Page 109 of The King has Fallen

My mate.

Behold, you are my strength. Behold you are my love.

Let me taste with my mouth because your kiss is richer than wine.

Let my body speak the words my tongue cannot form.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your soul.

For my love is stronger than death, my jealousy fierce as the grave.

I burn for you with fire, the very flame of God.

I am your beloved. I am your mate.

My soul sings for you. My desire is for you.

I give myself in this world, and the next.

Before God…

I took a final breath as everything within me clamored to finish this, to claim him, to be claimed by him—and yet the roiling storm of what would come as a result of this day would not leave me in peace.

I sucked in a deep breath and Melek’s eyes shadowed… and pleaded with me. Looming over me, his thick chest and broad shoulders casting me in shadow deep enough to hide me from eyes…

And I knew I would never be the same. He was possibly the strongest man on the continent—in creation! If we could not defeat these demons together, no one else would bring me through, either. And so, I curled my nails into the stubble on his jaw and let the love I’d been so desperately denying blaze from my eyes, and I took him. Claimed his soul. The words rushed from me in a torrent.

…You are mine!

Like a fire lit to oil, need and love exploded in my chest, igniting my veins and rushing through me to burn every other thought or desire from my body and mind in a single, white-hot flash.

I stopped breathing, my heart stopped beating for a moment as it felt like the explosion within cracked my ribs and bared my chest.

But just when the pain should have begun, just when I was braced there, gasping and stunned, my ribs cracked and heart exposed, something within him rushed for me—fuel to the flame, and soothing ice to the burn.

At every point where our flesh touched his soul rushed from him and into me, coiling with mine, twining, twisting, braiding together, then yanking tight.

We both cried out as our hearts stopped—then rushed on, pulsing, filling, pumping in time and suddenly that space within me that had felt so empty, the spot where something had gone out from me to stretch for the darkness of him was bathed in light.

Mate.

Soulbond.

Mine.

I cried out as Melek bellowed with relief and joy. He gripped my hand so tightly, yanking it from his chest and pinning it on the pillow above my head as he descended like an avenging angel to take me.

Forever.

38. Nothing Else Matters

SOUNDTRACK:Burnby Corvyx

~ YILAN ~

I had feared this moment, avoided it for years. Fought to keep myself apart from any man that wanted me because deep down I had known that I would lose myself in a bond.

Soulbond chosen by God, or forgedbond chosen by me, it wouldn’t matter.