His mate. The humming energy of the new bond felt like melted sugar in his veins. So warm. Sweet. Sexy.
Home. Isabella was home.
Sasha leaned forward and took a closer look at Isabella, whose cheek was nestled in the crook of his bare shoulder. “She should be fine. I’m not sure when she’ll wake up, but she’s just in a normal sleep now.”
“Thank you again. I cannot thank you enough.”
“Hush. From what I hear, we all need to be thanking her.”
Gareth cleared his throat but kept his arms crossed over his chest; his armor still covered in blood and debris from the battle. “She saved us all. We need to get our hands on some real weapons, Commander. Where there’s one, there are a thousand of those fucking things.”
“I know.” His heart sinking just a little, he looked down at Isabella’s arched brow. Her full lips. The soft curve of her cheek. “We will.” He had more than just his people to protect now. More than royal bloodlines and duty.
“But not tonight.” Sasha was on her feet, shoving Gareth out the door. “Leave them be. Falden’s awake. You’re home. You’re safe. Go get cleaned up. You two can talk about killing monsters tomorrow.”
Gareth would obey the queen he’d sworn to serve, but still he looked to Falden to make sure his commander was fit to defend his mate.
Falden nodded. “Tomorrow, Gareth. Go take care of your wounds.”
Gareth grunted in irritation when Sasha latched onto his arm. Falden chuckled as the door to his quarters slid closed behind them, the queen’s voice carrying to him where he lay, cradling Isabella.
“You’re hurt? Gareth! I swear, I’m going to beat you. Where? Show me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine…” Their voices faded, and Falden allowed the peace and silence of the moment to seep into his weary bones, into his soul. He held Isabella, stroked her long, silken hair with gentle fingers, tried to come to grips with the fact that she was his. Forever.
Time passed. Minutes? Hours? He had no idea and didn’t care. He was content.
“Falden?”
Her voice, so soft, so sleepy, so fucking perfect. “Yes, mate.”
“Am I dead?”
Confront things head-on, that was his Bella. “No, my Bella, you are not dead.”
“Dreaming?”
He chuckled and rolled her beneath him so she could feel the hard length of his eager cock against her thighs. “No, you are definitely not dreaming.”
A soft smile played across her face. She opened her eyes, her sexy, dark eyes, to stare up at him. “Why am I not dead?”
He leaned down, kissed her gently. “Sasha is a healer. They brought us back to base, and Sasha healed both of us.”
“I’m naked.”
He lowered his head to nibble on her jaw, lower to the new array of sparkling crystals that formed a dazzling vertical pattern up and down her neck, like a lattice of diamonds sparkling within her skin. It was stunning. Beautiful. And more proof that she was his forever, that she’d used the paste, that she was part of his world now. His. “Yes. I like you naked.”
She shifted her hips and he groaned. She laughed. “Obviously.”
With a sigh, she lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck, buried her fingers in his hair. “Is this real? Really, really real?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
“Anything, Bella. I’m yours. You know that. You can feel it.”
It was true. She could feel him, his feelings like warm sunshine in her heart, in her mind. She could just lie here and melt. “I love you.”
She wasn’t sure if she’d told him or not, but she wanted to say it. Saying the words mattered.
He froze at her declaration, lifted his gaze to hers. Held himself there, staring, the moment long and silent and so intimate she was going to cry. “I love you, my Bella. Forever.”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. He made love to her mouth until she shifted and sighed, until her hips lifted in urgent demand. He worked his way down her body, kissing every part of her, lingering when she moaned or gasped or tugged on his hair.
With a groan, he pulled back, a slow, sticky kiss letting her know he wasn’t finished with her. Not by a long shot. Reaching over to a cylinder full of maju paste that he’d noticed, he pulled the lid off. “It is an ancient tradition for a Lumerian woman to paint maju paste on the markings of her chosen mate, and vice versa. We are a possessive people,” he said with just a tinge of sadness for his lost world.
Isabella took the cylinder from him gently. “Your people are not lost to you. You can rebuild. We can rebuild together, Falden.”
He nodded, his heart bursting. “Will you honor me with paint, Isabella? Will you light my markings?” he asked with a slow grin. “Again?”
With a laugh she nodded, happier than she’d ever been before. Dipping her fingers into the maju paste, she then slathered it over every inch of his body, this time watching his markings get brighter with full knowledge of what that meant. He belonged to her. Forever.
When she was finished, he took the cylinder from her. “Now it’s my turn,” he murmured. “You have markings now, too, my Bella. I hope they are pleasing to you.” With reverence he applied the paste to the crystalline pattern on her neck that was so unlike his own. His markings were raised below the skin. She was human, and the microbes within the paste had gone below the skin, growing from the inside. They’d integrated with her. The swirling crystals were part of her skin now, beautiful and unique.
“Yes,” she whispered, love in her eyes. They both knew she was talking about more than her new appearance. More than the paste.
Smearing the paste over her new markings, he watched with wonder as they lit with opalescent fire, dazzling to the eye.
She moaned, his touch somehow erotic. Her body began to tingle. Her heart raced in anticipation.
“I’m going to apply this paste
