Page 54 of Fourth

Her skin flushed in the dim light, her breasts rising and falling with unsteady, uneven breaths. The faint, unmistakable scent of her—human and uniquely hers—wrapped around him like a tether, heating his blood in a way no battle ever had. It drove the need deeper, tightening his focus until there was nothing in the room buther.

When his hands cupped her, sliding down to her thighs, she let him. Her legs fell open beneath his touch, offering herself up in a silent challenge he was not capable of resisting.

He bent his head to her throat, biting down lightly, dragging his teeth along the curve of her neck. His hands gripped her wrists, pinning them beside her head as he drove into her without preamble. No slow lead-up. No hesitation.

She cried out, lifting beneath him, her body clenching around his in a frantic rhythm that pushed every thought from hismind.

There was only this. Only her. Her heat. Her voice. Her skin shivering against his, as if each sound she made etched itself intohim.

Hevexxedher like it was a battle, each thrust as relentless as a strike on the field, driven by the same force that once kept him alive in war. But this was not about survival. It was about claiming her, connecting her to him as irrevocably as any victory he had ever carved from chaos.

His thrusts were brutal, deep, the kind that left bruises. His hands left marks where they gripped her wrists, his teeth leaving faint imprints along her throat and shoulder. But she met him stroke for stroke, gasping his name, her voice cracking on it, not with pain or fear, but with blistering need. Each cry urging him on, begging for more. Rougher. Harder. Endlesslymore.

Her legs locked around him, nails grazing down his back in a searing, claiming touch. Every sound she made was a demand, each moan and whispered plea telling him she wanted all of it—wanted him exactly likethis.

The bond between them throbbed hot and alive. It was not just a physical connection. It was everything. Heat. Hunger. Possession.

When her body tightened around him, when her cry broke across the air, he lost all remaining restraint. His own climaxtore through him like a nova surge, violent and consuming, leaving him shuddering againsther.

He did not move. Couldnot.

His hands still pinned hers to the bed. Her warmth flickered beneath his skin, fast and undeniable.

“Mine,” he said, voice intense. “Always.”

Maya froze, caught in the gravity of his words, but she did not pull away. Her hands curled around his fingers, holding on just as tightly.

There would be no more hesitation. No more waiting. His mind was already calculating distances and terrain, memorizing scent markers and wind patterns. The Bonded Chase would not just be compulsion, it would be strategy. And he would use every skill he possessed to bring her back tohim.

At sunsrise, the Bonded Chase would begin. But until then, this was theirs—abrief, defiant moment carved out against fate. And as long as she was in his arms, Riv’En would not allow her to be lost. Not to death. Not to anyone. Notever.

RIV’EN WOKEsometime in the middle of the night, his senses snapping back to full alert before his eyes had opened. Maya was still wrapped in his arms, her body soft and warm against his. Her breath brushed against his collarbone, but even in sleep, she murmured faintly in her dreams, arestless sound that spoke of some lingering fear even while unconscious.

He tightened his hold on her, his palm smoothing over her back, securing her against him. The room was dark, the only light the twinkling glow of the flowering plants scattered throughout the residence, their bioluminescent petals shifting in color like the pulse of a quiet star. But it was not the darkness or the silence that pressed onhim.

It was the burden of what was coming.

Slowly, Maya stirred against him, her hand sliding up his chest. “Riv’En...?”

“I am here,” he said, voice low and calm. “Sleep.”

But she did not. Her fingers tightened. “I can’t.” Her voice was gruff. Honest. “Tomorrow... what if it doesn’t work? What if I can’t... what if we fail?”

He slid his hand to her jaw, tilting her face up until he could see her eyes, silver-blue in the faint light. “It will work,” he said. “You will not fail. Iwill not fail.”

She stirred, as if his certainty struck something deep and unsteady inside her. “But how can you know that?”

“Because I know you.” His thumb brushed her cheekbone. “And because I have experienced it before, the last time we had a Chase. What you did, when we were on Earth. That instinct in you is real. It is part of you now.” He hesitated, voice dropping lower. “During the Bonded Chase, you must let it happen again. You must not fight it. Surrender to it. And this time bite me.”

A sharp tremor rippled beneath his hand. “That hunger... the ache. Idon’t know if I can control it.”

“You are not meant to control it.” His voice was hard now, not from anger but from certainty. “You are meant to surrenderto it. To feel it as deeply as I do. That is what will complete the bond. That is what will save us.”

Maya’s throat worked as she swallowed. Her fingers curled into his skin. “And what about you?”

“I will be there.” He bent his head, brushing his lips against hers. Not a kiss—just contact. Apromise. “I will find you.”

Her exhale broke on a soft sound. “Riv’En... Idon’t want to lose you.”

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