Nick will hate you even more for this, you know. She said with a smirk as she kissed him again.
So let him hate me. He laid her down in the water against the gravel just below the surface, so that she was just barely out of the water to breathe. The more he hates me and the more he loves you, the stronger you’ll become.
She placed a hand on the back of his neck to pull him in closer, since she couldn’t stand the thought of not touching him or being touched by him. Both of the packs you sent have been accepted. She slowly wrapped one of her legs around his back, pulling the rest of his body flush against hers. They hadn’t exactly planned for her to be knocked unconscious and taken back with the Ironborn, but they had planned for her to win over Nickel somehow. Things had worked out better than they had imagined. He’s throwing everything into this fight, but he has no idea the forces you have behind you. None whatsoever.Except for whatever Teresa is feeding him.
Very little in this world could make me lose my thirst for you, but mention her name again, and that might come close. He said playfully as he kissed her, the water she was submerged in moving over every piece of her in a caress that wrapped her whole body in its touch. I didn’t come here to talk about her. I came here for you.
Zara moaned at the caress, since nothing felt quite as amazing as Coren’s touch. It was the way it worked for people like them. No one would ever be quite the match he was to her. It’s hard to be so far from you…I need you so much.
Soon you won’t have to be. He kissed her neck under the water, his lips trailing down to her shoulder without coming up for the air his kind didn’t need. Soon Nickel, and the Shadowborn, and Alina and all the rest will be out of the way and forgotten. And then things are going to change.
She gripped harder against his skin, trembling in her desire for him. I thought about you during the Fulness. About the promise we made to start a family once this was all over.
I was thinking of you too. I don’t break the promises I make. Especially not to my mate.
Her whole body shook at the emotion behind the word, and the connection that was so powerful between them that nothing in the world could match it. Not for her. I love you, Coren. We’re going to win this.
I won a long time ago. As soon as you became mine.
As soon as she heard that, time stopped, and she drowned completely in the experience of him. All she could think about was being with her mate, and all of the emotions she felt for him. The connection she had made over the time with Nick and all his people had made her exponentially stronger than Coren had ever experienced from her, but he could feel it, her strength, her energy, in a way that only a mate would ever be able to feel. Her web of influence had turned so massive that it made every touch between them, every kiss, that much more intoxicating and incredible.
Hours passed with them there, underwater for most of it, and even when the interlude came to an end, they could both feel how much they each wanted it to continue. They knew, though, that their time was running out. I can’t go back. She felt so wrapped in him that it would be painful for her to go back, but she knew that she had to.
You can. He laid there beneath her, just under a sheet of water that was the only barrier between them. You’re more powerful than almost any wolf I’ve ever heard of right now. There is nothing you can’t do.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she continued to hold tightly to him. Being away from you tears at my soul. I’m not the same without you.
I wouldn’t want you to be the same without me. He sat up with her, brushing the hair back over her forehead with a gentle touch. Just come back to me when all this is over. That’s all I’ve ever asked of you.
Slowly she forced herself to get up off of him, but it was painful for her to even be away from his touch. I will always come back to you. You are the one that my heart belongs to.
You are the only heart I have. His words resonated through every drop of water clinging to her skin. Coren and Zara were so entwined that even the moisture in the air was infused with emotion.
She leaned in once more and ran her wet fingertips across his face as he sat up out of the water. I love you.
“And I love you.” He kissed her fingertips, then looked away up the river she’d traveled down. “But I hope you’re ready to be hated some before we allow the Ironborn to wake up.”
Zara turned her head to look in the same direction and she sighed. “I’ll heal. It has to be done.”
He stepped behind her for a moment, kissing her shoulder as the ripples played around her legs. “We’ll be on the other side of this before the year is out. Don’t forget that. Or me.” He kissed her neck and stepped back away from her, becoming the man that always stepped before the Council, the man she had watched lead the European world of wolfkind for longer than she ever cared to admit. In just a few steps, he went from Coren her mate to Coren her master, and though she knew the man she had taken as her partner in life was still there underneath, the difference was always
