strength unleashed. My hand tightened at her throat and I lowered my head, determined to have her kiss.
She’d given it to me once and I’d thrown it away callously. I wouldn’t make that same mistake again.
Her sudden intake of breath met the rushing of blood in my ears.
“Kir—”
Then my lips met hers, cutting off her words.
Maeva froze, her body stiffening, as I kissed her deep. As I emptied my seed inside her and found my pleasure between her thighs, where I never wanted to leave.
And when it was over, I brushed my lips against hers, breathing her in, and licked at her tongue. Her taste was sublime, her lips soft and giving.
Then she was breaking my grip on her neck, tearing my palm away, turning her face.
My lips met her cheek and I growled against her, feeling the last pulses of my orgasm jerk my body.
Then she was pushing at my chest, breathing hard. When I frowned, pulling away to look down at her underneath me, I found she wouldn’t meet my gaze.
“Why did you do that?” she asked. “You know…you know I…”
She trailed off, her jaw pulsing in…anger.
Maeva pushed at my chest again, harder than I anticipated, and I rolled off her, sliding from her body.
“Seffi,” I growled, watching as she squirmed off the bed, as she snatched up a cloth she’d used to dry off with after washing. She used it to wipe at my seed between her legs.
“How could you do that, Kiran?”
Her voice was shaking—though I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or because she was on the verge of tears, both possibilities tearing at my chest.
I hadn’t expected this reaction. My brow furrowed and I stood from the bed, rounding it to approach her.
“Nik,” she snapped, still not quite meeting my eyes. “I—I need you to not…vok.”
She was flustered. Overwhelmed. And I didn’t understand why. Unless she thought kissing me was offensive, wounding.
I felt my temper prick though I kept the simmer of it low.
“So I am allowed to fuck you, seffi, but I am not allowed to have your kiss?” I rasped, watching as she hurriedly tugged on a dress from her chest, which I’d had brought in from her own voliki before I’d had it dismantled.
As if she couldn’t stand to be bared to me.
“That’s…that’s not what this is about,” she argued, finally lifting her eyes to meet mine. Her cheeks were still flushed from our bed play, which made this confrontation all the more…hurtful.
“That’s right,” I murmured softly, crossing my arms over my chest, leaning against the stabilizing pole in the middle of my voliki. “You don’t want this to mean anything. You don’t want us to mean anything.”
Just last night, there were moments during our mating where I knew she was trying to detach from me. Like she wanted to take her pleasure, feel the pleasure that I was stoking inside her, but she didn’t want it to be with me.
She’d closed her eyes last night, like she’d been trying to ignore it was me that was fucking her. For the first time, I wondered if she wished it had been someone else.
“If you just wanted sex, you could have fucked any male you wished to, Maeva,” I growled loudly, ignoring the jealousy that the words brought, hot and tight in my chest. “Yet you’re in my furs. No one else’s.”
“Like you would’ve let any male in your horde touch me, Kiran,” she hissed.
I stepped towards her, towering over her height.
“That’s vokking right,” I snapped back, staring straight into her gaze, letting her see my own anger, my own hurt, my own pride. “No one would dare.”
Her lips parted, her brows furrowing.
“You’re mine, Maeva, and you always have been. Anyone can see that,” I rasped. “And I’ve always been yours. Don’t you understand that?”
A sharp, surprised exhale escaped her.
Suddenly another voice cut in, small and gruff outside the voliki.
“Vorakkar.”
“Vok,” I cursed, thinking this was the worst time we could be interrupted. But the night was late, the horde quiet. Whatever it was must be important. “Lysi? Enter.”
One of the darukkars on the night watch ducked inside. He kept his gaze carefully averted. No doubt he’d heard our raised voices, had heard the tail end of our argument.
“Vorakkar, the messenger that you sent to Rath Tuviri’s horde just returned.”
Maeva’s head snapped towards him. When the darukkar held out a rolled up piece of parchment, I approached, not caring that I was still naked and half-hard, and took it from his grip.
“This