Sera didn't remember falling asleep, but the second she awoke, she knew something had changed.
Her breath fogged slightly in the air. Her heart beat faster, louder.
He was here.
She sat up slowly, the sheet slipping off her shoulder, revealing bare skin kissed with sweat and moonlight. Her body still hummed from earlier, from his touch, his mouth, the heat he left on her thighs and the scent of him still clinging to her sheets.
Lucien stood at the edge of her room.
Shirt gone. Chest bare. Eyes glowing like amber fire.
He was a vision of power wrapped in darkness—dangerous, breathtaking, eternal.
"You shouldn't have come back," she whispered, though her voice lacked conviction. It was shaking. Longing.
Lucien stepped closer, and every footfall was a thunderclap in her chest. "I had to. There's something I need to finish."
Her pulse spiked. "What?"
"You," he said, voice a dark purr. "Us."
He reached the bed, and before she could breathe another word, he leaned down and kissed her. Hard. Deep. Unforgiving.
Sera gasped as he pulled her flush against him. Her body responded like it knew him—like it had been made for his touch.
"Lucien…" she murmured between kisses, clawing at his shoulders, his arms, his name a whisper soaked in desire. "This is insane."
"Maybe," he growled, his voice vibrating against her neck. "But I can't wait anymore."
He slid the sheet from her body, revealing her inch by inch. His eyes darkened as he took her in, reverent and wild. "You're the most dangerous thing I've ever touched."
"And you're the only one I can't stop craving," she breathed.
He pulled her beneath him, spreading her legs with his knee. "Then let me show you how much I crave you."
His mouth trailed down her neck, across her breasts, teasing, licking, sucking—until she was gasping, writhing beneath him.
When he finally entered her, she cried out, her nails digging into his back. He moved slowly at first, letting her feel every inch, every stroke, every unspoken promise.
And when the rhythm grew urgent—deep, possessive, relentless—she shattered around him, and he followed, growling her name like a prayer.
But it wasn't over.
Lucien brushed her damp hair aside, baring the soft slope between her neck and shoulder.
"I want to mark you," he whispered, voice thick with need and restraint. "Not the full bond. Just enough to protect you. Enough to let every wolf in this city know you're mine."
Sera's eyes fluttered open, hazy with pleasure and something far more dangerous. "Do it."
His teeth grazed her skin—then he bit.
A sharp sting, followed by a rush of heat that rippled through her body like lightning.
Her climax hit again—violent, unexpected. She clung to him as he groaned against her neck, the taste of her blood sealing something ancient between them.
When they finally collapsed together, tangled in limbs and sweat and something much deeper, neither spoke.
They didn't need to.
Outside, rain whispered against the windows.
Inside, the room pulsed with the unspoken truth—something irrevocable had shifted.
She was marked.
And there was no turning back.