He reached the narrowest part of her pelvis, and her hips jerked forward, instincts to escape briefly overriding trust. He caught her around the waist, fingers gripping tight, and held her steady as he slowly pushed through her final resistance.

She cried out again, but this time, the pain was laced with pleasure-laced submission as the tip of his cock finally kissed her cervix. “Kesh…!”

He fell on top of her, one arm trembling around her middle, the other barely holding his weight. Every inch of his cock screamed with sensation, the wet, tight heat of her more than he could take, yet nothing—nothing—would ever make him separate from her again. This was redemption. This was home.

“I love you so much I can barely breathe, Georgia. You are my everything, my reason, my soul.” The words spilled from his lips, raw and unfiltered, pulled from the bliss of their connection.

“As you are mine,” she whispered, one hand briefly lifting to skim his arm in a caress before she planted it on the plush carpet again. Bracing for what her body knew came next.

His first thrust was slow, reverent. It didn’t last.

White-hot pleasure raked through his blood as her pussy grasped at his cock and squeezed his ridges. There was nothing left of his control. Nothing left in the world but burning, all-consuming need.

She screamed as he fucked her, bucked and writhed and clawed at the floor, first to get away, then in an orgasm that had her cunt fluttering and squeezing on his thrusting cock in maddening spasms.

It didn’t so much as slow him.

His hips slapped a hard, brutal rhythm against her ass, every hard-wired instinct in his body determined to wring the strength from her trembling form, until the power in her blood could no longer hope to resist his claim.

“Mine!”

“Mine!”

“Mine!”

She came again, and this time, when her pussy seized on his girth, he surrendered.

“Fuck! Fuck, Georgia—!” His magic came in a torrent, the darkness sweeping through his blood as his balls drew up tight. And released.

He cried out, blind with ecstasy, gone on the bliss of orgasm and instinct. Everything was heat and relief and tight, maddening perfection. He pounded her pussy through their shared orgasm, snarling with the maddening sensation until, finally, she collapsed underneath him, wrung of the last ounce of her strength.

Then, he struck.

His teeth clamped shut around the back of her neck as the most primordial part of his power flooded from him and deep into her, searing her skin and marking her blood.

Only some long minutes later, when his magic finally ebbed and his cock had no more semen left to give her cervix, did he relax his jaws and gently lower them both to the floor, bodies still locked together.

Georgia panted softly underneath him, eyes rolled back, barely conscious. But when he kissed her nape and curled his body on top of hers with the instinctive need to protect her while she recovered, she let out a soft laugh.

“That… hnngh… wow.”

“Agreed,” he murmured softly, as lightness slowly swept through his body, replacing the wave of dark madness of the mating high.

This… this was what it felt like to claim his mate?

‘Wow’ was as good a word as any, because none would ever come close to describing the molecular remaking of everything he’d ever been, and everything he’d ever thought he’d wanted. Now, there was only her.

The woman who, in defiance of his very nature, he loved with his entire being.

The woman who, in defiance of reason itself, loved him in return.

And finally, finally… she was his.

Epilogue Georgia: 10 days later

“This is a terrible idea.”

“So you’ve said. Repeatedly.” She reached over to pat her mate’s arm, half to soothe him, half to aggravate him with her sweetly patronizing tone.

Kesh clenched his hands around the steering wheel and gave her a glare out the corner of his eye. “Perhaps, then, you should consider listening.”

“Nah.”

“Fuck’s sake, Georgia—!” Kesh’s growl died at the involuntary grin spread across her lips at his predictable response. Softness edged into his expression despite the annoyed sigh. “You enjoy playing with fire a little too much, mate.”

Warmth fluttered in her chest at his use of the word ‘mate’. It had been less than two weeks since he claimed her, and it had taken her less than a day to realize how inadequate ‘wife’ sounded in comparison. Being his mate was something far more foundational, far more eternal. She leaned over to kiss his arm. “It’s not my fault you’re adorable when you get cranky. Nor that it’s extremely easy to light this particular fire.”

A flash of darkness passed through his eyes before he returned his full focus to the road. “Careful now. There are other fires you tend to stoke with your sass, and I am more than happy to arrive at your family’s home with you wearing my semen around your pretty neck, little one. Are you?”

“You’re such a brute.” She huffed with faux annoyance. But despite the clench of well-used muscles down below, she pulled back to the safety of the passenger seat. Seeing Larry again was going to be emotional enough without first getting pelvicly, emotionally, and spiritually wrecked by a roadside sexathon with her enthusiastic mate.

“Hmm,” he agreed, without so much as the good grace to sound remotely ashamed of this fact.

Twenty minutes later, Kesh pulled the car to a stop in front of her mother’s house. What had been her home, too, up until very recently. Funny, in a way. As she peered up the path to the front door from the passenger side window, the thought that she’d never really felt like it was hers in any meaningful way struck. She just hadn’t realized until the day she’d carved herself a space to call her own among demons and darkness.

In this house, she’d always been a supporting role.

Kesh’s large, warm hand cupped her cheek and gently guided her face back to meet his gaze. His beautiful, human features were pulled into a soft frown. “Your scent tells me you are worried. I won’t let anyone hurt you, ever again, Georgia. Not demons, and certainly not these people.”

The distaste in his voice as he spat out the word ‘people’ made an involuntary smile ghost across her lips. “My family isn’t about to attempt to sell me off in exchange for world peace or anything. We’re good.”

His eyes narrowed. It was only slightly, but it was enough for her to see the anger buried deep in his black gaze. “You were harmed before you ever came to me. The people responsible live behind this door. And I need you to know, mate, that you will be safe in there. In every way.”

She hadn’t been aware of the tightness in her stomach until it eased under Kesh’s protective declaration.

“I love you,” she murmured, leaning forward to rest her forehead against his.

His free hand slid to the back of her neck, pulling her in closer. “It still takes my breath away. I don’t think I’ll ever stop marveling at hearing those words from your lips.” He bent lower, mouth seeking hers with the desperation usually following confirmation that she truly did love him.

Georgia gasped softly against his lips, the heat of him overwhelming as always, but when he flicked his tongue for entrance, she combed her fingers through his hair and pulled back. “Okay. We both know how this tends to end, and I’m not fucking you parked outside my mom’s house. Come on. Let’s go in.”

Kesh arched an eyebrow, clearly not convinced about the need to not fuck her in the car, but when she reached for the handle to get out, he relented. He was around the car and taking her hand before she’d fully managed to climb out of the passenger side.