Page 218 of The Dryad Storm

He steps toward me and lifts his hand to caress the side of my face. “Elloren, let me make you part Wyvern too.”

A hard ache grips my heart as sparks trail his touch, tears filling my eyes as the intuitive realization hits me. This thing that he wants... it’s more than a Wyvern Sealing.

It’s a marriage of equals, a complete fusing of fire.

I stand up to face him, fire for fire, and take his hands in mine. Yvan inhales a shaky breath, his wildfire gaze riveted to mine.

“Do Wyverns have some type of ceremony?” I venture. “Is there anything else that’s important here?”

“After,” he manages, the word tight as his fire takes over, a surge of it breaking free to give me a fuller, wordless answer, his flame shot through with bottomless passion. “After this war is over, I want that.”

A tear falls as I consider how, outside this room, the Natural World is in terrible peril. Even if we survive, there are no guarantees of any type of decent future. But there is something unshakablehere. In our bonding. In spite of every last thing the world has thrown at us all.The story is not yet over, III promised, and the idea lights in my heart that maybe this moment is an important part of that story—to love, against all the odds.

Maybe that’s the important part of everyone’s story right now.

Surrendering to that love, I bring my palm to the center of Yvan’s chest, bottomless affection filling me in response to the rise and fall of his breaths, his heartbeat strong and steady.

“Claim me,” I breathlessly offer. “But not here. Claim me not only like a true Wyvern’kin would, but as a true Dryad’khin would as well—in the arms of our fire-powered Forest.”

Yvan flies us deep into the heart of the Zhilaan Forest, our bodies wrapped around each other.

The Forest welcomes us with a pulse of heat as Yvan soars us down into a deserted clearing lit solely by the violet fire blazing in his eyes, the runes marked on our bodies and the golden horde stars emblazoned on the bases of our necks.

Yvan draws me into an embrace and kisses me, slow and sensual, taking his time as our breathing deepens and his fire crackles with suppressed power and desire.

I draw him closer, leaning back against the trunk behind me, wanting to feel the full pressure of Yvan against me amplified by the Forest connection at my back, my own fire ramping up, struggling to reach him.

Yvan holds himself in check, though the press of his body’s arousal is unmistakable. Instead, we kiss for a long while as he murmurs Lasair endearments that send an emotional ache through my heart, before he falls into the Wyvern language I don’t understand and don’t need to, hissing the words against my lips as he opens his dragon heart to me, losing all reserve.Finallyshowing me his complete self, his fire starting to flow into a freer, hotter stream.

Straight toward me.

His kisses gain an edge of urgency before he sets about removing my clothing with loving deliberation. There’s no aggressive shredding like last night, the slight tremble in his hands prompting a warm swell of affection through me. I gently run my fingers through his silken, crimson hair, over his pointed ears as he stills, his gaze skimming my unclothed form.

Keeping tight hold of his fire, he gives me a besotted look before bringing his mouth to mine once more and pressing me against the tree, his kiss long and hot and deliciously thorough as my hand slides up and around one of his horns.

“I love your horns,” I breathe against his mouth, and his smile arcs against my lips.

“I can sense it in the flow of your fire,” he murmurs, amused.

He draws back a fraction and looks closely at me before taking his garb off, a hot flush racing over my skin as I take in his naked body.

Then he’s embracing me once more, kissing and caressing me, following the trailof what I want through his sense of my fire. I let out a surprised gasp in response to the intimacy of his hot touch, slow and tentative at first as he reads what I like, then bolder.

Much bolder.

A rush of pleasure grips hold, building like a fiery tide, my head arching back as Yvan slides both hands around my upper thighs and hoists me up, bracing me against the trunk behind me.

“Are you ready?” he asks, low in his throat, eyes burning.

I nod, lips parted with need, and Yvan pushes forward, a hard breath escaping us both as he sheathes himself inside me, his body rigid as his fire surges, his breathing staggered as his mouth comes to my shoulder.

He begins to move with urgency and power, the hot pulse of his fire gaining momentum. I tighten my thighs around him, gripping his hair, his horns. My neck arches back, his fire surging through mine as he takes me more intensely, waves of hot pleasure radiating through us both, a cry escaping my lips. I can feel his fire power mounting in potency, sense his own hot, rhythmic rushes of intense pleasure, building into an inferno.

His wings slam down to either side of me, stealing my breath as his mouth clamps down on the inner edge of my shoulder and his canines pierce my skin.

A rush of fiery power detonates, wave after wave of it, as our firesmerge, the pleasure so intense I lose all sense of self, both of us hurtling into his inferno as I cry out his name and we release ourselves into each other.

There’s only his fire.

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