Page 43 of Third

The bracelets vibrated harder now, reacting to the emotional escalation—an urgent warning of how close he hovered to losing control, or perhaps a dark encouragement to surrender to the bond’s inexorable pull. Tor’Vek no longer knew. Or cared. All that existed was the taste of her, the delicate, fierce heat of her mouth opening to his, the way her body trembled against him, not in fear, but in surrender.

He kissed her like a drowning man finding air, like a warrior driven past reason into raw instinct. With the consuming, savage need of a man who had fought the universe itself—and lost to the one thing he could not defeat.

Her.

Her.

Chapter11

ANYA COULDN’Tbreathe. Her lungs seized, her heart slammed painfully against her ribs, and the heated imprint of Tor’Vek’s mouth still burned against herlips.

The kiss left her wrecked, her entire body pulsing with confusion and heat. When Tor’Vek finally pulled away, it was only by a fraction. His forehead dropped against hers, his breathing harsh and uneven, and she could feel the tension radiating off him in waves like he was fighting some brutal internalwar.

The bond between them snapped tight, alive wire of need and fury and something darker she couldn’tname.

Her hands were still flattened against the hard muscle of his chest beneath his shirt, feeling the rapid hammer of his heart. She wanted to pull away, but some instinct deeper than fear kept her rooted in place.

His voice rumbled low, stripped and rough. “Iwill not take what you do not give freely.”

The words stunned her. Not just the meaning—but the sheer force behind them, the way his restraint felt like a chain yanked tight around a predator ready to strike.

Her breath hitched, her entire body caught between terror and something hotter, something dangerous.

The craving between them surged, raw and violent, making her ache with a need she didn’t understand—ascorching, liquid heat pooling low in her belly, tightening her thighs, and sending shivers racing across her skin with every heartbeat. It pulsed through the bond, louder than thought, drowning out everything buthim.

When he staggered back a step, it was as if the bond itself recoiled, and the low growl that tore from his chest made herjump.

“Do not move away,” he insisted harshly, his voice like crushed stone.

She nodded without thinking, driven by something primal and inexorable.

Tor’Vek dropped heavily onto a battered bench near the ship’s damaged wall, pulling her down with him. She landed astride his lap, and his arms locked around her, steel-hard and immovable. Not forceful. Not demanding.

Necessary.

Her pulse pounded in her ears, her breathing ragged and shallow. The bond throbbed low and deep, tying them together, binding her to the impossible heat of hisbody.

Tor’Vek exhaled roughly, aharsh, searing rush of heat against her throat that made her shiver. He pressed his face into the crook of her neck, inhaling like he could drag her scent straight into his lungs and keep it there.

“Icannot be away from you,” he growled against her throat.

The words weren’t an apology. They were a brutal, alpha truth, apossession laid bare without shame.

She shivered, her fingers threading instinctively into his thick, black hair laced with stark white—the unearthly mark of what he’d told her was his Final Flight. The silky locks slipped through her fingers, both alien and achingly beautiful. She tilted her head just enough to see him: the hard, masculine lines of his face, every angle a study in power and ruthless elegance.

His amethyst eyes glowed with an unearthly light, piercing her with a gaze so raw and consuming it stole her breath. His bronzed skin stretched over thick cords of muscle, radiating heat and strength, aliving fortress wrapped around her. Everything about him screamed otherworldly, lethal—and heartbreakingly magnificent. She held him closer, unable to resist the magnetic pull of the warrior who should have terrified her, but instead made her feel… claimed.

And in that moment, tangled together, breath for breath, heartbeat for heartbeat, she understood:

There was noher.

There was nohim.

There was only them—caught in a bond that neither of them could break, no matter how dangerous or inevitable the fall might become.

Anya barely dared to breathe.

The heat of Tor’Vek’s body pressed against hers, the low, savage throb of the bond pulsing like a second heartbeat beneath her skin. His forehead still rested against hers, their breaths tangling, but something had shifted—something darker, hungrier, clawing its way to the surface.

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