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He floated longer than ever before, making it possible to hear the cries as clear as if the person were in front of him.

It wasn’t his family.

Something tugged on his heart. An unfamiliar sensation that never happened in previous versions of this never-ending nightmare.

His soul knew her voice.

“If you don’t come back, her heart will remain lost forever. Another bond lost to time.”

The disembodied voice made his skin prickle. Another new thing. Never had he heard a voice. Only the wails of a female in mourning.

He always assumed them to be Riley’s, but now he wondered if what he heard after being shot was someone else entirely.

The tugging on his chest grew and pain lanced through his body, soaking his nerves in a sea of fire.

It was her.

Whoever she was needed him. Called to the very fiber of his being.

The answer hit him with the force of a hurricane: his Korrena was calling to him. Mourning the loss of what would never be.

Aiden sucked in a gasping breath as he came to, heart pounding out a dissonant rhythm that couldn’t be healthy.

Was his Korrena born already? Or was it a sign of what would be?

His mind rioted with scattered thoughts that made little sense. When everything happened, he didn’t hear a voice. The cries weren’t clear. It was his sleep-deprived mind adding things to the story that weren’t true.

A soft, warm hand lay on the center of his chest. “Aiden? Are you alright?”

A sharp pang splintered his chest.

Without questioning his actions, he rolled over the top of Charlotte, planting his knees at the sides of her hips, bracing his hands on either side of her head.

Her beautiful eyes opened wide; the moonlight made them sparkle almost unnaturally. He knew better, though. She wasn’t like him.

Another pain seized his chest.

He dropped his head, capturing her lips parted with shock, desperate to soothe the ache that burned within.

She didn’t resist, didn’t even try to pretend to be modest and uncertain. Something in him knew she craved him as much as he craved her, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember why he never acted on that need.

Her arms came around the back of his neck, pulling his body into hers as she met his passion with her own. He groaned into the kiss as her manicured nails raked the short hair at the back of his head.

When her teeth sank into his bottom lip, he growled in response. Her hips canted upward to press against his straining erection.

He supported his body weight on his forearm and elbow as he moved his left hand down to slide up her waist and ribs, pushing her camisole up until his thumb brushed the bottom of her breast.

Breaking from their heated kiss, he dragged open-mouthed kisses across her jaw and down her neck, scraping his teeth across her collarbone, making her squirm to try to get her pelvis closer to him.

His lips trailed over her sternum, and he rose, pushing the camisole up until it bunched above her breasts.

His mouth watered.

Her breasts were generous, far more than a handful. Heavy, balanced, the perfect teardrop shape. They taunted him with what he’d never thought he’d have. It felt like sheer torture to watch her in her tight tank tops at night. He tried ignoring the way her nipples would pebble beneath the fabric without her realizing it, but it added to the temptation.

She lay panting beneath him, her eyes wild and blown with need. He could hardly see the gemstone green that captivated him. He wondered if she realized she hadn’t stopped squirming her hips the entire time his mouth lay siege to her.

Lowering himself, his ribs nestling between her thighs, he held her small body still as his mouth descended on her pale pink nipple.