The Last Lunar Phoenix

"Ava...lon," I repeated, and he rewarded me by releasing my wrists and spreading my thighs wide.

He stared at my pussy like a man starving, and the hunger in his expression made me clench with anticipation.

"So wet already," he murmured, one finger sliding through my folds. "Is this for me, Zephyr? Or for the bond?"

"Does it matter?" I managed to gasp.

"Yes." He pushed that finger inside me, and I cried out at the intrusion. "Because I need to know you want me. Not just the mate bond. Me."

"You're the same thing," I argued weakly as he added a second finger, stretching me.

"Wrong answer." He withdrew his fingers, and I whimpered at the loss. Then his mouth was on me-tongue licking a broad stripe up my center and my mind went blank.

He ate me like he was trying to devour me whole. His tongue circling my clit, fingers pumping in and out, occasionally scraping his teeth against my sensitive flesh in a way that made me see stars. The mate bond amplified every sensation, feeding his pleasure back into mine in a loop that had me spiraling toward the edge embarrassingly fast.

"Avalon," I gasped, hands fisting in his hair. "I'm going to-"

"Come," he ordered against my clit, and the Alpha command combined with the suction of his mouth sent me hurtling over the edge.

I came with a scream, back arching as pleasure crashed through me in waves. He didn't stop, he kept licking and sucking until I was trembling and oversensitive and pushing at his head.

"Too much," I panted.

"Not nearly enough," he countered, rising to his knees between my thighs. He shoved his pants down, and I held my breath caught at the sight of his cock-thick and long and already leaking at the tip.

"That's not going to fit," I said, eyeing him with a mixture of apprehension and arousal.

"It will." He gripped himself, stroking slowly as he held my gaze. "And you're going to take every inch like the good mate you are."

The dirty talk should have offended me. Instead, it made me clench with need.

He positioned himself at my entrance, the head of his cock pushing against my opening. "Last chance to stop this," he said, and I could see the effort it took him to hold back. "Say the word, and I'll walk away."

I looked up at him-this man who had destroyed me in my past life, who was offering me a different future in this one. And I made my choice.

"Don't you dare walk away," I said, wrapping my legs around his hips. "Fuck me, Avalon. Make me yours."

He slammed into me in one brutal thrust, and I screamed-from pleasure and pain and the overwhelming fullness of him inside me. He was huge, stretching me past what I thought possible, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe.

"Fuck," he groaned, dropping his forehead to mine. "You're so tight. So perfect."

"Please," I demanded, nails raking down his back. "Avalon, please-"

He withdrew almost completely, then thrust back in hard enough to make the headboard slam against the wall. He set a punishing pace-deep, brutal strokes that had me clinging to him and chanting his name like a prayer.

The mate bond sang between us, our pleasure intertwining until I couldn't tell where I ended and he began. I felt his desperation, his need, his overwhelming desire to claim and possess and never let go.

"Zephyr," he growled, one hand fisting in my hair to tilt my head back. "Look at me."

I forced my eyes open, meeting his gaze as he pounded into me. His eyes had gone full wolf-glowing gold-and I knew mine had done the same.

"Mine," he snarled, and the Alpha command in it made me come again, clenching around him.

"Yes," I gasped out, too far gone to fight it. "I am all Yours."

He roared his release, hips jerking as he spilled inside me. The sensation of his cum filling me triggered another orgasm, and I shattered around him, pleasure whiting out my vision.

When I came back to myself, Avalon had collapsed on top of me, both of us breathing hard. His cock was still inside me, twitching with aftershocks, and I could feel the mate bond glowing bright and satisfied in my chest.

"That was..." I started, then trailed off because I didn't have words.

"Yeah," he agreed, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. "It was."

We lay there for a long moment, tangled together, before reality started to creep back in. I shifted uncomfortably, suddenly aware of the mess between my thighs and the fact that I'd just fucked the man I'd sworn to hate.

"Zephyr," Avalon said softly, propping himself up on his elbows to look at me. "This changes things."

"It doesn't change anything," I lied, even as the bond pulsed with warmth. "It was just sex."

"It was never just sex," he countered. "Not with a mate bond this strong."

"Fine." I pushed at his chest until he withdrew from me-both of us hissing at the sensation. "It was mate bond sex. An itch I needed to scratch. Nothing more."

Hurt flashed across his face before he masked it. "If that's what you need to believe."

"It is." I sat up, ignoring the way my body protested the movement. "Now get out. I need to clean up and figure out how to explain this to Osilus and Zane."

"You don't owe them an explanation," Avalon said, but he was already pulling his pants back on. "You're allowed to choose who you bond with and when."

"I didn't choose anything," I snapped. "The bond chose for me."

"Keep telling yourself that," he said, heading for the door. But he paused at the threshold, looking back at me with an expression I couldn't read. "For what it's worth, Zephyr-I'm sorry. For everything I did to you before. And I'll spend the rest of my life proving I'm different now. Whether you believe me or not."

Then he was gone, and I was left alone in his bed, aching and confused and more terrified than I'd been since I'd woken up in this second life.

Because the scariest part wasn't that I'd just fucked Avalon Cary.

It was that some small, traitorous part of me had enjoyed it.

I found Osilus in the library an hour later, after I'd showered again and changed into clean clothes. He looked up from his book as I entered, and his expression shifted from curious to knowing in an instant.

"You smell like him," he observed quietly.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said, collapsing into the chair across from him.

"Okay." He set his book aside. "Do you want to talk about what happens now?"

"Now?" I laughed bitterly. "Now I figure out how to survive having three mates when I can barely handle one."

"You're handling it better than you think," Osilus said. "Most newly awakened Phoenixes go feral from the bond overload. You're still coherent and planning revenge. I'd say that's impressive."

"Or I'm just too angry to go feral," I muttered.

"Anger is a type of strength," he said with a slight smile. "And you'll need it for what's coming."

"What's coming?" I straightened in my chair.

His expression turned grim. "Avalon got word while you were... occupied. Your stepfather and brother are coming to the estate tomorrow. They want to 'check on the new bride' and make sure the alliance is secure."

Ice flooded my veins. "Bron is coming here?"

"And your father," Osilus confirmed. "Which means your revenge is about to start whether you're ready or not."

I thought about that-about facing the men who had killed me, who thought I was still the weak, powerless girl they could manipulate and discard.

Then I smiled, slow and sharp and full of dark promise.

"Good," I said. "Let them come. It's time they learned what a Phoenix can do."