AUTHOR NOTE: To make the most of the following chapters, you might want to go back to

"Solitude – Part 1

" and read all the way through. And if you don't mind music while you read, try playing

"Carry You

" by Ruelle Fleurie while you read these chapters. It's the song I listened to while I wrote them!

*****

~ ZEV ~

"Mine,

" he whispered, then gritted his teeth as he took her in one, long thrust. Sasha's head dropped back and she gasped his name, her fingers digging into his shoulders as her body tensed with the onslaught and she clenched around him so hard he was afraid he would come on the spot and this would all be over.

He cursed as he pulled almost all the way out, fisting both hands in her hair and holding her head back so he could suck at her throat as he plunged all the way back into her warm heat, every nerve in his body jangling with pleasure.

Sasha gave a gorgeous, broken cry of pleasure and rocked to meet him.

Watching her skin flush, her mouth open and loose, her eyelids flutter, Zev struggled to believe they were really there, that this was really happening. His body screamed for release already, but he refused it, snarling his wolf back and forcing himself to what gentleness he was capable of.

He shuddered. He groaned. He gasped her name. As they rolled together, it came rushing back—the perfect way she fit him. The sense of completion he found within her. The unwavering rightness of it all.

There was nothing of the darkness in this. When he was with Sasha, there was only light. She was where he was meant to be, and he'd forgotten the perfect joy of that.

He let go of her hair when she tried to lift her head, then groaned again, his eyes going wide as he fought not to climax when she laid thick, warm lips on his neck and sucked, her tongue tracing the cord of his neck. Her breath fluttering against his skin.

The minutes that followed were the most stunning of his life as their bodies first recognized, then remembered each other. Zev was overwhelmed, washed in pleasure and love so stark, it brought tears to his eyes.

Sasha whimpered and her hands dove into his hair, her elbows on his shoulders as she pulled herself closer, higher, wrapped her legs around his waist and met him stroke for stroke.

He could barely think beyond the need to find more and more of her, to pull her in and keep her close, to cover her and put himself between her and this brutal world that wanted to steal her from him.

As they slowly rocked together, again and again, Zev marveled at the way more than his body responded to her. It was as if she had unlocked his soul.

While his skin prickled and tingled, seeking her, and his heart thumped, racing for her, while the song of his heart broke from his throat, and his hands explored every soft curve, within him a fire was building.

Right alongside his rising pleasure, something solid, tangible, yet elusive was growing. A piece of the part of him that couldn't be touched, a corner of his soul, opening and waking.

He took Sasha's mouth again, but was too overcome to kiss. So he hovered, his lips brushing hers, her tongue darting to trace his, and with every thrust and roll, every new joining, this piece of him set fire, heat coursing in his veins right alongside the rush of… something he'd never felt before.

He clung to her, pleading with God to never take her from him as that thing in his veins pulled in on itself as if it gathered breath. Then he cried out, promising to always protect her, to never leave her, to give his life for hers, and that piece exploded, pouring into his veins and rushing through his body, seeking Sasha, finding her, then rushing to return as if his existence had shattered into a thousand tiny pieces that all sucked back in and re-made him.

*****

~ SASHA ~

He'd literally stolen her breath. The moment he took her, the world disappeared, tunneling down to nothing except the places where they touched, where he moved within her, where he touched her to her core.

She'd yearned for him, ached with the memory of having him, been unable to find desire for any other man. But this was more than that.

He was a piece of her. And taking him into her body felt like coming home—as if something had been missing, and now was back. As if she hadn't been complete for the past five years.

"Zev!

" she gasped when he thrust into her again. Her eyes flew open and she clawed her hands into his hair, gripping him, unwilling to lose even his eyes.

"Sash, I—

"

He groaned, and she took his mouth again, knowing the feeling he couldn't express, because she felt it too.

It was overwhelming this desperation, but driven not by fear. Her fear was gone, her nerves forgotten. She ached, and yearned, and sought—but instead of recoiling in fear of pain, she gave herself, wanted, offered.

Surrendered.

Her body no longer belonged to her, it was overwhelmed, little more than a receptor to absorb him, to wallow in what he gave, and to shudder at the pleasure he played on her skin.

He was everything—the only thing—she needed, and the hole that remained in her gut was only the lack of him. A piece shaped just like him.

Then he rocked into her again, the tendons in his neck standing proud as he fought the wave of pleasure she welcomed. He cried her name and she echoed him, calling him to her, pleading for him as her pleasure built and something sparkled, glittering on the edge of her awareness.

Zev stroked a hand down her body, squeezing, relishing, and she pressed into his grip, tiny cries breaking in her throat. But she couldn't care. She needed. Only him.

As her body climbed that wave of pleasure, she found it was only in reflection of something else. Something deeper.

Because something within him was calling her. The cries, the wolf-song he sang to her only spoke of it. It passed below hearing, below sight. Something powerful and strong in him meeting something nurturing and wise in her.

Then Zev's hand slid under the arch of her back and as he thrust, he lifted her hips. Pleasure exploded within her and she screamed his name, her body shuddering and twitching—yet, something else was happening.

As her body tipped over the cliff and her mind was consumed with the fall, something within her spun out to meet him, find him, and pull him back within her.

A coil of light and heat, a piece of her soul that fit, just right, slotted into his heart… and piece of his returned to slide into hers.

And when they slumped together, gasping, bodies still jolting with pleasure, Sasha clung to him, whimpering. Because there was a tender, beautiful new piece of him now living inside her.. And she'd do anything to protect it.