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  “No, open your eyes.”

  “What?” His command surprised her. Nadiah looked at him and saw that his own truegreen eyes were blazing with lust and desire.

  “Keep them open,” Rast directed, thrusting even deeper and harder into her as he spoke. “I want to see…don’t want to miss the moment when they turn.”

  “All…all right,” Nadiah whispered. Leaning her forehead against his, she looked into his eyes, giving her all, making herself as open as she could as she worked her hips to the rhythm of their mutual pleasure.

  “”That’s good,” Rast growled softly. “Can’t wait…to see it. Can’t wait to make you come.”

  Nadiah didn’t think she had far to go. The intensity of having him inside her, filling her and the jolting burst of pleasure she felt with each hard thrust as he pressed against the mouth of her womb was quickly pushing her over the edge. She just needed one more thing, just needed…she wasn’t sure what she needed, but something to make her lose control completely. “Please, Rast,” she gasped. “Please, I’m so close. I just can’t…quite get there.”

  “I’ll take you there, sweetheart.” Rast moved one large hand from her ass to slide around in front where they were joined. Nadiah moaned as he found her pussy and the broad pad of his thumb came to rest directly on her sensitive clit. He stroked gently but firmly over her swollen button, sending shards of brilliant pleasure that radiated from her clit to every single part of her body.

  Suddenly Nadiah couldn’t take it any more. The feeling of being filled…of being fucked, taken and owned by the male she loved overcame her. The bomb which had been ticking inside her from the first suddenly went off—an intense internal explosion of pleasure. As if that wasn’t enough, the feeling of Rast’s feathers against her skin somehow magnified it, making her feel the orgasm in every part of her body at once.

  Nadiah was lost—utterly lost and drowning in a sea of sensation. “Oh,” she sobbed. “Oh yes…yes…Goddess, yes!”

  “That’s right, sweetheart, come for me,” Rast growled. “Come hard, love to feel you coming all over my cock.” He pulled out and then thrust into her one last time, shoving his shaft as deeply into her as he could. Then Nadiah felt him swell even bigger and suddenly he was coming, bathing the mouth of her womb in hot spurts as he held her tight against him.

  A strange feeling began inside her. A feeling like she was melting from the inside out. A rush of heat enveloped her body, starting at her core, where Rast was inside her to the hilt, and ending in her eyes which felt like they were glowing like hot coals.

  “Oh!’ Nadiah gasped and clutched at Rast’s shoulders. It wasn’t a painful sensation but it was an intense one—once more, made even more intense by the soft feathers of his wings brushing every part of her naked body. Goddess, so good, her mind babbled. So good, so good, so good!

  “I agree with you, sweetheart—it’s incredible,” she heard Rast murmur and realized that he was talking inside her head.

  “Rast?” She looked at him in wonder as the intense pleasure finally began to ebb. “Rast can you…can you hear me?”

  “Yeah, I can.” He sounded surprised and a little confused. “Is this normal after sex?”

  Nadiah felt the brush of feathers against her skin again and suddenly understood. “Not after regular sex—only after bonding sex,” she sent through their new link. “It’s the way Kindred warriors tie their females to them for life and every branch of the Kindred do it differently. Blood Kindred have to bite, Twin Kindred have to both take a female at the same time, Beast Kindred have to have their mating fist involved…I don’t know about regular First Kindred but with you, I think it has to do with your wings—having them around me while we made love made a difference. It gave us a much deeper connection.”

  A look of cautious joy came over his face. “You mean this is really it? Nobody can ever separate us again?”

  Nadiah nodded, feeling his joy overflowing through the link and filling her heart as well. “We just made a bond even deeper and stronger than the blood bond,” she told him. “One that can only be broken by death. We’ll be together forever now.”

  “I could have told you that before, sweetheart.” Leaning forward, he took her mouth in a hot, possessive kiss. “Because I’m never letting you go ever again. By the way…your new eye color is beautiful. Even better than the original, if that’s possible.”

  “Is it?” Nadiah put a hand to her cheek as though she could feel the new color. “What is it? What does it look like? Have my eyes gone a shade lighter?” She was certain they must have—her eyes were already such a dark blue they couldn’t have gotten darker.

  But Rast shook his head. Frowning, he cupped her cheek and studied her eyes intently. “Not lighter so much as they’ve changed to a whole different color,” he murmured aloud. “Kind of a bluish-green.”

  “Blue-green? Really?” Nadiah was surprised. Of all the Tranq Prime females she’d ever know, none had ever had their eyes change to a whole different hue. Usually they just lightened or darkened a shade or two after the female in question surrendered her virginity.

  “Yeah…” Rast smiled. “If I had to describe it I’d say…it’s a perfect mixture of your old eye color and mine right now. It’s beautiful—reminds me of the deep sea.” He looked at her anxiously. “Is that all right?”

  Nadiah gave him a trembling smile. “It…it’s more than all right,” she whispered as emotion overcame her. “Don’t you see, Rast—I’m yours. I was meant to be yours all along and no one can say any different now. The proof…all the proof we’ll ever need is here.” She tapped the corner of her eye. “Right here.”

  He looked at her, bewildered. “Then why are you crying?”

  “Because I’m so ha-happy.” Nadia sniffed and tried to get herself under control. “I’m sorry I just…I feel like I belong to you now. And it makes me feel so safe and good and right.”

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Rast pulled her close and his feathers rustled with the motion. “If you belong to me, then I belong to you too,” he told her, his voice rough with emotion. “I’m yours and you’re mine and nothing is ever going to come between us again—I swear.”

  Nadiah hugged him tight and buried her face in his neck. Another wave of emotion overcame her and she wept freely, unable to help herself. As the tears of happiness dropped from her new eyes, she knew Rast was right—they would never be parted again.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Elise woke up with the strangest feeling that she had forgotten something—something very important. She looked around the small room she found herself in. It was comfortable and warm, but still very obviously a hospital room. The readout of her vitals above the bed she was in showed that. Beside the bed was a chair—an empty chair. Elise frowned. It wasn’t supposed to be empty—she was sure of that. But who was supposed to sit in it? And what hospital was she was in?

  Where am I?

  The answer came back almost immediately. The Mother Ship. The Kindred Mother Ship. But how did I get here?

  This time the answer wasn’t so quick and easy. There was a frightening blank that made her break out in a cold sweat. Then, slowly, her memory started to fill it in.

  She’d been walking in the park in Sarasota, the one with the Unconditional Surrender statue. It was based on the old picture from World War Two, where the sailor had the nurse bent over his arm and was kissing her senseless.

  Okay, yes, I remember that.

  She’d been looking at the statue, thinking that it was simultaneously romantic and unrealistic. Unconditional surrender, indeed. As if you could ever really give yourself so totally to someone else…Elise knew she couldn’t. That way lay only pain and disappointment. She’d learned at an early age that you couldn’t depend on anyone but yourself—had learned the hard way after—no, stop. Don’t go there.

  A picture appeared in her mind. A picture of an old-timey bank vault, one with a door that was a solid foot of stainless steel. Thick, heavy—nothing