Page 43 of Definitely Dead

The air shimmered and vibrated when his mate transformed, his bones crunching and grinding as they realigned. When the shift was complete, Tyr stood before him, naked, battle-worn, and wearing a smug, content grin.

“I told you I’d find you.”

Relieved laughter bubbled up inside him and burst from his mouth. “Cutting it a little close, don’t you think?”

Tyr shrugged. “You know I like to make an entrance.”

Eyes swimming with unshed tears that blurred his vision, Sunne couldn’t hold back any longer. He couldn’t keep pretending that he didn’t need his mate like he needed to breathe.

With a hiccupping sob, he threw himself into Tyr’s arms, clinging to him like he was the only safe harbor in a violent storm. The Guardian clutched him tight, crushing him against his chest in a bruising hold as he buried his face in Sunne’s hair and inhaled deeply.

“Don’t ever fucking scare me like that again,” he demanded, his voice deep and guttural.

Sunne laughed, and even to his own ears, he sounded a little unhinged. “Promise.”

Leaning back, he stared up at Tyr, drinking in the sight of him. Their eyes met in the kind of soul-deep communication that had been written about in books and poems.

In his mate’s eyes, he saw relief, love, and an unwavering devotion that blurred lines between right and wrong, love and death. In those mismatched pools of deep brown and bright amber, he saw a future he had never dared to hope for, and he wanted it. All of it. More than he had ever wanted anything.

Then Tyr’s mouth was on his, hard and demanding, forcing his lips apart as his mate ravaged him. Sharp fangs scraped his bottom lip, and the coarse hairs of his mate’s beard rubbed against his chin, his cheeks, adding a delicious friction he had come to crave.

One hand slid into his hair, the other wrapping gently around his throat, holding him immobile as Tyr undid him, taking him apart piece by piece. And as the realization of what he’d almost lost sank in and took root, those soft feelings took on a sharp edge, turning darker, greedier.

They had survived the impossible. Against all odds, they had found each other in a godforsaken wasteland. But it wasn’t enough to know. He needed tofeelit.

He grasped at Tyr’s naked body, scraping his blunt nails across the shifter’s skin, desperate to mark him in some way. To exclaim to the world that this man belonged to him, and him alone.

Tyr growled, and his hand tightened around Sunne’s throat. Not painfully, but in a way that said he understood…and he approved.

Then the hand was gone, sliding between them to fumble with Sunne’s waistband. Working to free him from the denim, Tyr walked him backward, their mouths still fused together in a tangle of tongues and lips.

Sunne gasped when his back collided with a nearby tree, his pulse pounding out a frantic rhythm that vibrated through his body. His jeans were shoved down his hips, freeing his swollen cock, and Tyr spun him around, securing him against the trunk.

A loud groan tore from his throat when Tyr fisted his erection, the cold fingers doing nothing to dim his desire. His hips bucked, and he thrust forward, fucking into the tight grip.

His fingers clawed against the tree, clutching for stability when the bark peeled and crumbled beneath his touch. Steam rose from his overheated skin as the rain continued to fall, pelting against his face and neck, and clouds of vapor puffed from his lips with every panted breath.

He pressed his thighs together when he felt Tyr’s thick length slide between them, providing a narrow tunnel as his mate rutted against him. Every hard thrust pushed his cock through the circle of Tyr’s hand, dragging him under a wave of pleasure that stole his breath and made his head spin.

“I’ll always give you what you need,” Tyr growled next to his ear, his hips grinding against Sunne’s upturned ass. “Now come for me,lelien. Let go and come for me.”

Sunne tensed, every muscle in his body contracting as he came apart. Throwing his head back, he cried out his mate’s name to the sky, his cock erupting in streams of thick, pearly cream.

Behind him, Tyr snarled, the sound more animal than man, his massive body shuddering around him. Then he thrust forward once more and stilled, a groan echoing through the forest as he spilled wet heat between Sunne’s clenching thighs.

Then corded arms wound around his waist, holding him gently as the urgency dimmed and faded.

“Fuck, I needed that.”

Tyr chuckled, resting his brow against the back of Sunne’s neck. “Same.”

Before they had even caught their breath, though, the forest exploded into a frenzy of sound again, reminding them why lingering wasn’t a good idea.

Pulling his jeans up, he grimaced at the stickiness that coated the inside of his thighs. Once he had his clothes put to rights, he turned and rested a hand on his mate’s chest, urging him closer to brush their lips together.

“I love you.” He punctuated the statement with another whisper of lips. “Now, let’s get the hell out of here.”

Chapter twelve

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