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He covered my mouth with his and his breath caught immediately, picking up on all my feelings, right on the surface. He dove deep
, devouring me, and let his hand coast agonizingly slow up my ribs. He stopped and rested it dangerously close before easing himself on his elbow on his other arm and tangling my hair in his hand. Every now and then he would tug and use it to maneuver me, causing me to gasp and groan. That, in turn, would make him groan as he felt what I was feeling. He looked so blissfully happy as he smiled down at me.

I
wrapped a leg around the back of his knee and put my hand under his shirt, using that to pull him as close as I could get him. The torture was exquisite. He tugged my hair to give himself access to my neck, his lips finding new places they’d never ventured. Behind my ear, my collarbone, the hollow of my neck.

And then I wasn’t in our tent anymore but in a house, on a big bed with the sun peeking through the windows at us. I sat up swiftly, making him lean back a little and almost fall on his butt. He laughed at me as I looked around. I latched my gaze onto the ceiling fan above us, watching it whir and go round, even feeling the wind from it on my face. “How is this real?”

“Devourers have other charms,” he murmured and pushed me to lie back down, following me and pressing me into the soft bed. I sighed for more than one reason, but pushed him back.

“So this is real?” I looked around. “This is like really real right now?”
              “No, this is really a reverie,” he said smugly. “I made this with my mind. I can take you anywhere you want to go, anytime you close your eyes.”

“I don’t even have to be asleep?”

“No,” he said evenly with a little smile. He was enjoying this.

“Why have you never done this to me before?”

“Because we’ve been a little busy trying to not die,” he said with a raised brow. “And I wanted to save it for when you would least expect it. For when it would make you the happiest.”

I grinned. “Got any more tricks up your sleeve?”

“Maybe,” he grunted into the skin under my chin. “Do you like it?”

“What is this place?”

“This could be our place one day. Maybe.” He smiled and looked around. “This is a very human home, isn’t it? This is what you would want?”

I stared, stunned silent. “It’s beautiful, Enoch. You made this home up…from your imagination?”

“Yeah,” he sighed gruffly and let his thumb sweep my jaw line. “Where else would you like to go?”

I felt my eyebrows shoot up. “Where else
can
we go?”

His smiled smug
ly, sexily. “Anywhere you want to, baby.” He leaned his chin on my chest and looked at me. “I’m your genie. Rub me and make your wishes.” He smiled wider at my laugh.

“Oh, gosh,” I mused. “I haven’t been to the beach in—”

I gasped aware on his chest as we laid on a large blanket in the sand.

He chuckled. “I knew you were going to say the beach. So adorably predictable.”

I could hear the waves, see the blinding sun and feel the heat of it on my back. I was in a bathing suit—a barely-there little two piece of scraps of material that I was sure Enoch had conjured from the depths of his mind to torture himself into a frenzy. I fingered the strap and looked at him in awe. His grin slid away and he looked a little guilty.

“I was just kidding with the suit. Here.”

He moved to sit up and take his shirt off, to give it to me I assumed, but I stopped him, pushing him back down and making him groan with the force of it.

“The suit is fine,” I said with an awe-filled chuckle. “I’m yours now, right? And your mine? I’m sure we’re going to be seeing…lots of each other.”

I even sat up and pulled him with me, peeling the shirt from his body for good measure and tossing it away to prove my point before easing him back down and climbing back over him.

His breath was really loud and rough when it released. He swallowed. “Then what—”

I basically attacked his mouth and felt every feminine bone stand up and clap for joy when his entire body jolted as he coiled around me.
He was so strong. He could lift and move me with just his hands. His big, warm palms settled on the backs on my thighs and I thought that would be where he would end his torture, choosing to kiss me and murmur his words there on my lips for the night, but no. He had other plans obviously. With one arm around my waist and the other holding us up, he maneuvered us so that I was now under him. I gasped at the feel of warm sand under me and warm devourer over me. He settled on me and continued his assault wholeheartedly, his lips sucking little places on my neck, his palm sweeping down my thigh and up my side, his chest pressing mine, skin to skin.

“So this is what I have to look forward to,” I murmured, my head raised to
give him full access to my neck as he kissed the place where my shoulder and neck met. “You taking me anywhere I want to go in the world and making me infinitely happy forever? How is all this really happening to me?” I smiled, but he didn’t say anything.

I looked up
and he was watching me with a sobered face. He scooted up to be directly over my face and cupped my chin, his finger raking over the hump of my jaw. “Say that again where I can watch your face when you say it.”

I smiled slowly and gripped the forearm of the hand that was caressing me. “You make me happy. Is it really that hard to believe?”

“You just said it, sweetheart. How is all this happening to me?” He shook his head, but kept his eyes right on mine. “How the hell do I deserve this?” he whispered.

“
We accept the love we think we deserve,” I repeated what I’d told him before. “And I’m falling so hard for you, Enoch Thames.”

H
e leaned down and pressed his mouth hungrily to mine before he took both my hands and put them above my head, pressing them to the blanket, and it was there that a decision was made. As he laced my fingers with his, I felt something warm wrap around my chest. I didn’t know what to do but trust it. As I looked up into his eyes, I felt his smile in my very soul. I felt the tendrils of my heart reach out for his and hoped that it was what he wanted, too.

He had asked me for forever
and now I was asking him for the same thing.

             
He was kissing me so deep and then he must have felt it, too, because he just stopped moving. His tongue was pressed against mine and then he was pulling away. His eyes looked up and latched onto our entwined hands. Then they were searching my eyes and asking the question. I swallowed and opened my mouth to say something, anything, but he stopped me with a kiss. A kiss that was so soft and thankful, it made me ache.

He
ran his hands through my hair and licked his lips as he pulled back. “I can’t feel happiness, but if I could, it would feel like this.”

“All right, kid,” I whispered and pointed at the targets placed on the tree line along the bank of the river. The weapons training was taking place and we watched as Aries and Regina practiced with a crossbow. “This is how we do it. You gotta know the ins and outs of every weapon.”

“I don’t think so.”

I turned to find Clara and Fay and grumbled. “Fun’s over, little man.”

She laughed and shook her head. “
I wondered where he went…you know, since he can’t walk yet and all.”

“You know if he’s gone that I’ve got him,” I griped and hoisted him higher in my arms. “Come on, Ben. Can you believe these women?”
Ben had been Clara’s father’s name. There were going to take the name of her parents, whichever it was going to be, boy or girl.

             
Her laugh got louder as she took him from my arms. He started crying and she laughed even harder.

“See,” I told her and held out an arm for Fay to walk into. “Uncle Enoch knows what he’s doing.”

“Uncle Enoch has let Ben sit in a wet diaper,” she scolded with a smile.

“Pssh,” I
said, brushing the comment off. “Diaper, smiaper. Who needs a clean diaper when there’s male bonding going on?” She rolled her eyes and took him away. I yelled. “I’ll come rescue you later, buddy!”

I heard Clara
’s peals of laughter over the sound of the river. I heard it a lot lately. Fay’s fingers played with the buttons of my shirt. I covered them with mine and looked down at her.

“
One day he’ll understand you and be grateful,” she said with a smug smile.

“What are you so happy about?” I asked, suddenly intrigued, and put my arms around her, lifting her feet from the ground a little.

“I got off duties for the night, too.” She grinned. “So I’m all yours.”

“Ooh,” I said low. “A drive up the mountain? You and me under the stars? Camping? Alone?”

Her smile left so fast. “Camping? Seriously?”

“But when we’re way out there, we can make as much noise as we want.”

She slapped my shoulder, but I gripped her tightly as she giggled. “Enoch Thames!”

“I meant singing. I don’t want to be embarrassed.” I shook my head. “I don’t know what you meant—”

“Shut up,” she laughed her words and held my face as she kissed me. “I don’t care where we go,” she whispered and the sincere voice had come out. “I just want to be with you.”

I opened my eyes to see her face and there it was, the face that told me she was mine and she loved me despite everything I was.

I smiled. “We’re not camping, princess.” I ticked my head toward the water and my grin widened. “We will be under the stars though.”

She took one look at the boa
t and I knew I had scored major points. I lifted her dropped jaw with my fingers. “How did you—”

“Franz knows people. It’s on loan for the weekend.
You saved like…the entire camp. They owe you this one weekend.” I leaned in close. “There’s a bed under the deck and everything.”

She looked at me and her nose brushed my chin. “Like with springs and stuff?”

It was our running joke. It had been
so long
since anyone had slept in a real bed. We stayed in Colorado for two months before we had to leave because winter was coming. We spent some time in New Mexico—keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Since The Wall was there, we thought it might work out to be so close, but that had proved to be hazardous. With Eli and Clara’s baby coming, the chance of the wrong person seeing or getting wind of it was just too much, so as soon as we could, we came back to Colorado. They were in the process of getting some type of building that everyone could fit in to keep out the elements. One step at a time.

             
Fay literally bounced in my arms.

“Go pack,” I ordered and swatted her butt.

              She saluted and grinned. “Yes, sir.”

She took off, the bond wrapped from her to me between us, but turned and ran back to me. She jumped up and wrapped her legs around me.

“Thank you.” She kissed me, wrapping her arms tight around my head, like there was no reason on this earth not to. I groaned, feeling the intensity of it hit me. I didn’t feel this as often anymore. The bond Fay had given to me that day gave me everything I needed. I never felt starved, ever. I only felt emotion when it was really intense.

And that was fine with me.

She hadn’t understood what she was giving me that day. I hadn’t told her what the bond did because I never wanted her to bond herself to me for that very reason. I knew she’d do it just because she’d want to make my life easy and I never wanted her to be stuck with me forever. But then I went and mated her to me.

That day on the bank of the river when I held her, her lips blue and lifeless, and thought she was going to die right in front of me—nothing else mattered after that. She was in this. She couldn’t escape. The Horde would never let her be. It wasn’t like she could run away. She was safest here, with me, with us. I realized that all the reasons why I wanted to keep her away were all the same reasons we should be together.

But when she did bond herself to me, and she hadn’t even known what it would mean for me, she had just done it because she truly just wanted me—bloody hell.

When she found out what it meant, she bawled so hard, so happily. She loved to push the envelope though, to
make
me feel her. Like right now, as my fingers dug into her thighs and the tiny groan slipped free, her smug smile curved against my mouth. “You love to torture me,” I whispered and smirked.

“I just love you.” She sighed and licked her lips. “It’s been a year.”

I held her tighter. “An amazing year.” No jokes. It wasn’t funny. It had been a year since she almost died, since she bound me to her, since everything. I put her feet to the ground and brought my hands up, cupping her jaw. “And I love you, too.”

She pulled one hand free and laced our hands together on her chest. Our tattooed ring fingers
rubbed against each other and I remembered getting them done almost seven months ago. We hadn’t gone with traditional wedding rings. This was anything but traditional.

We hadn’t done anything crazy. It was just us and the camp. Franz did it for us and the fool grinned through the whole thing. Afterwards, I took her into town, almost a two hour drive through the mountains, and we got these tattoos done. Our bond resembles Clara and Eli’s a little, but looks more like vines
instead of barb wire. So that’s what we got—vines on our ring fingers. Then I took her to a hotel for the night, the only real bed we’d been in for the entire year, except for this weekend.

We spent plenty of time in reveries, but when you woke up in the morning, your back still ached from sleeping on the ground. You could fool your mind, but not your spine. It was nice to get away and take her places, but nothing was like sleeping in an
actual
bed.

Though Eli and Clara had a kid
, and were even thinking about having another one down the road, we were not. That was off the table. We were doing everything in our power to prevent it.

More power to them, but it just wasn’t the world to bring them into. Besides, we
got plenty of playtime with Ben. It was Fay’s idea to wipe kids off the table, so I knew she wasn’t wanting for it. We were happy. Like, bone-deep happy.

How can you be happy sleeping in a sleeping bag every
night in a tent, knowing there were men trying to kill you, always looking over your shoulder waiting for the next attack, knowing that one day war will come, because
it will
come, there is no doubt, and looking at the same faces every day, doing the same thing every day, and still be happy?

She gripped my shirt and pulled me down to kiss me again. “You get a million points for doing this.” She kissed me again and brought her knee between mi
ne, rubbing her leg against my knee and thigh to taunt me. My moan had to be heard across the river. “Like a million,” she breathed and then smiled so smugly as she turned to walk away. “I’ll go pack now.”

“Yo
u are so gonna get it, princess.” I chuckled huskily and watched her behind and legs sway as she walked away.

“Promise?” she threw over her shoulder. I heard her giggle come back to me through the woods.

Yeah. I had never known what happy was before this girl. But even I, a devourer, knew you could be happy like this.

Bone-deep happy.

My name is Enoch Thames and I am a devourer whose life was altered so completely. The one thing I thought I hated most was the one thing that saved me above all else.