“I want you,” Lyra said. “I choose you. I’m already yours. I want you to be mine.”

“Then come with me,” Jaden said, and he laughed from nerves and excitement. “Come with me before you change your mind.”

“I’m not going to,” Lyra said, and her smile was beautiful. It was everything.

As Jaden led her from the room, he felt himself flooded with a strange emotion, one that was vaguely familiar though it took him a moment to recognize it.

He wasn’t sure, but he thought it might be happiness.

Chapter TWENTY-THREE

LYRA BARELY REGISTERED the walk from the parlor up to Jaden’s room. She felt like she was floating, anchored only by the rapid fluttering of her heart. But she no longer had any doubts. Being with Jaden felt right. She wanted to join with him, fully. And when it was done, she planned to tell him what was in her heart.

That would be the right time, she knew. And since she’d never said the words to any man, and never planned to say them to another, she wanted the timing to be perfect. It was amazing, how quickly doubt had fallen away once she’d seen his face.

She loved him.

Even with all the uncertainty before her, knowing that, accepting that, was all that seemed to matter right now. His love was the one thing she had been able to depend on through everything. And in return, she would give him whatever she had to give.

Right now, that amounted to her body, and her heart.

When he opened the door to the bedroom, Lyra eyed the mass of blankets and sheets in the middle of the bed with a wrinkled nose.

“We should probably burn those,” she said.

His laugh was music.

“Later. The featherbed is comfortable, I swear.”

Jaden closed the door, plunging the room back into darkness, though her wolf’s eyes adjusted quickly. Even in the absence of light, Jaden was beautiful, she thought. And the way he was looking at her made her feel more precious than gold. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but one she savored.

Jaden’s eyes sparked that amazing blue and began to glow softly as he approached her. His expression held so much longing that it took Lyra’s breath away. Why had she been denying herself this, she wondered? All this time, he had been hers for the taking, and she’d wasted it. No longer.

“I wish I hadn’t fought it,” she whispered, at a loss for the words that would properly express her regret.

“Don’t,” Jaden said. “It wouldn’t have meant anything to you if you hadn’t. And I wouldn’t love you if you didn’t fight.” He lifted his hand to stroke her hair, her cheek, his eyes drinking her in with a thirst unlike any she had known. His words washed through her like moonlight.

“Be with me,” she said, her voice a plea, a sigh. “Please.”

“Your wish,” he murmured, his breath feathering her face, “my command.”

His mouth claimed hers in a series of teasing kisses designed to heighten her already fathomless desire. Jaden’s hands dropped to her shirt as he continued his sweet torment, lifting the fabric gently to expose bare, creamy skin. She shivered in the cool air as she helped him, then tugged at his own top. It was gone in seconds, his motions quickening as need sparked and caught fire.

“You’re cold,” he murmured, pulling her to him. His own skin was far cooler than her own, and yet it had the opposite effect, sending heat coiling through her. His hands slid up her back, unfastening the clip of her bra to send that sliding to the floor. She closed her eyes and exhaled, half sigh, half moan as her bare breasts pressed against his skin. The nipples quickly pebbled into tight, sensitized buds, and every movement he made as he shifted against her was exquisite torment. Jaden’s hands slipped down to cup her ass and pull her into him.

He was already rigid through the fabric of his jeans. Instinctively, Lyra arched into him, trying to get closer to his heat. She heard his shuddering breath, and he skimmed his lips down her cheek, her jawline, awakening thousands of tiny nerve endings that danced and quavered.

“Beautiful Lyra,” he murmured. “I can never get enough of you.”

“Don’t try,” she replied softly. “I’m here. I’m yours. Take as much as you want… there will always be more.”

His laugh was like dark velvet. “You don’t know how badly I’ve been wanting to hear you say that. Mine,” he sighed. And then again, with dark possession that made her tremble with need, “Mine.”

It was a word she’d once feared but now knew could be the sweetest heaven when the one possessing was also willfully possessed. She belonged with him. And she was so tired of fighting it when he was all she wanted.

They came together more eagerly now, mouths and tongues tangling in an ancient dance as they fumbled with their clothes. Lyra’s hands roamed over his silken skin, unable to get enough of him, wanting to touch him everywhere. As incredible as the first time had been, she knew this would be more.

She pulled away only for a moment to drop onto the bed, landing amid the pillow-soft bedding to watch Jaden immediately come after her, on all fours, his ebony hair falling into his face and looking for all the world like a fallen angel. When she reached for him, he pushed her back gently with a small, wicked smile.

“Mine,” he repeated. Then his mouth was on her, and she forgot to breathe as he began to claim her in earnest. He trailed a hot path down her body, beginning at the neck, where he kissed and nibbled down the long curve. She could feel the tiny points of his fangs graze her skin, a decadent reminder of what he was—and what he could do to her.

What he would do to her.

Knowing what lay ahead fueled the fire burning deep within Lyra, as did Jaden’s talented mouth as he suckled her breasts, drawing the tight buds between his teeth and lavishing them with attention. Lyra writhed beneath him, wanting more, restlessly urging him on with her body when words failed her.

He delved lower, swirling his tongue in the indent of her navel before sliding lower… lower…

Lyra cried out when he laved the throbbing bud of her sex in one long, hot stroke of his tongue, her hips jerking off the bed as everything inside her tightened with exquisite anticipation. She looked down to see his dark head between her thighs, and the sight alone was enough to push her even closer to the shimmering edge.

She wanted… yes, she wanted…

With only a few rhythmic laps of his tongue, Lyra came with a sharp cry, her body bowing upward. And still he tormented her, wringing every ounce of pleasure from her until she was shaking. Even then, she knew he was nowhere near finished. Nor did she want him to be.

Her breath came in short gasps as Jaden rose over her, her dark god of night. Their eyes caught, held. And in his, she saw the truth of his feelings for her. They were as real as the heart that beat against her chest, and her own heart sang in response. She had only a single word, ragged and broken as she lifted up against him.

“Yes.”

He was inside her in one long, hard stroke, filling her completely, stretching her so that each shift as he settled sent sensation shimmering over her skin. His beautiful face contorted as he moaned, the sound welling up from the depths of him and reverberating through her, making her hot, making her impossibly, deliciously wet. Lyra’s hands went to the sharp juts of his hips, wanting to feel the flex and release of every thrust. He began to move, slowly at first, then faster as the passion took them.

In the darkness, Lyra clung to him as she felt the magic coil outward from the very center of her, intensifying sensation, binding them together as a single being. She heard his shuddering breaths as he began to feel it, rippling over skin, urging him to pump deeper, harder. The bed rocked beneath them, and the soft, guttural sounds Jaden made at the apex of each thrust were driving Lyra slowly wild. She gave over to the instincts, to her wolf, letting her claws lengthen, her teeth sharpen. She wanted only this vampire, both man and cat, and she told him so with her words, her mouth, her body.

She could feel him tensing, the air itself taking on an electric charge that would soon demand release. And everything inside her was winding tighter and tighter, until something had to let go.

They came together, Lyra slamming into him on a blinding flash of light as he went rigid, emptying himself into her with a shout. They clung to one another as the climax crashed through them, fusing them as one. Words echoed in her head, a chant.

Eternally entwined… eternally entwined…

“Your bite,” she whispered in his ear. “Now…”

She heard him gasp a word of praise to the gods above, and it made her smile even through the incredible sensations flooding her. He sank his teeth in, and she felt the night burst around her as though she were at the center of a supernova.

For the first time Lyra truly let go, swept into the sweet darkness of the man she loved, feeling herself changing as invisible bonds wrapped them together, gossamer threads as strong as iron, as unbreakable as forever. He drank, shuddering with pleasure, and then lifted his head to kiss her lips, letting her taste what she had given him.

The words rose in her mind, and she opened her mouth, glad to finally give him this gift, the only one she had to give.

“Jaden,” she murmured. “I—”

But she stopped and stilled as a terrible pounding began at the front door, and she heard her name being called in an anguished voice she was stunned to recognize.

“Simon?”

Jaden stilled above her, then sighed.

“That doesn’t sound good,” he said. “We’d better go see.”

Chapter TWENTY-FOUR

SHE THREW ON CLOTHES in the darkness, then headed for the door.

“What do you think he’s doing here?” Jaden asked. He sounded angrier than she normally heard him, but she didn’t blame him. The thought of seeing Simon, or any of her pack again, gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Not even her oldest friend had stepped up to defend her. It wouldn’t have made any difference, but the support would have given her some small comfort.

Instead, she had left the pack without a soul to speak for her but the man beside her. And she wasn’t going to forget it. Jaden, however, seemed worried as they stepped out into the light of the hallway and hurried toward the stairs.