs.

I gasp in shock when I realize his legs have changed into a single strong tail.

“Jasper, you’ve shifted!”

He moves slowly at first, taking in his lower body with shock. His cock is now extruded from a slit in his body, just as Ari’s does. I watch as it slides from my body and retreats into his.

“I don’t know how,” he says.

He lifts the hand pressed into his chest and under it is a gold symbol I don’t recognize, tattooed into his skin.

“Emilia.” His eyes are wide with shock. “We’ve bonded.”

49

JASPER

“How could we have bonded?Ari said that bonding requires a ritual and everything,” Emilia says as she buttons up her shirt. I’m almost done dressing as well, my movements slow and considering.

Shifting back into my human form was startlingly easy. Logically, I’m aware that bonding shares power, but to experience it in real time is alarming.

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anyone bonding on accident. I would have assumed that it was impossible,” I say.

“Turns out not.” Emilia’s voice climbs.

I abandon the last couple of buttons of my shirt to pull Emilia to me, wanting to calm the anxiety scrunching her face. She accepts my affection easily, cuddling into my chest. Her breaths deepen and the tension in her body eases at the contact.

“Are you unhappy with this?” I ask. “There are ways to break bonds. They are unpleasant, as I understand.”

She huffs into my shirt. “I’m not unhappy.”

I hum and stroke her back.

“A ringing endorsement,” I tease.