Eryx POV
I lay beside Rachael and watched her sleep, her breathing finally calm and steady. The night had been long, rough, nothing like I imagined our mating would be. The heat hadn’t been easy on her, she’d been shaking, burning, clinging to me like she was drowning. I didn’t stand a chance against that. She kept begging me to make it stop, her voice cracking, her hands trembling. What was I supposed to do? Let her suffer?
So I gave in.
I didn’t even know if she was going to hate me when she woke up. Maybe she’d look at me and see someone who took advantage of her desperate state. But at least the heat had broken. She wasn’t in pain anymore. That mattered more than anything else.
My neck still stung faintly where her teeth had sunk in. She’d marked me, properly marked me, sealing our
