She nuzzled into his neck, kissing and licking where she’d bitten him. “I will scent you, too, though maybe not as thoroughly as you have done me.”
Her eagle only needed this kind of cuddling, head to head, to be satisfied. The feminine Chrechte inside her, on the other hand, wanted Bryant to wear marks of her possession just as she was sure to wear his.
He laid her down on the furs. “This is forever, you understand that?”
She looked up at him in confusion. “Isn’t it always?”
He shook his head. “But that doesn’t matter, because this is.”
“Yes.”
He growled and then devoured her, his mouth following the trail his fingers had blazed earlier.
When he took one of her ni**les into his mouth, she arched up off the furs, feeling that right in her core. He continued to caress her body to a higher and higher pitch of pleasure.
She wanted to return the favor, though she had no experience of a man’s body.
He didn’t seem to care, moaning and growling with every exploration of her fingers. She traced the lines of his muscles down his chest, along the tree trunks he called legs and then to that hot, throbbing erection between them.
It pulsed in her hand, her fingers unable to completely encompass its girth.
She did not ask if he would fit in that place inside her. There was no option. He had to fit, because she must have him inside her.
She spread her legs in invitation and his head came up just like a wolf scenting the wind. “You want me.”
Did he need the words? “Yes. Claim me.”
Stillness came over them, the moment profound, where only a second before it had been all heated passion.
He shifted until his engorged flesh pressed against her untried opening. “Do you accept me into your body?” he asked in ancient Chrechte.
“Yes,” she responded in kind.
“Do you accept me into your life?”
“Yes.”
“Does your eagle accept me as her mate?”
“Ye . . .” Una had to swallow back inexplicable and wholly unexpected tears. “Yes.”
“Will you accept my protection, my care and my Chrechte honor as yours?”
“I will.”
He fell silent.
She stared up at him through the candlelight, taking several calming breaths before she asked. “Do you accept my body as your only succor?”
“I do. I will never lie with another.”
Though true mates were not physically capable of doing so, his tone said his promise was deeper than mere physical ability.
“Do you accept me into your life?”
“Now and always,” he promised in their ancient tongue.
“Does your wolf accept me as your mate?”