Outside, Lucan gripped Anka against his chest, ready to teleport away, the urgency to get her home and plaster her naked skin against his and force energy into her little body strangling him. But he owed Shock something.

“Fuck that,” Shock growled. “You owe me squat. Go.”

“You’re not in mate mourning.”

Shock hesitated. “Maybe it’s delayed?”

“Mine hit instantly. It disconnected all rational thought from my brain to the rest of my body. Instinct took over, and only my mate would do. If you’re feeling none of that, she wasn’t the mate of your heart, either.”

Without waiting for a reply, Lucan teleported back to the house he’d shared with Anka for over a century. As he landed in the middle of the foyer, Caden and Sydney both came dashing into the room.

His sister-by-mating gasped in horror at Anka’s limp form, staring with wide brown eyes.

“Dear God,” his brother whispered. “Is she—”

“No. I won’t let her, damn it. Sydney, start making her a bit of food. Have it ready in thirty minutes. Caden, run her a hot shower. I’ll get her ready.”

Both nodded. Sydney scampered off to the kitchen, and Lucan heard her rummaging through the refrigerator. Caden jogged up the stairs in record time. The water sluiced down the glass walls of the shower enclosure as Lucan strode through the door of the master suite. He passed his brother as he made for the exit. They exchanged a solemn glance before Caden clapped him on the shoulder with a bracing nod and left. In that moment, Lucan knew that his younger brother would be there for him, no matter what, in whatever way he needed.

The second the door closed, Lucan stripped himself with a snap of his fingers, then ripped away the sheet covering Anka and carried her limp form into the steamy shower, grateful for the scalding water on her frigid skin.

How the fuck to do this? How to awaken her enough to feel pleasure, to drive her body to the orgasm she would need for them to exchange a full dose of power? Or would that drain her? Did he hold her through his own release and hope that enabled her to open her eyes and accept the rest of what she needed? Time would help him figure it out, but he had none in which to dither or debate.

Bloody hell, he’d never felt less like sex in his life.

Swallowing back his panic and worry, he chose instinctually. If she’d been feeling adrift and disconnected during the mate breaking, he wouldn’t leave her alone now. But she was in no shape to give him even a drop of energy.

Sitting on the tiled bench in the shower, he pulled Anka onto his lap, facing and straddling him, then braced her against his chest. The hot spray hit her back, and her skin slowly warmed. He prayed it would keep her from draining altogether. The rest was up to him—and her drive to live.

Quickly, he took his cock in hand and stroked, thumbing the sensitive head, willing himself to harden as he spoke to Anka. “Love, I’m here. Please take from me. Don’t give up. Don’t leave. I am always here for you. I’ll do whatever it takes to show you.”

No response—from her or his cock. Fuck. He had to reach her. She deserved everything he could give her.

Anka behaved courageously because she was brave. Hell, she’d gone to meet Morganna alone and was likely still suffering some effects of the spell. But beneath her barriers, Anka was fragile and scared. Revenge and independence—she’d been trying to march to those drums for months. They were providing the beat of her life now, but Anka’s nature was to give. She surrendered—herself, her trust, her love. Without a mate she had no one to share herself with. Anka might have changed in some ways. In others, she was still the witch who wanted to belong, who wanted to be loved. It stood to reason that she still wanted to give her heart and her future to the man who would love her forever.

She needed to know he was that man.

Lucan took hold of her face and softly kissed her lips. “Become a part of me, as I become a part of you. And ever after, I promise myself to thee. Each day we share, I shall be honest, good, and true. If this you seek, heed my Call. From this moment on, there is no other for me but you.”

In his arms, Anka shuddered and gasped.

Hope squeezed his heart. “There’s never been anyone for me but you, love. Open your eyes. Let me prove it.”

She whimpered, struggled to comply. Anticipation was a slick mistress, teasing him with possibilities as he held his breath. But Anka eventually slumped against his chest in exhaustion once more.

His mood deflated…along with his cock.

Angry tears threatened. He wanted to punch something. Rail and curse. Break glass and tear down walls. Lucan contained his rage. He fucking refused to give up. She’d come back from Mathias, from Morganna. She needed him now. He wasn’t letting her go.

Lucan focused on a fantasy in which Anka sat cradled on his lap, the moonlight shining on her rosy skin. In that vision, she heard his Call and opened her luminous eyes to smile at him, to Bind to him, then opened her mouth and her thighs to him. The vivid image pumped blood through his body in a rush. He got iron hard in an instant and couldn’t push his way inside Anka fast enough. He needed to feel his beloved grip him in all her tight, spectacular glory.

Lucan positioned her wilting body over him, the petals of her sex opening as he breached her with the head of his cock. He hissed at the fiery line of pleasure zipping down his body while he cupped her face in his hands and swept his lips over hers. Her cool lips didn’t deter him. Anka would come back to him, by God. Somehow, some way, he would restore her. If he had to exhaust and deplete himself to fill her with all his energy, reassure her with his every word and breath that he would never leave her alone again—whatever it took—he would do it.

Eating at her lips hungrily, he took possession of her body, pressing deep inside her, feeling her flesh stretch to accommodate him. Bloody hell… He groaned as he slid in to the hilt, and she squeezed him in welcome.

Every touch now was a revelation. Anka didn’t move with him, but her quick breathing, her pliant flesh, told him that she felt their connection every bit as much as he did. She might not yet have the energy to be with him physically, but mentally? They were fused together. She felt everything he did.

Anka gasped into his mouth as he lifted his hips up, driving deeper into her body as he feathered his lips over hers again and again.

“You’re not alone, love. Do you feel me? Take me. Together, we’ll fight.”

She sighed into his kiss and leaned, grimacing until she wrenched one arm up, throwing it over his shoulder. Anka was reaching for him, wanting him! He thrust faster inside her.

“That’s it, love. Move with me as much as you can. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Fuck, you feel so good.”

The soft grip of her folds closing around him and growing slicker by the moment twisted his entire body into a seething need he knew only Anka could fulfill. Lucan shoved aside everything but the soaring pleasure, the tingles jetting up his body, the heavy ache burning in his balls. He laid her head on his shoulder gently, then gripped her backside like a man possessed and shoved his way deep into her body, grunting with every upward thrust. Damn it, he had to give to her every bit of energy he could generate so she would open her eyes and become his again.

Her lush breasts bobbed enticingly against his chest. He lifted one of the distended peaks to his mouth and sucked hard, curling his tongue around her, nipping with his teeth, as he pushed into her snug sex again.

Anka arched. More of her gorgeous flesh filled his mouth, and he suckled it all greedily before moving to the other and doing the same. White-hot need seared him. Sweat joined the warm water rolling down his face. He moaned with every rough breath as he drove deeper into her.

She managed to raise her other arm and curl it around his neck, as well, then moaned softly. “Lu…can.”

“Yes, love. Be with me. Feel me. I’m going to give you everything you need.”

“So…tired.”

“I know. Soon, you’ll feel better. Don’t give up now.”

“Burning up.”

The residuals of Morganna’s spell? “You need me?”

She murmured a sound that he took for assent as he pounded into her tight, liquid sex with a roar. Ecstasy pooled like a thick, drowning quicksand. It sucked him under, scraping down his back to gather at the base of his spine. Tingles brewed there, boiling. Everything inside him tightened, compelling him to fuck her faster. He couldn’t goddamn breathe as desire stomped him flat. His heart drummed in his ears. The only other sound he heard over it was the rough sawing of his breath with every thrust in and out of her swollen pussy.

Fuck, he’d missed having her, making love to her in their house. He was bloody glad now that he’d never once managed to bring another woman into this room to try to exorcise Anka’s ghost haunting his soul. This space belonged to them and the love they’d always share, no matter what happened or how much time passed. Eternity eventually eroded everything, but Lucan swore not even it could tear down this love.

After today, she would be here with him always, beside him at night, the first face he saw each day. The lips he kissed. The woman he held. They would live and love forever.

Joy erupted at the same time pleasure peaked. He held her against his chest and curled his arms around the backs of her shoulders, fingers pushing her down onto his eager cock. He growled a primal sound of possession as ecstasy detonated inside him and blew him completely away. The sensation of being suspended in the cocoon of pleasure with her went on for long, gorgeous moments. Around him, her slick walls grasped him gently. Bloody hell, he wished he could send her into this climactic bliss with him, but she couldn’t afford the loss of energy. Not yet. Instead, he moaned against her mouth as he poured his seed deep inside her, vowing he’d make it up to her.

Finally, she opened her eyes, her mouth. And her soul.

She gasped as if coming awake from a dream and blinked at him, her amber eyes confused but alert. “You did it. You brought me through!”

“I wasn’t giving up, love. I’m never giving up.”

He kissed her, his tongue sweeping into her mouth to begin showing her again exactly how much he meant that. And how much he loved her.

~ ~ ~ ~

Though every muscle in her body ached, despite the warm spray of water at her back, when Lucan ended the kiss, Anka lifted her lashes slowly, focusing on her surroundings. The bathroom, dimly lit by the moon and the light flooding in from the adjacent bedroom, was painfully familiar. Her eyes went wide. “You’ve brought me back…” Home.

She didn’t dare breathe the word, much less believe it.

Lucan cradled her face in his hands, fusing his gaze to hers. His intent stare willed her to listen. “To our home, yes. You belong here.”

The sweet words were nearly her undoing, just like those she remembered piercing her unconsciousness. “Y-you Called to me again?”

“I can’t be any clearer about what I want, love.” The blueness of his eyes was magnified by the fringe of thick, black lashes. He ripped past her defenses and looked right into her soul. “Whatever Mathias did to you, however you think that’s damaged you, why ever you think you’re not good enough…it’s all shit. You and me and what we feel—that’s all that matters.”

“I’m scarred.” He knew that, but still the words popped out like a confession.

Lucan shrugged. “I’ve picked up a few nicks in my hide these past months. The Anarki, Zain, Mathias, they’ve all taken chunks out of me here and there. I didn’t always care enough to acquire the energy to fix it.”

“But my family, they aren’t…”

“I mated with you, not your bloodline.” He frowned at her. “Love, you’ve always tried so hard to please me, and I adored you for it. But none of what’s worrying you is your fault. If anyone should be apologizing, it’s me. After you’d healed my mate mourning, I should never have let you go. I should have grabbed you, told you exactly how I felt, and refused to let you leave me. But I didn’t fight. Your rejection stunned me. I let it crush me. I took your refusals to mean that you no longer loved me.”

Guilt crushed her into a million pieces. She clapped a hand over her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes. “I loved you too much to drag you into what I’d become.” And what I still am.

God, he was stripping his soul so bare for her, how could she keep her banshee bloodline a secret? She couldn’t, if she wanted him in her life. She had to be honest with him. But how could she tell him such a terrible truth—one she’d kept from him for over a century?

Lucan snapped his fingers, bringing her focus back to him immediately. “Are you hurting? Need something?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t know where or why your mind wandered, but it needs to stay here, on us.”

Anka nodded. “Sorry. Yes.”

“Good. When I’m done, you’ll tell me what’s on your mind, yes?”