Her eyes narrowed. “You have no right to judge my actions.”

“Why not? Because you’re a queen and queens are always right? Like when they ask their sons to kill a whole bloodline because of jealousy and misinformation, or when they threaten to kill a woman because they don’t like her face, or maybe when they turn people they profess to love into puppets.”

Her eyes widened slightly at that, and her mouth compressed into a thin line. I held her gaze before sliding it toward Keon then back to her. Yeah. I know, bitch.

The blood drained from her face and her throat bobbed. “If the Seraphim fight with us then they have my word they will be pardoned. They will not be hunted again.”

I didn’t even bother to hide my disgust. “I don’t think they give a shit what you think, but sure, I’ll pass that along.”

“It’s not safe right now,” Azazel said. “Mammon will have scouts looking for us.”

“Then I’ll wait till the early hours of the morning.”

Samael took my hand in both his, holding it as if it was a precious thing. “Whatever happens with the Seraphim, I’m proud of you for your foresight and fortitude.”

He pulled me in for a hug and the tension bled out of me.

“Take a bunker and rest,” he said as he released me. “You’ll want to travel several miles from here before you summon your friend. You’ll need to recharge.”

I nodded and turned away, but not before I caught the glint of malice in Lilith’s eyes.

The cavern wasn’t so warm anymore.

There were several small bunkers available, but Samael showed me to a larger one reserved for the Generals and the Dominus. Lilith had put serious effort into this cavern. It was its own self-contained eco system with running water, plumbing, and food stores.

The regular bunkers held beds, and communal washrooms could be found in a smaller chamber that ran off this larger one. But this elite bunker was kitted out with its own washroom and a double bed. The sheets weren’t fancy, and there was only one pillow, but fuck it felt good to take a load off.

I headed for the washroom, stripped off my battle bloody clothes, and stepped into the small shower cubicle. The water was tepid, and the bar of soap smelled of nothing, but it felt amazing sloughing off the dirt and blood from the battlefield. Shame I’d have to put the crusty clothes back on afterward.

I wrapped myself in the only towel I had and stepped back into the main part of the bunker to find Hunter standing by the bed.

“Hi.” I clutched the towel tighter. “Um…is everything okay?”

God, I sounded lame, but I wasn’t sure how to be with Hunter. His proximity always confused me, making my mind war with my body. I waited for the conflict, but this time it didn’t come.

Instead there was a calm and assurance that had been absent before. It thrummed between us, a part of our new, stronger connection.

“Hunter?”

His silence was unnerving.

“Is everything okay?”

“Can I hold you?” he asked.

I blinked at him in surprise. That was the last thing I was expecting him to say, but I found my feet carrying me across the room and into his arms. He held me like I was a fragile thing, like if he hugged me too tight, I might shatter.

“We started off so wrong,” he said. “Everything that’s happened between us so far has been twisted. I’m sorry. I need you to know it and believe it.”

There was an open sincerity in his tone. His guard was down, stripped bare. It was time.

“Not everything.” I pulled back slightly to look up at him. “You and I, we’re meant to be. The road’s been rough, but it’s the right road. I know that now.” I placed my palm to his chest, just over his heart. “Our connection is no longer turbulent and destructive. It’s calm, steady, and sure, just like I know you are.”

“You believe in me.” He looked surprised and guilt bit at my conscience.

I’d despised him for all the wrong reasons, not bothering to look beneath his arrogance for the insecurities. I hadn’t recognized the vulnerable heart beneath the tough exterior, but I did now. I knew who my mate was, and I knew what he needed.

I knew what I could give him.

I ran my fingers across his stubbled jaw and paused beneath his mouth. His gaze dropped to my lips in a question.

I touched his bottom lip lightly with my index finger. “Hunter, will you let me love you?”

His throat bobbed. “Fee?”

I pushed up on tiptoe and replaced my finger with my lips. He tasted like smoke and smelled like leather. I pulled back, seeing him properly for the first time. The handsome, chiseled, billionaire Loup was covered in grime and blood from the battlefield. He’d carried me for miles because we’d been unable to take to the air. He’d cradled me in his arms, and not even Grayson had dared take me from him.

He loved me.

Not just for the mate bond, but for me.

I allowed myself to crack my shields and was hit by a tumult of emotions: confusion, fear of rejection, and love. So much fucking love.

It was time to start a new chapter. I took his hand and drew him into the washroom.

He allowed me to undress him, dark eyes heating with every brush of my fingers against his bare skin. My hands trembled with the effort not to rush this. I trailed my fingers down his chest and tight abs to hover at the waistband of his pants.

He held his breath.

My gaze snapped up to claim his as I unbuckled him, and then I dropped to my knees, taking his pants with me.

He exhaled in a rush, fists clenching tight at his sides. His boxers strained with his arousal, and my heartbeat sped up as I hooked my fingers into the waistband and peeled them down.

He made a low sound, part groan, part sigh as I feasted my eyes on his naked form. Every dip and plane and hard ridge of muscle. Every velvet inch of him was perfection, and he was mine.

Mine.

My Loup surged to the surface, flooding me with the heat of an arousal that had an edge of pain to it. She wanted to rut. Now. I pushed her down. This wasn’t about fucking, or sex. This was about connecting emotionally.

I needed him to feel my soul. I turned on the shower and steered him into it, then dropped my towel.

His breathing grew shallow and fast as his gaze roved over me. He could have me, all of me. I wanted him to, but first…I picked up the soap and began to wash off the dregs of war from his skin. I soaped the rounded muscles of his shoulders, and then dragged my hands down to his chest, spanning his pecs and running over his washboard abs. He stood stock still, but his hungry eyes devoured me.

My Loup jumped beneath my skin, eager to be free. I ignored the throb between my thighs and focused on exploring every inch of him.

My hand drifted south, past the V at his waist and down to his arousal.

He growled, low and sexy. “Fee…”

I stepped closer, curling my fingers around him and locking gazes with him. “Yes?”

I began to pump him, slow and even, running my thumb over the slick head of his cock.

“Fuck.” He dropped his forehead to mine, shoulders heaving.

I worked him, pulse hammering, body tight and hungry for him as he swelled beneath my fingers. He was going to come.

“No.” He grabbed my wrist. “Not like this.”

He pinned me to the wall with his body, groin pressed to my abdomen, so his thick hot arousal pulsed against my wet skin.

“If I come, I come inside you,” he said.

Oh fuck.

The Loup broke free, surging up to take control and a low growl of need vibrated in my chest. Hunter claimed it with his mouth, breathing me in with a kiss that vibrated and tingled all the way to my toes.

I sank my fingers into his hair, molding my body to his as we devoured each other in tongue rasping kisses.

My skin heated at every point of contact and hunger ravaged my blood. He hauled me up, and I hooked my legs around his waist, gasping into his mouth as his arousal met mine, hard heat to pliable folds.

Oh shit, this wasn’t how it was meant to go. I pulled back, fighting the urge to rise up and take him inside me.

He grasped my jaw. “What is it? Do you want to stop?” Doubt flashed in his eyes.

“No, I just…I wanted to go slow. To make love to you.”

“Love…” He scanned my face. “You don’t love me, Fee…”

“I think I could if I allowed myself to. I know it. You deserve it. I’m so fucking sorry for not seeing that sooner.”

Hunter

No. It’s a lie.

She wants to love me.

No.

She thinks I deserve it.

The voice is silent and for the first time in a long time there is silence in my head. Something inside me breaks and melts, and a surge of emotion washes through me.

The voice that has plagued me on and off for the longest time is suddenly, utterly silent, and all that matters is the woman in my arms.

Pliant, willing, and mine.

She’s mine.

“I wanted to show you how it could be between us,” she says tentatively.

Oh god, she doesn’t get it. The fire, the violent coupling, the heat, that is us. It’s our dynamic, and I feel it stirring in my loins now—a swirling heat that only she can assuage.

I claim her pouty mouth in a crushing kiss that elicits a ragged moan. “This is us,” I kiss her again, tongue deep. “This is how it should be.” I pull back and position myself at her entrance. “This is me making love to you.” I bury myself deep inside her and revel in the sound of her cry of satisfaction. My mouth hovers over hers as I remain locked in place, unmoving.

“Hunter, please…”

I lick the seam of her mouth and roll my hips against hers, pushing deeper.

“Fuck…” Her eyelids flutter closed.

“Look at me.”

She obeys, and my heart swells at what I see in her eyes. Not need, or desire, but want. She wants me. Not her Loup. Her.

I begin to move.

She sheaths me in tight, wet perfection as I thrust deep, over and over, mouth hovering over hers, stealing kiss after kiss as we join. I swallow her cries and her gasps and then she jerks against me, her eyes fluttering closed. Her scent is in my head, the taste of her skin, the texture, I want it all. I need it all. I’m ravenous, desperate. She meets my thrusts with her own, thighs tightening, ass flexing beneath my hands. Fuck. I can’t hold back for much longer. She comes with a drawn-out groan milking my release, so it melds with her own and we come together in a tongue tangling kiss.