Chapter 205: Reunion
Seraphine's POV
I didn't think. Didn't hesitate. Just dropped my bag and ran.
The distance collapsed in seconds and then I was crashing into him, arms wrapping around his neck as his caught me around the waist and lifted me clean off the ground. The bond exploded between us like a dam breaking, flooding every hollow space inside me with warmth and relief and home, and I buried my face against his neck and breathed him in—cedar and smoke and something wild that made my wolf howl with joy.
"You're here," I gasped against his skin. "You're actually here—"
He kissed me before I could finish.
His mouth crashed into mine with a desperation that bordered on violence, all teeth and tongue and raw need, one hand fisting in my hair while the other crushed me tighter against his chest. I kissed him back just as fiercely, pouring two months of aching loneliness into it, and tasted salt—couldn't tell if it was his tears or mine or both.
"Fuck," he breathed when we broke apart, resting his forehead against mine. His chest heaved under my palms and his pupils were blown so wide his eyes looked black. "I missed you. God, Sera, I missed you so fucking much."
"Me too." My voice cracked. "Every day. Every night. It hurt—"
"I know." His thumb traced my jaw, gentle despite the tremor in his hand. "I felt it too. Through the bond. Every time it flared up, I wanted to come find you, drag you back to Shadowmere and never let you go again."
"Why didn't you?"
Kaelen's expression softened.
"Because you asked me to wait. Because Silverwood needed you, and you needed to rebuild your father's legacy. I wasn't going to take that from you." He pressed a kiss to my forehead, lingering. "Even if it killed me."
I pulled him down into another kiss, slower but no less intense, trying to communicate everything I couldn't put into words. His hands slid down my back, gripping my hips as he walked us backward until my spine hit the wall beside the fireplace. He deepened the kiss, tilting my head back with the hand still tangled in my hair, and I whimpered into his mouth when his teeth caught my bottom lip.
"Kaelen—"
His name came out breathless and wanting.
"I need you," he growled. His hands found the hem of my shirt and dragged it up, breaking the kiss just long enough to pull it over my head. "Now. I can't—I need to feel you."
I was already working at his shirt buttons, fumbling until he took over with a frustrated sound and just ripped it open, sending buttons scattering across the floor.
My bra followed seconds later, then his hands were on my breasts and I arched into his touch with a gasp that turned into a moan when his mouth found my throat.
We stumbled away from the wall, shedding clothes in a trail across the living room—his shirt, my pants, his belt hitting the ground with a metallic clatter. By the time we collapsed onto the rug in front of the fireplace, we were both naked and panting, the bond singing so loud between us it drowned out everything else.
Kaelen hovered over me, eyes dark and wild.
"You're so fucking beautiful," he rasped. "I dreamed about this. Every night. Woke up aching for you."
"Then stop talking," I breathed, wrapping my legs around his hips and pulling him closer, "and take what you need."
He groaned and crashed his mouth back to mine as he pushed inside me in one deep thrust that made us both cry out.
For a moment we just stayed there, frozen and trembling as the bond flared white-hot, the sensation of being whole again so overwhelming it bordered on painful.
Then Kaelen moved, pulling almost all the way out before slamming back in, and coherent thought scattered.
The sex was rough and desperate, all clawing hands and bruising grips and savage kisses. He fucked me like he was trying to crawl inside my skin, like the separation had been torture and this was the only cure, and I met him thrust for thrust, nails raking down his back as I urged him deeper, harder, more.
The bond burned between us, singing and demanding, amplifying every sensation until pleasure and pain blurred into one incandescent whole.
"Mine," Kaelen snarled against my throat, teeth scraping over the old scar from his first bite. "You're mine, Sera. Say it."
"Yours," I gasped. "Always yours—Kaelen—"
He bit down then, right over the original mark, and I screamed as pain and pleasure exploded through every nerve.
His canines sank deep, marking me again—deeper this time, more permanent. The bond detonated between us like a supernova and I felt him everywhere, inside me and around me and through me, our souls tangling so completely I couldn't tell where I ended and he began.
Through the haze, I felt my own wolf surge forward.
I twisted in his grip and sank my canines into the junction of his shoulder with enough force to taste copper. Kaelen's entire body went rigid, a strangled sound tearing from his throat as the bond snapped tighter, fusing us together with a permanence that felt like destiny.
When we finally came—him first with a roar that shook the windows, me seconds later with his name breaking on my lips—it felt like dying and being reborn at the same time.
---
We collapsed together on the rug, both shaking and gasping, still tangled in each other's arms.
Kaelen's weight pressed me into the soft carpet, comforting and grounding, and I wrapped myself around him tighter.
"Fuck," he finally breathed against my hair. "That was—"
"Yeah."
He rolled us carefully onto our sides, hissing as the movement pulled at the fresh bite on his shoulder. Blood trickled down his chest, already clotting, and I traced the raw edges with trembling fingers.
"Sorry," I murmured, though I wasn't really. "Did I hurt you?"
Kaelen caught my hand and pressed it flat against the bite.
"Don't apologize. I wanted it." His thumb stroked over my knuckles. "Needed you to mark me again, make sure everyone knows I'm yours."
I leaned in and kissed him slowly, tasting myself on his lips along with lingering copper. When I pulled back, his eyes had softened.
"I missed this," he said quietly, fingers combing through my hair. "Missed you. Not just the sex, though fuck, I definitely missed that too." A small smile curved his mouth. "But just... being near you. Touching you. Knowing you're safe."
"I'm right here. And I'm not going anywhere. Not tonight."
His smile faded, and I felt the bond flicker with something darker.
He shifted, reaching toward where his coat lay near the door, and when he sat back up, he was holding a cream-colored envelope embossed with silver.
"I didn't come here just to see you," he said, voice carefully neutral. "There's something you need to know."
I pushed myself up, suddenly very aware of the firelight throwing shadows across his serious expression.
"What is it?"
Kaelen held out the envelope. I took it with unsteady hands.
The paper felt expensive, heavy and textured, and when I turned it over, I saw an elaborate wax seal pressed into crimson—a wolf's head wreathed in flames.