I didn’t care anymore if it meant upsetting my uncle or the clan. I didn’t care about going back home.

Leaving the cave had been the hardest decision I’d ever made—and I was glad he caught me.

It wasn’t until he did that I realized how much I’d wanted him to. I didn’t want to leave him, not really. I only wanted to make it easier for all of us.

It didn’t matter when he stood so close to me, touching my face and staring into my eyes. It didn’t matter when every instinct pushed me closer to him. Some much deeper need existed in my soul, a need I hadn’t known existed before I met him. A need only he could fill.

“I need you,” I whispered again, and I wrapped my legs around his waist when he lifted me in his arms.

It felt so right, wrapped up in him like that. I held his face in my hands and kissed him hard enough to make my lips sting.

He growled in response, forcing them apart to thrust his tongue inside as he had earlier. And just like earlier, a flood of warmth spread between my thighs and a delicious ache sparked there.

His hands cupped my butt as he carried me back into the cave, to the cells where I had first stayed.

My fingers dug into the muscles of his shoulders and back—he was so big, so beautifully thick and hard as the rock all around us. But warm, moving, breathing.

His body was carved perfection, and just as massive in its human form as it was when he was the dragon.

He didn’t let go of me. Instead, he lowered us both to the blankets and stretched out on top of me.

I wanted my clothes off. I had to touch all of him with all of me.

He peeled off the sweatshirt, the t-shirt, the oversized pants from his closet. His hands slid over my body, and every inch he touched sent me closer to the edge of utter bliss. I closed my eyes, letting my head roll helplessly from side to side as he swept me up in passion.

“So beautiful,” he growled, his lips skimming my curves.

My thighs, my hips. My stomach. His mouth closed over one nipple, drawing it up into a point before biting it playfully. Or not-so-playfully. The dragon wanted satisfaction, too. It didn’t matter who did it because my body responded just as strongly either way.

I arched my back, giving him more of me. All of me.

His mouth left my skin, and his eyes met mine. Even in the almost total darkness, I could just make out their gleam. Or were they the dragon’s eyes?

“I want you. Now.”

I barely recognized his voice. It was like being in the cell with an animal. Instead of frightening me, the thought sent fresh wetness flowing between my already swollen, tender folds.

“Yes,” I gasped, letting him roll me onto my knees.

The power in those muscles of his, the strength. He maneuvered me like it was nothing. I barely made out the sound of tearing cotton as he shredded my panties. His hands gripped my hips as something wide and hot and hard slid through my slick cleft.

I let out a cry of pure, unbridled lust when I felt that blessed pressure, a cry which turned into a scream of pleasure as he pushed his way inside me. Instantly, my body clenched around him as an orgasm washed over me, leaving me gasping and moaning even as it surprised me with its speed.

He didn’t wait for me.

It was just as hard and fast and urgent as he had promised. His fingers pressed into my hips and held me steady as he pumped in and out, ramming his length inside me until our bodies slapped together in a furious rhythm.

I gave myself over to it. All my passion, everything in my soul, all of it. I let go of myself and stopped thinking of anything but what he was doing to my body. And the deepening connection of our souls.

It was like the dragon was in the cell with us.

A roaring filled the air, overlapping with my grunts and squeals of pleasure. He filled me so completely, almost to the point of pain just like the way he held me so tight was almost painful. But not quite. And I liked it.

My body responded to it. So did the deeper, darker part of me that he unlocked.

I threw my head back and cried out louder than ever as another orgasm hit me like a tsunami, making my sheath grip him tighter than ever.

“Yes… yes, Jasmine…” His voice was a hoarse growl.

The dragon’s voice. One of his hands left my hip and trailed down my back, and somewhere in there, I thought I felt the sting of claws against my sweat-slick skin, but I had to be imagining it. He took my breast in his palm, kneading it, pinching the nipple until I cried out. Not for him to stop, though; I wanted more.

He pulled me up on my knees, leaning my body back against his.

One of his arms snaked around my waist and tightened like a vice, and he used it to move me up and down his impossible length while the other hand slid its way over every inch of me until it found my clit. I howled in almost mind-bending, unthinkable pleasure when he made contact, coming again.

It went on and on as he played with me, still fucking me like the animal he was, growing and building and wiping every inch of the old Jasmine away until I was sure I would die in his arms because nobody could stand that much. It would kill me.

But it didn’t.

I screamed until my voice broke, but it didn’t kill me.

And when his grunts got louder, faster, his thrusts harder than ever until he nearly broke me apart, I knew he was coming to the end. I welcomed it—not because I wanted it to be over. I wanted it to never end. But even more, I wanted to know I had brought him to release.

“Mine!” he roared in my ear, his breath as hot as his cock. “Say it!”

“Yours!” I gasped, letting my head drop back on his shoulder. “Yours, Pierce!”

He roared again, wordlessly, before latching onto my shoulder and biting down. It didn’t hurt. It surprised me more than anything else.

And it was all wrapped up in his final thrust, slamming me down on him as he slammed up into me, and my core clenched one more time as I came along with him. His arm tightened around me, and I dug my nails into his thighs until the spasms passed.

I opened my eyes only to see the darkness of the cell. Everything had changed. I wasn’t me anymore. I was myself and his mate at the same time. I would never be anybody else’s.

“Jasmine…” he breathed, touching his forehead to my shoulder.

I cupped the back of his neck in my hand and held him there while I fought to catch my breath.

“My Jasmine.”

“My Pierce,” I whispered.

It sounded good and felt even better. My Pierce. There was no question of ever leaving him. It was an impossibility. I raised myself from his lap and eased myself down until I was stretched out on the blanket.

“I’m sorry about your shoulder. I didn’t think. It came over me too fast.” He touched it with gentle fingers. “Your bad shoulder.”

“It’s all right. I’m all healed up anyway, and it didn’t hurt. What was it all about? Your way of marking me?”

“Something like that, yes.” He stretched out, facing me. He was still breathing a little fast. “I had no idea it would be that good, or I might have thrown you to the ground earlier.”

“I’m glad you managed to hold off,” I whispered, “or else I might not have wanted it as much as I did.”

“But you did want it.” It didn’t sound like a question, though I knew it was one.

He was too proud to admit his uncertainty—and the fact that he was uncertain at all told me what I needed to know.

He loved me.

For the first time, he worried whether somebody else was happy and satisfied.

I decided to make it easy for him. “I did, and I will again. Soon, if possible.”

“How soon?” He took my hand and guided it.

He was already hard again—and even though I should’ve been exhausted past the point of even thinking about it, my body responded with a fresh rush of warmth.

“I’m afraid this might kill me,” I smiled as he rolled me onto my back, settling himself between my legs.

“But what a way to go…” he growled softly before brushing his lips tantalizingly against mine.