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“
Leave be, Valya. This is as it is meant to be.”

“Our race needs you,”
Valya replied, trying to dissuade him.
“You
cannot—”

“No. I am obsolete, You and Richelle are the future for our people.

There is nothing left for me here. But I do not fear death for there is one
waiting for me. I go to join her.”

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Nicolae did not have to mention her name for Valya knew he spoke of Adelaide
.
After all these years, he had never stopped thinking of her, loving her. His sole purpose in not following her in death was to save their child.

“I am joyful at joining my love. Consider this…my wedding present.”

With his palms turned upward beseechingly, he completed his chant. His body began to shift, becoming translucent until he was nothing more than a shimmering mist. The mist floated upward and began encompassing Richelle, swirling around her in a loving caress.

The red of her dress faded, dripping away like blood as it stained the floor beneath Richelle and then disappeared, leaving her clad in a glimmering gossamer-like second skin. The exotic makeup also

disappeared, leaving her fresh-faced, natural beauty. Bathed in moonlight, she all but glowed with innocence and hope as she slowly descended to the floor wrapped in the sparkling mist.

Valya struggled to reach her, but Stefan and Roman held him at bay. He struggled against their holds. The mist began to lose some of its sparkle—it was seemingly absorbed into Richelle as if by osmosis, becoming a part of her. Her toes touched the floor, and the mist disappeared entirely. As her arms slowly lowered to her sides, the room returned to its candlelit ambience.

She stood shakily for a moment and then collapsed when her legs buckled out from under her. Valya broke free from his restraining hold in a flash and was on his knees by her side. Timorously, he ran his fingertip over her cheek, afraid that she would vanish beneath his touch like a bubble bursting.

Her eyelids fluttered and the corner of her mouth twitched at the slight contact. Perspiration beaded on Valya’s forehead as Richelle awakened slowly with no more concern than a plump kitten rising from an afternoon nap. She arched into his touch, encouraging him to stroke her cheek with his open palm, which he did so gratefully.
She’s alive!

He grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her into a bear-like hug. She expelled a whoosh of air at his embrace. He knew he must be hurting her, but he couldn’t contain himself.
She’s alive!

Working her hand between them, she palmed his cheek, gasping when he turned his face to tickle the center of her palm with his tongue. Before she could pull her hand away, he sucked a finger into his mouth, causing her

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to sigh. The warmth of his mouth wrapped around her digit sent a tingle up her arm to her spine. She could feel a heat radiating from her core until her body felt it was on fire.

“Valya…” He grimaced as her voice broke on an edge of pain. Gazing upon her, concern was etched into his features.

“What is wrong,
mio dusa?
Tell me.”

“I feel so…so strange.” The tingle began to prick at her skin like pins and needles. Even his breath wafting across her skin sent her senses reeling.

She inhaled deeply trying to soothe the sensations plaguing her, but it only heightened them as she caught Valya’s scent. He smelled of sweat and blood, all heat and primal male. She inhaled deeply again and her womb clenched.

Her body clamored with the need to feel him against her, in her. It was more than just need. It was a hunger that gnawed at her to the point of pain, to where she thought she would either go crazy or die if she could not satisfy that hunger. And as he clung to her, his scent intoxicating, his blood surging through his veins, she knew what she needed. She needed his body…and his blood.

“I need you, Valya.” Her declaration was raw, her eyes raking over his masculine form in carnal appreciation.

His gaze turned to molten lava, and he rushed in and kissed her with all the possession and dominance of a life mate. He had been telling her since he had found her that she belonged to him. But that wasn’t accurate, as reality hit him like a runaway train. She was the center of his world, his reason for being. Without her, he was as dead inside as Luka.

The truth was not that she belonged to him.

It was he who belonged to her.

He pulled away. They both were breathing heavily as their bodies vibrated with unfulfilled desire, but unfulfilled only for the moment.

“You are my life, my bride. I love you and will love you until the end of time. Will you complete the bonding ritual with me and become my life mate?” It seemed a lifetime before she answered. He waited with bated breath, but her response came on the heel of his proposal.

“Yes, Valya. Oh, yes. I am and always have been yours. And I want to become your life mate.”

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A cheer went out from the band of warriors joining the mental jubilation of the Triad and the Immortals from across the sea who had witnessed the whole confrontation. But unlike Luka, he was not going to let them witness his bonding with Richelle.

“Then hold onto me,” he whispered hotly into her ear as he stood and swung her into his arms. “I know the perfect place.”

Together, they dematerialized. He wanted privacy for their “wedding night.”

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Richelle felt as if she had been swept into a magical fairyland as Valya carried her into the moonlit meadow. After they had materialized, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but she could never mistake the beautiful midnight mountain landscape as anything but home. Illuminated, it held an aura of mystery, with the low chirping of the crickets blending with the melodious ripple of a nearby brook.

For Richelle, no place could have been more spiritual, more sacred.

And Valya knew that.

He leaned down and kissed her—not with the raging desire thrumming through his body but thoroughly and completely, like a man enamored to the point of fascination. He reveled in every taste, every smell, every texture of her. As if he were sleepwalking, he never broke their kiss as he walked through the waving high grass, not releasing her until he reached the bank of the brook, where he set her down.

Demurely, she sat with her legs bent to the side, leaning into his touch while his hand rested on her nape. She could barely sit still when he kneeled before her on one leg and gazed at her with such intensity she felt he was going to pounce on her at any moment. And what surprised her the most was that was what she wanted…not just wanted, but craved and needed.

She palmed his cheek. His skin vibrated beneath her touch, sending a shiver down her spine. She rubbed her thighs together to alleviate the insistent throbbing that was begging to be satiated. He gripped the back of her neck and pulled her face to his until their lips were separated by a scant inch and a gush of moisture dampened her thighs.

His nostrils flared and he inhaled her rich, musky scent, beckoning to him like a siren’s song. Valya gave her a devilish smile, flashing his canines as he laughed huskily. The sight of his fangs sent a jolt of feminine fear through Richelle, knowing full well what was to come. Several days ago,

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she would have been terrified at the thought of being Valya’s life mate.

Contrarily, she felt strangely empowered.

Closing the miniscule gap between them, she ran her tongue over his canines. He groaned at her touch as he trembled and fell to both knees. She delighted in the power she held over him to draw such a heartfelt response.

His hand dropped to her shoulder and lightly trailed down her arm. Her skin prickled at her novice attempt at playing cat and mouse until the sensations were unbearable. She captured his lips, molding her mouth over his, giving them both what they desired as she ate at his lips with the same ravenous hunger he had demonstrated before with her.

Valya’s growl created titillating vibrations against her lips, spiking her need higher. Soon he was avidly nipping and licking her lips, trying to take control of their kiss, but Richelle wan enjoying herself and the thrill of the chase too much to relinquish her foray into feminine domination.

Framing his face with her hands, she slanted her mouth over his to deepen the kiss. Thrusting her tongue into his mouth, she undulated in synchronous rhythm, rubbing her breasts against his massive chest. Beneath the fabric, her nipples tightened into turgid peaks, aching to be sucked and laved. Valya tried moving his head one way and then the other, trying to take control, but for every thrust, she parried.

Thrust and parry. Thrust and parry.

On and on, they clashed in a battle of wills, each trying to outdo the other, each skirting the precipice between dominance and submission.

Together they slipped into an oasis, a haven they created for a glorious obsession of unimaginable pleasure. Driving each other to the verge of madness, they strived to reach the ultimate summit of love and devotion to then bathe in the afterglow of spent passion.

In the end, Richelle’s newfound confidence and sensuality were no match for the centuries of inbred dominance of Valya’s ancestry or his masculine strength. In a predatory rush, he knocked her onto her back as he captured her mouth in carnal bliss. Her arms automatically wrapped around his neck, and she opened herself further to him, welcoming his heat, his primal need to take control of her body and her passion.

Richelle felt their clothes disappear. She sighed at the beautiful sensation of skin against skin. Smooth and hot, their bodies fit together

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perfectly. Trapped between the soft, grassy patch and Valya’s rock-hard physique, Richelle moaned, caught between too much and not enough.

She needed more.

And she told Valya so.

Valya chuckled, his chest rubbing against her nipples deliciously. She cried into his mouth in sexual frustration as the abrasion left her panting and writhing beneath him. She wriggled as much as she could, bringing her swollen mound in contact with his engorged manhood. They groaned in unison at the intimate contact. He pressed his hips forward again, and again.

Every thrust drove their need for one another higher. Each pass brought his cock closer and closer to the core of her desire. On his final thrust, the head of his dick caressed her aching clit. She screamed as her pussy convulsed and starbursts went off behind her eyelids. Her unexpected orgasm lifted both their bodies from the ground until she collapsed in satisfaction but not in satiation.

When she opened her eyes, Valya’s passionate gaze, so profound with adoration, touched her to the deepest depths of her soul. She never believed she would ever find happiness with the love of another man, and now that she had an eternity to live her dreams of “happily ever after,” her heart was ready to burst. A tear slipped from her eye, which drew a concerned expression on Valya’s furrowed brow.

Smiling, she placed her fingertips against his lips. His brow smoothed and slowly he returned her smile. Her heart nearly stopped. He was
so
handsome.
His grin broadened at her unguarded thoughts.

“You think I’m handsome?”

“You know I do,” she replied.

His expression became somber. He closed the gap between them until their lips barely touched, and she could feel his hot breath as he spoke.

“And you are more beautiful than anything on earth or in the heavens.”

She swallowed hard as his mouth covered hers. His kiss conveyed the veracity of his statement, gentle yet strong, controlled yet passionate. He kissed her thoroughly, meticulously paying homage to every contour, and when she parted lips in invitation, he accepted. Their tongues danced and mated, stoking the eternal fire burning within them.

Their skin was slick with perspiration, yet neither was chilled by the night air as their bodies entwined, becoming one body, one heart, one soul.

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The apex of her thighs was damp with her cream, easing Valya’s sensual torment as he began pressing his cock against her again. She broke their kiss and moaned.

“Please, Valya. Don’t tease me.”

“I am not teasing you,
mio dusa.
I am pleasing you.”

She held her breath as he thrust rapidly against her several times, the broad head of his manhood striking her clit with each upstroke and tantalizing her with the promise of fulfillment as he stroked downward along her slit. She tried to move her hips so he could enter her, but he withheld what they both wanted. What they both needed.

“Valya, please.”

It was the stark neediness in her whispery plea that undid him, and on the next pass, his cock found its home. He surged into her so deep she could feel him hit the top of her womb, drawing a sharp gasp from her lips. In self-satisfaction, he held himself high within her, cherishing the silkiness of her feminine heat.

When he began to move, it was slow and steady. Like time in a bottle, there was no past, no future. For them, there was only this moment together.

This was the moment he had waited a thousand lifetimes for. And he would spend the rest of his lifetime worshipping at her feet and thanking the Gods that she was his, and he was blessedly hers.

She strained beneath him, urging him to go faster, deeper. He denied her. He wanted to give her so much more than what she was asking, no begging, for. He wanted to give her everything he had, and all that he was, the way he wanted to give it.

He bent over and kissed her.

It was soul-wrenching…so beautiful.

Richelle opened herself and accepted Valya’s gift, allowing him to set the pace of their joining no matter how maddening. She felt every emotion coursing through him, and yet, it wasn’t enough. Her body clamored for more. Now. She couldn’t remain still. She couldn’t remain silent. It was as if she had lived her life for this moment alone. So much pain. So much death.