FIVE BROTHERS MATED TO ONE (The Veil of Stars)

🌑 Chapter Nineteen: Shadows Entwined

🌑 Chapter Nineteen: Shadows Entwined

The cavern had quieted, but Elara’s heart hadn’t. Every kiss lingered on her lips—Theron’s calm tide, Kael’s desperate fire, Riven’s wicked dare. She should have felt guilty, torn apart by the chaos of it all.

Instead, she felt hungry.

The shadows stirred before she saw him, familiar and heavy, settling across her skin like a shiver. Darius stepped out from the darkness, his gaze fixed on her, unreadable and yet burning with something he no longer cared to hide.

“You let him kiss you,” he said, voice low, quiet, but edged like a blade.

Elara’s breath caught. “Darius—”

He was on her before she could finish, one hand gripping her waist, the other tangling in her hair as his mouth claimed hers.

The kiss was nothing like the others. It wasn’t rushed, playful, or reckless. It was deep, slow, consuming—like shadows wrapping around her, binding her, dragging her into the night. His tongue teased hers, deliberate, controlled, every stroke calculated to undo her completely.

A soft sound escaped her throat, betraying her, and Darius groaned into her mouth, finally losing some of that iron restraint. He pressed her back against the cavern wall, his body pinning hers, shadows curling around them both like a cocoon, sealing them away from the world.

“Elara…” he rasped against her lips, breaking only long enough to breathe before devouring her again. His mouth trailed to her jaw, then lower, teeth grazing her throat. “You don’t know what you do to me.”

Her hands clutched his shoulders, her starfire sparking wild and bright against the press of his darkness. It didn’t repel him. It only made him hold her tighter, kiss her harder, as though he wanted to swallow her whole.

For one breathless, scorching moment, Elara thought she might let him.

Darius’s lips left a scorching trail down her throat, each kiss darker, hungrier than the last. His control, usually an unbreakable wall, cracked with every trembling breath she gave him.

“Elara…” His voice was rough, strained, almost pleading. “You don’t understand. I can’t—”

But he didn’t stop.

His teeth grazed the sensitive curve of her neck, just shy of biting, and she gasped, clutching him tighter. Shadows surged around them, wrapping her wrists, her waist, pulling her closer into him until there was no space left between their bodies.

The restraint he was famous for—the cold, distant mask—was gone. In its place was raw want, scorching as Kael’s fire, suffocating as Theron’s tide, intoxicating as Riven’s dare.

“Darius…” she whispered, her starfire flaring against his shadows. “Don’t stop.”

That broke him.

He kissed her again, deeper, rougher, one hand sliding down to her hip, dragging her against him as if he could fuse her into him. The heat of his arousal pressed hard against her, undeniable, and a desperate sound escaped her lips before she could swallow it back.

Darius groaned into her mouth, his shadows trembling like they mirrored his loss of control. “Gods, Elara… you’ll be the death of me.”

And the worst part—the dangerous part—was that she wanted him to keep losing control.

For the first time, she wanted to see how far the shadows could take her.