bChapter 191 /b

    April POV

    We’re in bed, but I can still feel it. It’s like it’s singing to me, humming beneath my skin and pulling me to the Hollow. I’ve healedpletelyb. /bWhich I don’t like because now it’s stronger, everything is more intense.

    Despite the magic that Eryx and his mother put up to try and ease it, now it’s worse. I try to sleep, Eryx keeps me wrapped in his arms but bit /bdoesn’t help. The pull is getting stronger, and I hate it. He’s not sleeping, I know that much. How can he when I won’t stop shifting because ino /imatter how much I try to getfortable, something within me begins to pull hard.

    I breathe deep, trying to ignore the feeling, the pull. It’s not real, it’s not real. I keep saying it.

    Suddenly pain explodes and I scream. I clutch my arm and Eryx scrambles, sitting up and grasping me.

    “April?” I sob and cling to my arm.

    “It hurts,” I whisper. Pain shoots through the other and I scream, falling backward.

    “What’s happening, tell me,” Eryx calls out.

    Sobbing, I try to cling to him. “I feel like my arms were broken,” I cry out, as the same pain shoots through my leg.

    Eryx moves and inspects my arms. “They are fine, look at me, April, look at me.”

    My eyes flutter and I cry out, screaming as it happens again.

    “Fuck!” He climbs off the bed, and opens the door. “Somethings wrong!” He screams and then he’s back beside me, holding me as I cry out. It feels like everything in me is broken, every bone, over and over again.

    “What’s happening?” his mother asks as she rushes in, and she gasps. “He’s using the bond to torture her.” Her words are quiet and filled with disgust. “How could anyone do that,” she whispers.

    I scream again, then sob into his chest. “Make it stop,” I cry.

    “We can’t, while ever Rnd’s im is active, it will happen,” his father says.

    “So what do we do?” Eryx asks.

    “She either needs to try and unlink her mind from his, or she let you reim her which removes his power from her. We will give you space,” his father says and I hear the door close as another wave of pain hits.

    “April,” Eryx whispers.

    “Just do it,” I whimper. My body shakesb, /band he sighs like he’s not willing to. My nails dig into his skin and I bcry /bout as another wave of pain hits me. “Please.” bI /bcling onto him.

    He holds my face. “It will hurtb, /biming without mating is painful,” he whispers.

    “Not as painful as this,” bI /bbcry/b.

    Sighing, he wraps his arms around me, and I’m so sure he’s given up, I’m so bsure /bhe’s not going to im bme/bb, /bbthat /bbhe’s /bbgoing /bbto /bbleave /bbme /bbhere /bto suffer, to be broken over and over. Then I feel his mouth kiss my and I rxb, /bbfor /ba second before pain bhits /bbagain/bb. /bbI /bcling bto him /bbharder/bb. /b

    Then his teeth sink it, I feel it instantly, his bond bfighting /bbwith /bbRnd’s/bb, /bbtrying /bbto /bbtake /bbcontrol/bb, /bbtrying /bbto /bboverride /bbit/bb. /bbMy /bbhands /bbcling /bbto /bbhim/bb, /bband /b

    b1/3 /b

    b14:39 /bbMon/bb, /bb4 /bbAug /b

    58b% /b

    63203

    I fight back the urge to clean from the burning sensation. I knew it would hurt more because we’re not mating, but I didn’t expect this bpain/b,

    Tears roll down my face, and he kisses me neck, but it’s still there, I can still feel the pain from Rnd.

    “Again,” I whimper.

    “I’ve done it, I can’t re–bite you there without making it worse.”

    “The other side,” I sob, my hands clinging to him. He doesn’t answer, and I move, climbing onto him as I pull the clothes from my body.

    “April,” he whispers.

    “For a im to fully mark, we need the mate,” I whisper as I remove his clothes, fighting back the screams as and clutching him at moments when pain explodes in my body. I move, and lower myself onto his length.

    He groans and grasps my hips as I grind down on him. “Please,” I whisper. His hands grasp me like he’s about to ref Keeping inside of me, heys me beneath him and kisses me. His hips move slow and gentle, as his hand strokes alo leg up around his waist.

    he turns.

    nigh and lifts my

    His kiss bes more fierce, his hands grasping me and holding me tighter like he doesn’t want to release me, not even for a moment.

    He doesn’t rush though, not even as my body begins to tremble and arch beneath his hands, not even when my breath breaks against his mouth. He continues even after the pressure builds in me to the point that I can hardly bear it.

    He stays with me, patient and relentless, drawing my pleasure out in wave after wave until the pain inside of me blurs at the edges. It feels like it’s receding, or maybe just drowning under the pleasure.

    His mouth travels everywhere, leaving not a single part of me untouched. He’s still gentle on the spots where the scars are still fading from the Rnd’s bites. Every other ce, he’s unyielding, hips lips and tongue coaxing pleasure from ces I had forgotten could feel anything but pain.

    He’s trying his best to save me, that’s what I realize when his hands slide up my ribs, slow and determined, as he tastes the hollow of my throat, then the curve of my breast. It’s like he’s trying to erase the memory of hurt, and to drown it in the sensation until there’s nothing left but him and the heat that he gives me. When my body starts to tremble again, he doesn’t stop. His hands hold me steady, his touch growing more desperate, his mouth worshipping more until I forget, even for a moment, the shadows that cling to my skin.

    I find my release, but even that doesn’t stop him. He keeps going, his touch growing more frantic like he’s chasing something he’s terrified of losing. His lips move across my corbone and up the other side of my neck, and I feel the warm brush of his breath there followed by the scrape of his teeth just before they sink in.

    The pain is sahrp, but it’s nothingapred to what I’ve already survived. It’s differeent, one that burns, that sears and then fills me with a sudden rush of pleasure so bright I almost sob from relief. Magic flows thorugh me, pure and wild, lighting up every nerve in my body until I’m arching into him, helpless and deserpate for more. He’s marking me, and I realize not just with his teeth, with everything that he has. bHe’s /bpouring his power into me, iming me again the only way that could ever undo what Rnd tried to take.

    When his lips finally remove my skin, I expect him to stop, I’m ready for his to pull back, to let me breathe, only he doesn’t. His movements be more frenzied, his hips driving into my harder as his mouth moves across my skin as if he’s lost himself to the need that wants to make me his. I feel the pressure building within me again, impossibly fast, and through it all, I hear his voice. It’s hoarse and raw, whispering into my ear.

    “im me, April,” he begs, his hands trembling against my skin. “Please, mark me. Make me yours.”

    I hesitate, pleasure and panic now crashing together and the need to obey tangled with the terror of bbeing /bulnerable again. bBut /bbhe /bbdoesn’t /bstop, he keeps moving, keeps giving, keeps loving me like he’s willing to burn himself balive /bbto /bmake this bright /bband /bbfix /bbem/bb, /bbMy /bbbuilds /bband /bbuilds, cresting higher than before, and the breaking pointb, /bI can’t deny himb, /bor myselfb, /bbany /bblonger/b.

    b58/bb% /b

    b201 /b

    Baring my teethb, /bI sink them into the side of his neck, marking him as mine with a savage and desperate bite. Magic explodes bbetween /busb, /bba /bwild surge that knocks the air from my lungs. Eryx throws his head back and roars. His body drives into mine with frantic and iming need. The pleasure is blinding, world–ending.

    As he knots inside me, his roar echoes through the room, wild and full of everything he can’t say. His movements be even more desperate and almost franatic likes he’s trying to pour thest pieces of himself into me, magic, love, grief, rage, all iof /iit fusing in the space between our bodies.

    His knot swells more, locking us together and the sensation sends a final surge of pleasure racing through me, so sharp and bright that I see white behind my eyes.

    I’m faintly aware that I’m trying, that tears slip down my cheeks into his hair as I hold him close. My mouth is still pressed to the bleeding mark on his throat, and I taste his blood and his magic, wild and alive, but all him. I know that I have truly imed him, just as he imed me. There’s no going back. There’s no other bond, no forced im, that could ever rival the fierce, reckless belor

    He slumps over me, trembling, his chest pressed against mine and for a long moment, we’re both stuck in the thundering and bodies locked together by instinct and fate. His mouth finds my ear and when he speaks his voice

    that binds us now. olliks. Our hearts /li/ol

    so soft I almost miss it.

    “It’s done,” he whispers, his breath shuddering across my skin. “You’re mine. I’m yours. No one, amd no magic can take that from us now.”

    I wait but the pain is gone, it’s wiped out by the pleasure and the pulse of magic inside me. There’s only warmth spreading through every inch of me, burning away the memory of everything that Rnd did. It’s burned away the fear, the sahme, and the lingering sense of being broken and used. I feel whole, I feel chosen, and when I look into Eryx’s eyes, I see only love, ragged and desperate but true.

    I tangle my fingers into his hair and hold him closer. I want to say something, anything, I want to thank him for saving me over and over. For not letting me fall, but I can’t find the words. I only have the truth that lives between our hearts, the bond that now hums.

    “I love you,” I whisper, my voice raw and shaken. “No matter what happens, I’ll always love you.”

    He lifts his head, eyes shining with tears and triumph both, and he kisses me, softly, and reverently, as if he’s worshipping a miracle.

    “And I’ll alwayse for you, and protect you,” he vows. “Always.”

    The word may still be broken ouside, the Hollow may still hunger but in this moment, there’s only us. Tangled together, imed and iming. I close my eyes, pressing my cheek to his and for the first time, I let myself beleive that we might survive whates next.

    We have to, we have each other. I’m his, and nothing, not even the oldest magic or darkest queen can take that from us.

    AD

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