Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(40)

His jaw was as tense as the rest of him, and normally, that expression would be worrisome, but I saw that this was shock. Shock that was soon replaced with fire as he cupped my face.

“You’re the match to my soul, Sunshine,” he rumbled through the power surrounding us. “You are my one. The only being I would destroy worlds for, and I’m afraid I did just that.”

I snorted. “Yeah, Gaster is not very happy with you. You’re going to have some cleaning up to do when you get out of here.”

My library could not be collateral damage in this war. It just couldn’t.

“I was no more than rage and cold, cruel intent,” Shadow admitted. “I would have killed everyone.”

My chest grew so tight. “Do you know what happened to Midnight, Angel, and Simone? And the rest of your crazy band of brothers? You… You didn’t kill them, right?”

Shadow’s brow furrowed, and I had a feeling he was sorting through memories, trying to figure out what was real and what had been falsely planted by Dannie. I relaxed a little when I saw no devastation on his face. “Simone is with Lucien,” he finally said, “on Valdor. And Angel is back in the Honor Meadows. I sent them to their lands, broke a lot of energy barriers through those lands, and then destroyed the Solaris system.”

“And Midnight?”

“I have no idea,” Shadow admitted, with reluctance. He really hated not knowing everything. “I can’t sense it anywhere close by, so maybe still in the realm?”

That had been my thought too. My hope. Because I refused to believe it was gone-gone.

“Can you get the Solaris System back?” I tentatively asked, not sure I wanted to hear the response if it was a no.

I felt zero reassurance when Shadow huffed. “It took me hundreds of years to establish it originally, but I can sense that the base of the power is still intact, and I’m a lot stronger than I was back then, so… I believe I can.” His eyes darkened into pits of golden lava. “But before we try that, there’s one thing I need first.”

My pussy spasmed because she knew what was going on.

Shadow walked me back until my legs hit his bed, and when I was crowded between the massive mattress and an equally massive being, I felt no fear or claustrophobia. I felt alive. The parts of me that had been ragged and broken were finally moving back into the places they’d originally been before Dannie had taken a sledgehammer to us.

Dannie.

She was an issue we’d have no choice but to deal with later, but for now, the focus was… elsewhere.

Shadow’s hands closed around my waist as he slowly dragged me up his body. I attempted to wrap my legs around him, but he was having none of that, his power holding my limbs. Even as I arched to try to rub my naked parts against his naked parts, desperate to ease the ache inside, he stopped this as well.

His power held me; his hands controlling every move I made.

“I cannot change my nature for you tonight,” he warned.

I knew what that one sentence meant. I was getting the full ride, pun intended. An experience that was almost certainly going to destroy parts of me, but it was all good. That wasn’t a glib, throwaway statement either. Having lost Shadow once, I would take any sort of physical pain before I’d do that again. Whatever happened today was a gift.

His fire surged, as did mine, and I felt the scrape of his tongue and five o’clock shadow across my sensitive skin as he dragged his tongue and mouth down my stomach, following the line of my body. He held me up off the bed as he devoured every part of me he could touch, and only a god would have the strength to do what he was, using nothing more than his triceps, chest, and shoulder muscles to keep me elevated.

When he released some of his control on me, my hands scraped across his skin, searching for traction, until I managed to slide them into his hair. It was only as I tugged on the short strands that I realized Shadow was no longer in possession of his signature tousled wave. My eyes flew open, and despite his intensely pleasurable journey, which had now reached the junction of my thighs, I forced myself to examine his shorn locks. Now, with the light of our fires burning around us, I saw him clearly.

Holy fuck me sideways.

Shadow was always beyond hot, dangerously sexy, and incredibly perfect, but this new haircut was… damn. It was like every plane of his masculine face was on view for me, giving him a scarier vibe, while taking away nothing of his beauty.

“Your hair,” I whispered, sounding like an awestruck teenager who had just met her favorite rock star. “What happened to it?”

He rumbled, power vibrating my clit, and I clenched my legs to try to stave off an orgasm. It was always so fast. Too fast. And despite knowing I’d probably have ten orgasms tonight, I wanted to make this first one last.

I tugged on his hair again, or at least attempted to, my fingers slipping through the short strands. “Shadow, what happened to your hair?”

“I cut it.”

Just as I was running that simple statement through my head, he bit into my thigh. A hard, punishing action, which I fucking loved. To return the favor, I wrapped my thighs tightly around his head, waiting for him to take control of me again.

Which he did, his hands closing around my waist as he bit into me again, over and over, across my thighs and along the sides of my pussy. It hurt, but with each bite of pain, followed by a swirl of his tongue, my body forgot everything except feeling the dual sensations. When his teeth finally closed down on my clit, I screamed, unable to stop the heavy swirls of arousal from exploding through my body.