Chapter 84

Chapter 84
Sera POV

After I said those words, his teeth grazed my skin first, it was a warning touch before he sunk them in. The sting shot through me sharply, stealing my breath, and the bond flared like fire beneath my skin, racing from the point of his teeth to the base of my spine.

I gasped too soft, too helpless and my hands came up to grip his arms, because I needed something to hold on to.

He moved lower, leaving marks, bites, impressions of himself along my collarbone, my shoulder, the curve of my chest. Each one thrummed with heat, each one echoing the same message over and over:

Mine.

I tried to think. I tried to remember the warnings, the prophecies, the blood on his hands, the silver chains in my dreams. I tried to remember the fear.

But every time he bit into my skin, every time the bond reacted and pulled me closer, my thoughts scattered like dust.

“Jade…” I breathed out his name because I didn’t know what else to hold on to. My voice sounded unsteady, like something was unraveling inside me.

He didn’t stop. If anything, the sound of his name on my lips made him worse. His hand slid up the back of my neck, fingers threading into my hair, guiding me to look at him. His eyes burned silver and dark and hungry, like I was the only thing his world allowed him to see.

“You’re mine,” he whispered against my mouth, half promise, half warning. “No one touches you. No one takes you. Not in this life. Not in any other.”

And I hated how my body answered him.

Heat spread through me, deep and slow, curling into the spaces I had tried to keep safe. My legs felt weak. My pulse pounded. I wanted him close, even though I knew closeness with him was a door I couldn’t ever step back from.

He laid me back against the sheets, his hands steady, his breath uneven. He kissed me again, and again, and again, every kiss anchoring me tighter to him. He didn’t rush. He consumed me. A hunger that didn’t just want my body. It wanted my soul. It wanted every breath I took.

I burned beneath him. I burned because of him.

And yet under all that heat, under every shiver of desire and every tremor of want, a small part of me trembled with something cold and sharp.

Because the more he marked me…

…the less of me I felt I could keep.

His body pressed to mine, perfectly, completely, like we were made to fit this exact way. His breath tangled with mine, our heartbeats tangled, everything tangled and the bond hummed and pulsed like it wanted to swallow me whole.

He kept marking me again and again.

Each bite a flame I could not escape.

I clung to him. I let him. I couldn’t stop myself. My body betrayed me in every way but deep inside, something whispered with a voice I knew too well:

You are burning.

You are being claimed.

And soon… there may be nothing left that is truly yours.

And still I held him closer.

His hands held my waist like he was holding something precious and breakable. But his grip never loosened. He wouldn’t let me slip away. He wouldn’t allow distance not even for a second.

“Don’t look away,” he whispered, his voice rough, unguarded, almost… vulnerable.

So I didn’t.

I held his gaze silver, fierce, consuming and I felt something twist deep inside me.

We moved together, he kept on thrusting inside of me until neither of us could breathe properly anymore. My body arched into his, his hand sliding to the back of my neck, holding me as if the world outside no longer existed, only this moment, only us, only the bond burning hot and endless.

And when it was over, he didn’t pull away.

He stayed, his chest pressed to my back as he drew me into him, his arm wrapped around my waist, his breath warm against the back of my shoulder.

His heartbeat was steady and strong, like it was trying to reassure me. Or stake its claim deeper.

I stared at the shadows on the wall, my fingers curled weakly against the sheets.

My body still felt warm, my pulse was still unsteady.

He held me like he couldn’t imagine letting go.

But inside my chest… a quiet ache spread slowly, like a wound reopening.

I whispered the words so softly I wasn’t sure if they were sound or thought:

“Is this love… or a cage?”

And the silence that answered me felt heavier than his arms around me.

A tremor rippled through the bond—sharp, wrong, nothing like desire. Jade stiffened beside me, lifting his head as the air thinned, pressed tight, like the world was holding its breath. A distant howl rose, low and ancient, echoing through my bones.

Something had crossed the threshold…
and it was coming for me.