Page 60 of Aries

His words, combined with a particularly deep thrust that has his ridges dragging across every sensitive spot, push me over the edge. I shatter with a scream that’s his name, my body clamping around him as waves of pleasure crash through me.

The sensation of my climax triggers his own. With a roar that shakes the bulkheads, he buries himself deep inside me, his own release pulsing hot and thick as his alien anatomy swells and contracts in rhythms designed to maximize both our pleasure.

We collapse together, both trembling and gasping for breath. His weight pins me to the mattress, but I wouldn’t moveeven if I could—this feeling of being completely claimed, completely his, is intoxicating.

“That was…” I begin breathlessly.

“Exactly what we both needed,” he finishes, pressing kisses to my throat, where I’m sure he can feel my racing pulse. “Wild. Desperate. Perfect.”

He rolls us on our sides—still connected, his possessive gaze piercing into me.

“From now on, every time I take you, it’s going to be because we both want it. Because we can’t keep our hands off each other.”

“Is that a threat or a promise?” I ask, feeling desire stirring again despite my recent climax.

His answering smile is pure sin. “Both.”

As if to prove his point, his hand skims down my body, finding me still sensitive and slick. His cock is still inside me, jerking back to life.

“Besides,” he murmurs, his fingers beginning a lazy exploration that has me gasping, “we have a lot of lost time to make up for.”

“Aries,” I breathe, my body already responding to his touch.

“Mmm?” His mouth finds that spot on my neck that makes me melt.

“We’re going to scandalize the crew.”

His laugh rumbles against my throat. “Let them be scandalized. After fiveannumsof avoidance and twolunarsof trials, I think we’ve earned the right to be thoroughly inappropriate.”

Outside our viewport, stars wheel in their eternal dance, but inside our quarters—our home—we create our own universe of heat and passion and perfect freedom. No morerules. No more barriers. Just us, finally able to love each other exactly as we choose.

Wild. Desperate. Completely ours to forge as we want.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Epilogue

One Year Later

Callie

The first months after we left Sanctorii passed in a blur of adjustments. Integrating back into crew life, processing our experiences, learning to touch freely after so long with restrictions. We chose theDevil’s Playground, drawn to Captain Beast’s offer of transport missions over theGalaxy Warrior’sdangerous rescue operations.

But as our first rescue mission approached—a distress call from a failing slave transport—I realized we’d been preparing for this moment all along. Every trial we’d endured, every barrier we’d overcome, had been leading us here: using our freedom to free others.

Here we are, still in our bed, wrapped in each other’s arms as I—

The alarm klaxons shatter the peaceful morning as theDevil’s Playgrounddrops out of hyperspace. I’m already moving before my feet hit the deck, muscle memory from a year of rescue missions taking over.

“Bridge, now!” Captain Beast’s voice booms through the ship’s comm system. “We’ve got a situation.”

Aries is beside me instantly, both of us pulling on clothes as we race through the corridors. The controlled chaos of an emergency response flows around us—crew members rushing to battle stations, the familiar hum of weapons systems coming online.

“What’s the situation?” I ask as we burst onto the bridge.

Captain Beast’s massive frame dominates the viewport, his expression grim. “Slave transport, dead in space. Life support failing.” He gestures to the drifting ship ahead. “Forty-seven souls aboard, including children.”

The familiar surge of determination floods through me. This is why we do this—why we’ve spent the last year working with Captain Zar-Rynn to expand our rescue operations. Every soul we save is a victory against the system that once held us captive.

“Transport prepped and ready,” Aries reports from the tactical station, already shifting into his role as head of security. “Medical teams standing by.”

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