He stepped closer, and Faith felt that familiar pull, that magnetic awareness that made her skin hum.
Merral watched the exchange with quiet satisfaction. “You have checked on an old man enough,” he declared with dry humor. “I recommend fresh air. The moons are bright tonight.”
The subtle blessing hung between them like a gift.
Faith rose slowly, her heart hammering as Kovrak offered his hand. She took it without hesitation, and the simple contact seemed to steady them both.
He led her through corridors bathed in silver light, past windows that revealed twin moons against the star-scattered sky. The palace gardens soon spread before them, washed in luminous moonlight that transformed familiar paths into something magical.
The two moons hung overhead—one full and radiant, the other thinner but steady in its distant orbit. They walked in comfortable silence at first, the cool air carrying the perfume of night-blooming flowers that had no Earth equivalent.
“I thought you might leave for good tonight,” he said finally, his voice honest and unaccusing.
“I considered it briefly,” she admitted, surprised by her own candor. She stopped walking and turned to face him fully. “I didn’t fully understand what being your mate would mean. The tiger. The crown. The weight of it all.”
He didn’t deny any of it, didn’t try to minimize the reality she would be stepping into. “I know it’s a lot.”
Her pulse thrummed—not with fear this time, but with a deeper awareness of what stood between them. She stepped closer, close enough to see the way moonlight caught in his pale eyes.
“This is frightening,” she admitted. “But so is walking away from you.”
Silence stretched between them, charged with possibility and choice.
Then she rose onto her toes and kissed him.
Soft at first, tentative, under twin moons and open sky. No walls. No politics. No witnesses. Just the beginning of something neither of them could deny anymore.
The kiss quickly turned more intense as every suppressed feeling rushed to the surface. She gripped his shirt and pulled him closer, getting completely lost in the taste of him, the solid warmth of his body, and the way he responded to her touch with barely leashed hunger.
Faith knew there was no going back from this moment.
TEN
KOVRAK
Kovrak’s world narrowed to the taste of her mouth, the soft press of her body, and the roaring certainty in his blood. He had braced for rejection, for distance, for the cold finality of her asking to leave before dawn. He had prepared himself for complete failure.
Instead, she had turned to him beneath the twin moons, spoken her fear, and then chosen to kiss it away.
His tiger surged forward with feral satisfaction.She chooses us. All of us.
The mate bond, a quiet hum since their first touch, now pulsed like a war drum beneath his skin. He could taste her hesitation dissolving on his tongue, could feel the shift in her body as fear melted into a hunger that mirrored his own. For the first time in twenty years, hope did not feel fragile. It felt alive, demanding, and hot.
Her hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer until he felt every soft curve aligned with the hard planes of his body. His arousal was a painful, insistent pressure against the confines of his trousers, and his tiger pushed hard against his control.
Take her. Claim her. Mark her. Before her doubt returns.
Every primal instinct screamed that the world was unstable, that enemies circled, and fate had handed him a narrow, precious window. He wanted to sink his claws into the delicate skin of her hip and bind her to him forever.
But he forced a ragged breath into his lungs.
She must choose fully. Not be claimed by force.
He broke the kiss, his forehead resting against hers. “Not here,” he managed, his voice graveled with restraint.
Her warm brown eyes searched his, glazed with desire but still sharp. “Why?”
“Because you deserve more than palace windows as witnesses.” He captured her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. “Come with me.”