I took Azur’s hand and pulled him to my bed.

“We don’t have to do this, Gemma,” he told me, shaking his head, though his red eyes were burning. “This is not why I came. I would drink synthetic blood rations for the rest of my life just to prove that to you.”

I sat perched on my high bed and pulled Azur to stand between my thighs. I was settled a little higher than I normally would be when standing next to him. Yet he still towered over me.

“I know,” I told him truthfully, moving my hair away from my neck and tugging him even closer. He couldn’t help his reaction to seeing my bared flesh. His ivory fangs elongated in a rush, his nostrils flaring. “But I missed this. I want this. I want to satisfy you and make you feel good too. Nothing would feel more right.”

His swallow was audible.

I was wearing a dress today, and I slid the material up my thighs, Azur’s muffled groan following as his eyes were glued to its rise.

“I’ve missed you, husband,” I told him, my heart beginning to pound in my chest when my hands went to the clasps on his pants, tugging at the metal, making him hiss. “I need this, Azur. I need to feel you again. Don’t make us wait any longer than we already have. Please,” I whispered, pressing my lips to his jaw before brushing them across his neck.

His deep growl made my spine tingle. He leaned his head back, allowing me access to his exposed throat, an intimacy in itself that I knew he’d only give to me. His hands came to my thighs and he trailed them up, his touch sending fiery sparks across my sensitive flesh.

“Tell me you’ll never leave me again, little wife,” he rasped, hovering.

“I’ll never leave you again,” I promised, gasping when his fingers teased between my thighs.

I kissed his neck as I freed his cock from his pants. He hissed when I wrapped my hand around him, tight.

“Gemma,” he groaned. And when I nudged him closer, teasing the head of his cock between my thighs, he cursed, “Vaan, I need you.”

“Then take me,” I pleaded against his skin.

Then, knowing that it would spur him along…I bit his neck.

Hard.

A sharp bellow rose from his throat, strangled and needy, and his hips punched forward with one brutal thrust, sliding that cock so deep that his knot, his seal, nearly seated itself within me.

Whimpering with want, I bit harder, squeezing the thick flesh between my fangless teeth. It broke his skin. I tasted the hot tang of his blood, and somehow, it made me even wilder with need.

“Raazos,” he huffed, groaning. “Yes, kyrana!”

Gods, he liked this. I wondered if it felt like I was claiming him just as his bite felt like a brand on me. His hard, quick thrusts pushed me into a delirium. A fever of madness and acute feeling where I was entirely focused on the spine-tingling, aching slide of his perfect cock and the taste of his blood sweeping across my tongue.

I needed him so deep. I needed him so deep, imprinting himself inside me, the burn of his seal like a brand, so that I would always feel like he was there.

“Harder,” I keened, licking at the bite, the laps of my tongue spurring him into a frenzy. “More, Azur! Gods, yes, just like that!”

He hit that spot inside me that made me see stars. Then he was leaning forward, never letting up, the subtle shift in position making his seal begin to stretch me.

“Going to come, wife,” he rasped. “Going to come so fucking hard in your perfect cunt.”

“Oh gods,” I whispered, my eyes going wide, feeling his own fangs tease at the column of my throat. “W-Wait.”

Frustration crashed down on me, his words making me remember.

“Wait, Azur, I don’t have any marroswood here,” I cried out, even as I bit my lip, struggling not to climax as he continued to mercilessly pound and thrust into me, my bed creaking and shuddering with the ferocity of it. “Ohh!”

“Good,” he growled, making me gasp. “I shouldn’t have given you that damn tea! I should’ve gotten you pregnant that very night. Shot my seed so deep and stoppered every drop inside you with my seal. And that’s what I’m going to do right now, little wife.”

It wasn’t the right time for me to conceive, I realized belatedly, but his words unleashed a fire in me.

I’d never given much thought to children, but I knew right then that I wanted as many as Azur would give me. Little Kylorr-human hybrids with budding horns, sharp adorable fangs, human eyes, and black wings, so they could fly in the moon winds with their father.

Just then, Azur slid his fangs deep and the pleasure snapped like a tether. It had been so long. The days had passed slowly, each one an entire year without him. The warming sensation of his venom spread, and then I was orgasming. On his cock, with his fangs lodged deep, drinking what I could only offer him, his words ringing in my ears.

“Tell me you’re mine,” he ordered, muffled against my skin. “Tell me, wife.”

“Yours yours yours,” I huffed and whimpered, squeezing him tight. “I’m yours, Azur!”

I heard his whispered curse, felt the way his muscles tensed, and the way his thrusts became even more frenzied, sinking deep as he continued to drink from me, each dizzying pull of my blood making me gasp. The addicting burn of his seal stretched me. The way the ache mixed with my sublime pleasure made a strangled cry burst from my throat. I orgasmed again, spasming around him as he slotted deep.

Azur came, the hot lashes of his seed bursting into me, filling me up. The world went white. Bright and white. I couldn’t breathe. All I could feel was him. All I could smell was him. All I could taste was him.

I was his. He was mine.

When reality returned, when I could see again, I was up on the bed, cradled in Azur’s arms. His pants were still around his thighs. My dress was still bunched around my waist. His cock was still seated deep, the swell of his seal holding me tight.

I was still huffing. The familiar burn on my neck felt like a relief.

“You want me to heal it?” he rumbled, his voice rich and husky. I nearly shivered.

The bite, he’d meant. So my sisters wouldn’t see?

“No,” I breathed. “I want your mark on me. And mine on you.”

That pleased him. The deep, rumbling purr threading up his chest brought a flush of delight, knowing I’d satisfied my husband, knowing he’d satisfied me, very, very much.

“Rest, my laraya,” he murmured to me. When my hands clutched tighter, he said, “I’ll be here. I would never leave.”

I was exhausted. I’d hardly been able to sleep since the night I’d confronted my father. Even before then.

But I was safe in Azur’s arms.

That alone made me close my eyes. I finally let myself let go.

In the early hours of morning, before dawn, I woke to the bleary view of Azur standing out on the balcony of my rooms. The crisp morning air made goose bumps pebble my flesh, but I slid from bed regardless. My feet landed on a cold floor. I dragged a thick blanket that was draped across an armchair and tucked it around me. I was naked. Azur must’ve undressed me during the night.

And himself too, I realized, lips parting at the sight of his firm, dimpled backside, naked as the day he’d been born, standing out on my balcony.

There was a pleasant ache between my thighs. I’d been well used, well pleasured. Every step toward him made me remember him, and I loved it. I craved it.

Coming up behind him, I wrapped my arms around his torso, squashing his wings, which he kept tucked close.

A rumbling sigh left his throat. “I’m sorry, my love, did the cold wake you?”

My love.

Hearing that was like eating a warm steam cake, straight from Yeeda’s bakery. Sticky and sweet and piping hot, leaving me satisfied and wanting more.