Beth paced the strange bedroom suite of the Royal Palace deep beneath the Earth’s surface. Lance had managed to get Wesley to the cave about ten miles from the estate. Once inside, he’d shown her the both well-hidden and well-guarded portal to their underground city.

She hated leaving her parents behind and wondered if they survived. If so, she knew her father wouldn’t stop until he’d killed Wesley and she wouldn’t let that happen. She vowed that should she face her father again, she would do whatever was necessary to make him see the error of his ways. Or if that failed, then she’d kill him herself rather than let him hurt her mate.

For the moment, all she knew was that her mate was in bed, being tended by the Faction’s surgeon. She felt him through their connection and she didn’t like the weak pulse coming from his heart.

She couldn’t lose him now, not when she’d just found him. She’d been pledged to him her entire life, but she never thought she’d love him.

A brief knock preceded Lance entering their chambers, his face awash in worry.

“How is he?” he asked softly.

Beth shrugged her shoulders and wiped an errant tear making its way down her cheek.

“He’s weak and lost a lot of blood, the surgeon is sewing his wounds,” she responded. “I can’t lose him,” she added and her voice hitched.

“You won’t,” the surgeon announced as he approached them, wiping his bloodied hands on a towel. “Your mate needs you,” he added and brushed past them. “Lance, grab my bags please and let’s leave the newlyweds to their privacy.”

Lance blushed and nodded curtly before retrieving the doctor’s bags and rushing toward the door himself.

“Wait,” Beth called. “I don’t understand, what am I supposed to do?”

Lance stopped just inside the threshold and turned to face her. He smiled coyly and winked.

“Your mating ceremony isn’t exactly complete,” he announced and pulled the door closed behind him.

Realization dawned and Beth spun to study the unconscious form of her mate. Moving slowly and quietly, she approached the bed and watched the unsteady rise and fall of his chest; his gloriously muscled, smooth chest. Clenching and unclenching her hands several times, she finally decided to hell with tradition and shoved the silk robe from her shoulders, stepping out of the purple pool as soon as it hit the floor.

She climbed up on the bed and moved to straddle Wesley and shrieked in surprise when his large hands moved to grasp her thighs.

“You scared me,” she scolded. “You’re weak and shouldn’t exert yourself.”

Wesley smiled although he’d yet to open his eyes.

“The day I miss my mate ravishing me is the day I die,” he announced weakly. “And I’m not going to die without tasting you first,” he added and shifted so that he pinned her to the bed with his heavy body.

“Your stitches,” she screeched and shoved at him. “You’ll reopen the wound.”

Wesley responded by leaning down and taking her earlobe between his teeth the same time his hand wandered south and penetrated the mound of red curls between her legs. She almost purred at the sensations that racked her body.

“As you so elegantly pointed out, I am weak and I owe you much more than a quick romp in the sack, but I need you so badly I don’t think I can take it slow and easy,” Wesley murmured as he nibbled a path from her ear, down her neck and then back up to her lips. “Are you okay with that?”

Beth threw her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, her heels digging into his gloriously firm ass.

“Take what you need, however you need it,” she answered and gripped his hair tight enough to bring tears to his eyes. “My body is yours for now and forever.”

Wasting no more time, Wesley drove into her like a starving man after water. She raised her hips to meet him thrust for thrust. She clawed at his back with her nails and bit at his neck, suckling the tender flesh with her blunt Human teeth.

When she felt that tidal wave cresting, she knew the end was near, so she allowed her fangs to elongate and punctured the skin directly over his carotid artery, almost smiling when he gasped in response.

“Turn about is fair play,” he panted and punctured her throat in return. They drank from one another until they’d leeched every last remnant of pleasure from one another.

Beth felt Wesley’s strength returning with every beat of her heart. Her blood had returned him to health and vitality.

With his skin flushed a deep scarlet, Wesley rolled onto the bed beside her and pulled her against his side in a bone-crushing embrace.

“What about the war?” Beth asked, although she hated to spoil the moment. It wasn’t as if they were alone on a deserted island. Even though they basked in the afterglow of sharing souls, they were still in grave danger.

“It will still be there in a couple hours,” Wesley mused.

“Did you ever meet Phillip the Peaceful?” Beth asked as the thought suddenly occurred. The way Wesley had spoken of him, with a fondness only a close relationship could boast, she felt sure he had.

Wesley smiled coyly and turned his head to study her.

“Yes,” he answered simply. “So have you.”

But before Beth could ask who he meant, Wesley advanced on her with a ravishing gleam in his eyes and she knew well how they’d spend the next couple hours.

* * *