“And I love the feeling of your soft little pussy wrapped around my cock,” he growled softly. “Gods…can’t wait to fill you up and make you mine forever.”
Selena usually couldn’t come from penetration alone, but this time was different—she was already feeling the stirrings of another orgasm closing in on her. It was like a thundercloud hovering over her head, ready to strike with a lightning bolt of pleasure at any moment.
“Valen,” she wailed, as he continued to thrust up into her. “I’m really close! Think I’m going to…going to come!”
“Gods yes, come all over my cock, little one,” he growled hungrily. “I want to feel you coming while I shoot my seed deep in your pussy. Come—give me your neck.”
Selena understood what he wanted at once. Without hesitation, she swept her long, dark hair to one side, baring the vulnerable side of her throat for him. Then she leaned forward, offering herself to the shining fangs that had grown long and sharp in his open mouth.
Valen pulled her even closer and thrust deep inside her. Selena moaned as she felt his shaft grow somehow even thicker and harder in her inner pussy. Then he sank his fangs deep in her neck and—for the first time—injected his Essence into her.
As the Essence hit her bloodstream, it caused an instant orgasm. Selena gasped as the thundercloud broke at last, drenching her in a warm rain of pleasure that was so intense she almost couldn’t breathe.
Oh God, oh God—too good! It’s too good! she thought dizzily.
For a long moment everything seemed to go gray and she was afraid she might faint again. It was simply too good—too intense—the feeling of Valen pumping into her both above and below was the deepest pleasure she had ever felt.
“Don’t faint, little one,” she heard his deep voice growling in her head. “Hang on and stay here with me—don’t leave me!”
“Valen?” she sent back faintly, using the new channel of communication that had suddenly opened between them. “How can I hear you talking in my head? Does…does this mean we’re bonded?”
“For all time, little one.” He pulled back, withdrawing his fangs and looked deep into her eyes. “We’ll never be parted again.”
“Never!” Selena panted, agreeing with him. She collapsed against his broad chest, feeling completely spent by the incredible pleasure—but also completely happy. Who would have ever thought that she would end up bonded for life to the grumpy, irritating Kindred who had sat beside her on the shuttle to Ma’shorka Centra just a few days ago?
“Hey, I wasn’t that bad—was I?” Valen protested in her head.
“You were pretty grumpy,” Selena pointed out, grinning at her. “But that’s okay—you’ve improved a lot since I first met you.”
“You mean since the Goddess first put us together,” he corrected her, leaning down to take her mouth in a kiss. “Gods, I love you so much, little one!”
“I love you too,” Selena sent back. She cuddled close in his arms, feeling incredibly lucky and blessed.
If she hadn’t met Valen, she never would have found the love of her life—or had anyone to help her in the Ma’shorkan palace and the Ma’shorkan High Court where she had been…Delivered by the Defender.
Epilogue
“Are you all ready for the concert?” Jess asked anxiously. They were back aboard the Mother Ship and getting ready for a concert that Kat had organized to benefit the women of Ma’shorka Centra who had been wrongfully accused. Because of Ma’shorkan law, Valen could only defend one client at a time. But they were hoping to raise enough money to hire some other Defenders and see if they could overturn some of the unfair convictions that had sent many Ma’shorkan women—most of them Independent Females—to prison.
“I think I’m ready.” Selena looked down at her borrowed violin with a sigh. “I just wish I had a better instrument. This is the nicest one from the school…but it’s still not very nice, you know?”
“It’s going to be fabulous,” Jess said firmly. “Don’t stress about it—nobody out there is going to have a good enough ear to detect what kind of violin you have.”
“Nobody but me.” Selena sighed again. “You know, I couldn’t be happier about the way things turned out with Valen—it’s amazing being bonded to him. But I still wish those bastards hadn’t smashed my old violin. I feel like I lost a friend!”
“But you gained a hot Kindred hubby,” Jess pointed out with a grin. “And now you get to play concerts instead of teaching orchestra to angsty teens all the time!”
“True.” Selena nodded. She’d been sad to give up her teaching job…but a little relieved too. Teaching was hard.
There was no way she could have kept the job, though. She and Valen split their time between the Kindred Mother Ship and Ma’shorka Centra—there was no possible way she could have commuted all the way to Earth every day. Especially since she had to take a pregnancy test every time she wanted to get aboard the direct shuttle flight that folded space between the distant planet and the Mother Ship. If she popped up pregnant—which was a distinct possibility, despite the fact that she wasn’t as young as she had once been—she would have to take the much longer flight which involved worm holes instead of folding space. Then she never would have made it to class on time.