303 Soul–Bound

    b303 /bbSoul/b–Bound

    Mara

    We climbed the familiar path, hand in hand, the sea roaring below us like a heartbeat that matched our own. The wind tangled in my hair, lifting it against my cheeks, but I didn’t care. The horizon stretched endlessly, painted in shades of sapphire and silver, the promise of sunset still hours away.

    Lucian spread a nket across the grass, the same one we always carried with us, and I lowered myself onto it with a sigh. The world felt far away here, as though we had stepped outside of time itself. He joined me, his body warm against mine, and without a word, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me.

    It was not a gentle kiss. It was fierce, consuming, filled with the weight of everything we had endured and everything we refused to let go. His lips moved against mine with the urgency of a man who still feared he might lose me, and my hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer, needing the same reassurance.

    When he finally pulled back, his forehead rested against mine, his breath ragged. “I will never stop craving you,” he whispered, and the raw truth in his voice made my chest tighten.

    I cupped his face in my hands, my thumbs brushing the sharp lines of his cheekbones. “Then we are the

    same,” I murmured. “Because even after all this time, even after all the storms we weathered, I look at you and know I will never get enough.”

    He kissed me again, slower this time, lingering as though savoring me. The world shrank to the warmth of his

    body, the strength of his arms around me, the scent of leather and pine clinging to his skin. My heart swelled

    with so much love it felt almost unbearable.

    The afternoon stretched into gold around us. We spoke of little things at first, the children, the progress in

    the territories, the happiness of seeing Darian finally settled with Tiffany. But soon, our words turned softer,

    deeper, the kind of confessions that only spilled out when the world was quiet.

    “Do you ever think about how it all began?” I asked, tracing circles against the back of his hand. “We were

    strangers. Bound by duty, cheated out of choice. And yet…”

    “And yet,” he echoed, catching my hand and pressing his lips to my fingers, “we turned it into something beautiful. You turned it into something beautiful, Mara.”

    I smiled faintly, my chest tight. “We both did. I think that’s what amazes me the most. That from all that pain,

    all that disappointment, we built… this.”

    His gaze softened, and in the reflection of his eyes, I saw the sea, the sky, and the woman I had be. “We will give our children a better life,” he said firmly. “They will inherit not just power but peace. Not just titles,

    but a legacy of love.”

    The wind carried his words like a vow, and I leaned into him, closing my eyes. “That is all I could ever want.”

    As the sun began its descent, painting the horizon in streaks of crimson and gold, Lucian pulled me against him, his arms strong around my waist. We sat in silence, watching the world transform. The sea caught the fire of the sky, glittering with light, and for once, there were no shadows lurking behind us. Only the present. Only bliss.

    When his lips found mine again, softer this time, I knew that no matter what storms the future might bring,

    303 Soul–Bound

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    we had already won. We had carved joy out of sorrow, light out of darkness, love out of ruin. And that, more than anything, was a miracle worth holding on to.

    I promised myself then, with the sun setting before us and Lucian’s heartbeat steady against my own, that I would carry this bliss with me. I would guard it fiercely, and I would never let it slip away.

    Somehow, in all the ways that mattered, we were no longer strangers. We were soul–bound, eternal. And I knew, with every breath, that I would never get enough of him. Not in this lifetime, nor the next.

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