Page 39 of Scorched By Fate

He sheathed himself with a snarl, the snap of his hips rocking my spine against basalt. The fleshy hood fluttered against me, alive, as if it had its own rabid pulse. Pleasure scorched up my nerves, white-hot and vicious. I bit his shoulder, flesh and scales flooding my mouth, and he groaned, the vibration shredding my last tether to sanity.

“Look.” He wrenched my chin down.

His scaled hips pistoned. The tip of his cock arched upward with each withdrawal, glistening head questing for my clit like a starved beast. Alive. Ravenous. His claws nearly drew blood at my hips, the sting dissolving under the ache pooling in my gut.

“Vyne—I can’t?—”

“Can.” Fangs scraped my jaw. “Take it. Take me.”

The ledge quaked beneath us.

“Shit—!”

His wings thundered open, hauling us backward as stone crumbled. We slammed into the opposing wall, his forearm cushioning my skull. The impact drove him even deeper.

A supernova burst behind my eyelids. My spine arched off the rock as the orgasm tore through me, convulsive and raw. He roared, hips stuttering, release scalding my insides.

“Zhyvarin.” His forehead pressed to mine, the word a fractured oath. “Mine.”

His tail coiled tighter, underside grinding that spot as he wrung my orgasm dry. I thrashed, oversensitive and broken apart, but his claws pricked my hips, forcing me to take every drop.

When reality staggered back, we were a knot of limbs and heaving breath. Vyne’s forehead pressed to mine, his purr vibrating through my marrow. His tail flicked against me, flexing lazily.

“Mine,” he rasped again, quieter. Surrender. Demand.

I laughed, the sound stripped to bone. My tongue was tied in too many knots to say anything in response.

FIFTEEN

VYNE

Selene lay tangled against me, her breathing uneven but slowing into something calm. Sweat slicked her skin, the salty tang of it lingering where her pulse beat faintly at her neck. Her warmth pressed into mine, every soft edge of her fitting against the sharp, unyielding lines of me. My hand rested low on her hip, claws carefully curved back because I didn’t trust them—not with her like this. Fragile. Human.

Mine.

The thought struck, sharp as any blade. It rooted itself too deeply, twisting through me with brutal certainty.

Mine.

And fates take me, nothing had ever burned quite like the satisfaction wrapped up in that word.

Her dark hair clung in damp, chaotic waves to her skin, streaked with ash and grit stolen from this unforgiving landscape. And still, nothing—not Volcaryth’s heat, not the volcanic terrain threatening to destroy us both—could dull how fierce she looked in the bare afterglow. Fierce but soft, utterly untouchable despite the undeniable way she melted in my arms.

My wings gave a flick. The motion curled the edges inward, shrouding her body where she rested against me, offering her a quiet shelter she didn’t even know was there. Her weight grounded me, warm and too close, leaving nothing—not battle, not rage, not reason—to distract me. It was just her. Her scent in the thick air, the tension still crawling sharp under my skin, and the knowledge of what had just passed between us.

Stars above, I was already failing.

My instincts snarled, wild and unrelenting, demanding more of her. Touch her again. Taste her again. Claim her utterly.

I stilled, forcing a sharp inhale into lungs still aching from exertion. The sulfur-tinged air clung to my ribs, its bitterness scratching at my throat. But it wasn’t what filled me now. No, all I could taste was her—the maddening sweetness beneath the salt tang of her sweat, the wild scent of something citrus. It clung to my tongue, lingering like a punishable indulgence, and some reckless, bone-deep urge wanted to taste it again. To remind her of this bond in ways she couldn’t ignore.

Not yet. That leash was tighter than want, though the edges frayed enough that my claws twitched at their cage. I couldn't give in, not while her body still hummed with exhaustion pressed into my chest.

Selene shifted against me. The small motion—so subtle yet intimate—tore across every frayed nerve. My grip tightened on her hip, my palm warm and calloused against the thin fabric of the shirt I’d scavenged from her pack. Her fingers stirred against my ribs, a soft twitch that shouldn’t have tugged at something deep inside me. And yet … I memorized her, almost unconsciously, with a sharpened focus I couldn’t explain even to myself.

I wished she was lying naked against me, but no amount of lust could overcome the reality of our location, and we'd hastily pulled on clothes before collapsing beside one another.

Her exhaustion softened her edges, and for half a moment, her guard gave way to something gentler. Her brown lashes rested softly against her cheeks. Her chest rose in steady rhythm beneath my hand. I dragged my gaze over the shape of her.

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