“How are you feeling?” I asked her softly, seeing how she was tucked in her mind, not hiding from me, but lost to what she was exposed to.

I understood. The second my father had died, it had hit me too, and that was why I hadn’t killed Kingsley Rainford immediately. I’d been tucked up in bed as millennia’s worth of information transferred over to me.

“Tired, I suppose. But I’m the one who should be asking you that.”

I shrugged. “All is well. You know that.”

“I do. That fruit was weird.”

“It’s supposed to be. It’s a piece of the Mother’s heart.”

“Creepy,” she muttered.

“Infinitely.” I reached for her hand, gently clasped my fingers about hers, and whispered, “Swim with me?”

She pressed her other hand to the stone and used it to lever off the rock. As she slipped into the water, she immediately moved into me, and when her arms clasped my waist and I felt her face burrow into the sparse hair on my chest, I was touched to feel the wetness that had nothing to do with being in a pool of water.

It had everything to do with her being upset.

“I almost lost you,” she rasped.

“But you didn’t,” I soothed.

“That doesn’t make it better.”

“I knew the Mother would help us.”

“I did too,” she huffed. “Once I stopped panicking. But that didn’t make me worry less. It’s not like you can go anywhere until we have a child, and in the chaos, me getting pregnant and spawning a gazillion kids wasn’t going to put my mind at rest.”

My lips twitched. “A gazillion? We’ll only have one.”

That took the wind from her sails. “Only one?”

I laughed. “Weren’t you just complaining about that?”

“Well, that was before,” she grumbled.

“Before what?”

“Before I knew we’d only have one,” she argued, but her arms tightened around my waist even more, to the point of discomfort. I got it though. I did. And I let my embrace reflect the need I felt for her, a need that went beyond sexual, that was even beyond corporeal.

I needed her in a way no man had ever needed his woman.

But she’d been through a lot today, and I wasn’t going to rush her. Wasn’t going to—

Her tongue traced over my pec, instantly making any and every thought whisper away. I had to cover the urge to groan just in case she stopped, but when her hands moved down to my butt, when she dug her nails into me, I didn’t even bother, just tipped my head down and pressed a kiss to her cheek, her temple, wherever I could reach.

She traced kisses of her own over to my nipples, licking and nipping as she moved before she hit the nub and started sucking on it. I gritted my teeth, annoyed by how susceptible I was to her, even if I loved it too.

My cock hardened, and I felt it rub against her stomach. Her back arched, and she shimmied against me, making the water splash, and I ground my dick into her, loving that she responded like wildfire, that she hitched her leg around my hip and hiked her way up my body.

From zero to hero, that kiss had morphed into something else. Her heat rocked against my belly, caressing the tip of my dick as water trickled down over me, and I grunted as our mouths finally collided.

She took total charge, and I let her. I had a feeling this might be her first time, and I was fine with her taking control, leaving her to set the pace, because I knew this was the one thing in this situation she could manage. The second she’d taken the fox bead, I’d learned about her. Everything that she’d hope I couldn’t know.

I knew about the taunts at school, the almost-assault that had only stopped when a teacher had walked into the locker room, I knew about the endless search for a quiet place, somewhere to live without being bothered, and I knew about the many years in a cabin in the middle of a forest.

I knew too much, but it would never be enough. What I knew revealed a past that saddened me, that urged me to do everything I could to improve her present and her future.

It was my task as her mate, but it was my pleasure, my joy to see her content. To see her living her best life. To be one of the reasons for it.

Her mouth trailed over my throat, licking along the sinew there, sucking down against my pulse point before she palpated it over the throbbing flesh, and I had to admit that, however I’d expected to spend the rest of the night once I dropped her off from the diner after our informal meal together, it wasn’t here. It wasn’t with her on me, trying to get so close because skin to skin wasn’t enough.

I groaned, unable to stop it as I moved my hand down over her ass and between her buttcheeks. When I encountered her wet slit, I traced further down and began to nudge her clit from the back. She squealed, hips rocking against me and my finger, before she nipped my throat. Hard enough to sting.

My dick pulsated at the touch, loving the bite, and when she moved higher, tracing along the hard line of my jaw, I said nothing, just let her explore, so long as she was happy to let me explore too.

I rubbed her clit, loving the mewls that vibrated against my skin, loving how she found no shame in her feet digging into my butt, her hips arching as she worked herself against me, helping me help her experience pleasure.

She finally found my mouth, her lips moving to mine, and when she ate at me, her tongue thrusting in deep, kissing me like I’d kissed her earlier, I grunted as she gave me everything she had to give.

She had no yeowoo guseul, but she didn’t need to have it. She was everything because she was mine.

Her knees squeezed my waist, and I had to admit, I’d never anticipated making my claim here, in Nevaehai, but it was right. It was perfect.

She arched up, like our thoughts were running parallel, and reached between us, her hand on my dick as she slipped the tip into her gate. My nostrils flared, discerning the faintest trace of hyena, but mostly, she scented of me. Of kumiho. Perfect.

I’d never imagined how orgasmic a smell could be, but then, I’d never met her before.

Darting forward as she slipped down onto me, I pulled her nipple into my mouth and suckled on it, tracing my teeth around the tip, licking and flicking as she rode me while I supported us both in the water.

Surface licks fluttered against our skin, the fall made waves shudder and lap too, forcing sensation after sensation onto us, amping up something that was already incredibly powerful. A groan rumbled from me as she ground herself into me, harder and faster, proving she wasn’t the virgin I’d thought as she moved against me like a woman who knew what she wanted—and I was damn glad for that.

I wanted her to know her body, wanted her to own it, to own her pleasure. To demand it from me, to take it.

Nibbling her nipple, I pulled back and did as she had, nuzzling between her chest before moving upward, licking and flicking, sucking here and there, before I reached her throat. I sucked on her pulse point, making parallel moves with every single one she made, and I groaned in response to the way her pussy tightened down around me.

Her head fell back, her hair trailing down, tickling over my hands which were high up on her shoulders and low at the base of her back as I supported her.

She rocked harder, getting herself off, taking us both higher and higher, until she clenched down around me, hard enough to trigger the knot.