Zenon sucked back oxygen until his lungs were at full capacity, but his body didn’t give a shit and tried to gasp down another mouthful. So this was hyperventilating. The hype was true—it sucked.

He went down to his pillow and buried his face in all that soft red hair spread across it, focused on the feel of Mia’s slick heat gripping his cock, her limbs surrounding his body—and managed to unclog his throat enough to blow out a pained breath. Her hand smoothed over his back, calming him.

She’d floored him again, like she had time and again since he’d walked into that shabby little apartment of hers all those weeks ago.

His body still hummed from the impact of his release, but it didn’t matter how hard he’d come. The sheer impact of having Mia beneath him, the feel of sliding in and out of her body already had the next building.

“You are mine, Mia.” The words felt ripped from his chest, a vow that could never be broken, no matter what obstacles lay in their path. It was out of his hands now; could not be denied any longer. He’d felt her reach for him while he’d made love to her, that part that recognized him as hers, the part that would bind them, make her his mate. The need to mate her fully, to take her unequivocally as his had been hard to ignore, but he had to make sure she wanted this first, make sure she understood what it meant.

Could it really be this easy?

He didn’t need Helena to survive. When he found Mia, he’d gained his freedom.

He was free.

“I’m yours,” she whispered back.

He surged forward and she moaned. “I want it all, Mia. I want to make you my mate.” The words slipped past his lips before his brain realized what he was saying. He held his breath. He wanted it more than anything, but it didn’t mean she did.

“Yes,” she said.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he fought the urge to smack himself in the back of the head to make sure this wasn’t all a dream. But when he opened his eyes, his beautiful female was still beneath him, looking at him in a way that nearly had him hyperventilating all over again. “There’s no going back after we do this. It will be you and me forever, no one else. Do you understand?”

She arched, exposing the column of her delicate neck as he slid back inside her. Asking her while he made love to her probably wasn’t playing fair, but he was locked on this course. Nothing could stop him now. “Yes, do it.”

She knew what he was, what he had been, and still she wanted him. He could scarcely believe it. “If you changed your mind, if you left me, I wouldn’t survive it.”

Her soft warm hands moved up to his face. “I love you, Zenon.”

No one had ever said those words to him before. Mia was the first to love him, every part of him, scars and all. She saw the ones he tried to hide, saw how deep and ugly they marked him, and she loved him anyway.

“I’m never letting you go.” He quickened his strokes, emotion welling in his chest as he felt that connection between them present itself. He could see it. This was it. He never thought he was good enough to have this, to have someone like her. Mia gasped and stiffened beneath him, screaming through her climax.

He reached for the connection, so damn close…

Something exploded at the base of his skull and he froze. Body shaking uncontrollably, he reared back as pain lanced through his nerve endings, nailing him from all sides. The room spun and he started to lose sight of the silver thread that would link Mia to him. It faded and shrunk back. Zenon roared and tried to reach for it, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t catch it.

Then it was gone.

It was over.

How stupid could he be? He would never be free. Helena would always have a piece of him. Always.

Rage burned deep in his gut, ate at him like acid, and he didn’t have a hope of extinguishing the inferno building inside.

Lost to it, he was blind to everything around him.

When the worst of it drained away, he became aware of the carnage around him. His room was a mess, clothes scattered everywhere, the dresser nothing but kindling. And Mia, her arms were wrapped around his waist, her chest pressed into his back, trying to restrain him as he tore and scratched at Helena’s mark inked on his stomach.

“Stop, Zenon. Please stop hurting yourself.” The sob that broke past her lips was what snapped him out of it.

“She won’t let me go, Mia. She’ll never let me go.” Every muscle on his body had locked up tight. The cold started to creep through his bones, making his teeth chatter. Helena was in this room with them, whether the bitch was aware of it or not didn’t matter. She’d always be there. “I—I can’t have you, s—she won’t let me have you.”

Mia led him back to bed, and when he lay down she moved to cover him. He rolled to his back, locking his arms around her, and she burrowed against him. The feel of her bare skin against his was amazing. She radiated warmth and he let it soak through him, soothe him.

“Listen to me.” Her palms slid to his chest and she lifted up, looking down at him. “She doesn’t have you, not anymore. This mark”—she dropped a hand and ran her fingers over his abs, making him shudder—“stopped us mating, but it won’t stop us from being together. Do you understand? That’s all that’s left. That’s the only hold she has over you now. I’m not going anywhere. I can give you what you need, for as long as you need it.” She brushed her lips against his, giving more of her warmth, banishing the cold. “I’m yours and you’re mine, as long as I live. I don’t need to be your mate to know that.”

He held onto her tight. He couldn’t give her immortality like Kryos and Laz had given their females. He and Mia wouldn’t get their eternity together. She would live longer than a human, but eventually there would be an end. Another shudder moved through his body. He didn’t want to live on Earth or any other realm if Mia wasn’t there with him.

When she went, he would go with her.

He pushed it from his mind, couldn’t think about that now. That thought alone had the power to tip him over the edge again. “You can’t leave me,” he whispered. “I can’t think without you here. I can’t breathe without you. I don’t want to.”

“I love you. I’m not going anywhere.” She leaned in and pressed soft kisses against the scar ringing his throat. He buried his fingers in her hair and held her tight. Those words shook him to the core, tearing back his defenses until he felt raw and exposed. “I’ll never leave you,” she repeated as she moved down his body, kissing every scar, every nightmare that marked him.

Zenon trembled beneath her. His emotions were all over the place, and just the feel of her soft lips moving across his oversensitized skin had him close to coming. When she wrapped her fingers around his cock and drew him into the wet heat of her mouth, he thought he might actually die from the pleasure of it.

She sucked him, cupped him, massaging gently. It didn’t take long before he felt his orgasm racing up on him. Lifting up to his forearms, he looked down his body, watching her. She glanced up, locked eyes with him, and that was all it took.

He tried to pull away, but she dug her fingers into his ass, holding him in place, her gaze never leaving his as she swallowed every hot spurt that ripped from his body in sharp, wrenching pulls. He was mindless at this point and thrust his hips up to meet her hungry mouth, crying out her name over and over until the last tremor left him. She licked him clean, sending sparks of pleasure down his shaft, then crawled up beside him and burrowed against him.

“No one’s…no one’s ever done that for me before,” he said into her hair.

She stilled for a split second then dropped a kiss to his shoulder. “That was a first for me, too. And I loved every minute of it. So get used to it, warrior. I plan on worshipping this delectable body every day for the rest of my life.”

“I’m so sorry, Mia.”

“For what? For letting me in? For letting me love you?” She shook her head. “Don’t ever be sorry for those wonderful gifts, because I’m not. You give me everything I need, Zenon. I don’t need anything but you.”

“I love you so fucking much.”

She relaxed into him. “It’s all we need. Don’t lose sight of that. Don’t let her win.”

He tucked her into the side of his body, listening to her breathing slow as she drifted off to sleep. He knew the love he had for Mia would never wilt or die; it would sustain him for as long as they had together.

Their chance to mate had passed. The thread was gone, he couldn’t feel it any longer, and it fucking killed him.

That bitch had taken everything from him, every goddamned thing, and he wouldn’t rest until she was nothing but ash on the wind.

Chaos stood at the front of the room, tall, good looking, and oozing arrogance. Mia shouldn’t smile at his discomfort, but the guy looked like he’d been thrown into a pit of snakes.

Word had gotten out about Mia’s self-defense training, and with demons crawling out of the woodwork all over the city, the female demi in residence had got together and insisted someone teach them to protect themselves as well. Chaos had thought it was an excellent idea, until he’d been roped into giving a lesson.

Despite the scowl, the don’t-fuck-with-me posture, and the off-the-scale attitude he was throwing out, the guy really was gorgeous. More than one female in the room watched him with hungry eyes.

Mia had been here weeks, on and off, and she still couldn’t get a handle on him. He was a complete enigma.

He clapped his hands. “Right, let’s get started.” He called the next victim forward with a crook of his finger, and Mia had to fight not to laugh when two women nearly came to blows, fighting over who he was calling on.

“Oh my God. Did that just happen?” Eve whispered beside her.

Mia giggled. “Well, he is a good-looking guy.” It was just a shame about the attitude.

“And totally clueless to the fact,” Meredith said from her other side.

Mia turned to Kryos’s mate. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him crack a smile.”

“Mia.” Chaos’s booming voice rang out, making her jump.

“Uh-oh, you’re in trouble,” Meredith whispered.

She turned to face him. Oh yes, he was pissed. “Yes, sir,” Mia called back then stood to attention, imitating his stance. Legs apart, hands clasped behind her back.

Eve and Meredith tried to cover their giggles by coughing and failed miserably. She was being juvenile, pushing it, but he’d been such an asshole to her on more than one occasion she kind of wanted a little payback. He underestimated her, had from the moment he’d laid eyes on her.

His jaw tightened. “You think this is funny? I would have thought you of all people would pay more attention.”

Ass. “No, sir. I don’t think this is funny. Not at all, sir.”

“Oh my God,” Eve gasped.

“You think you have this covered?” he asked, challenge clear in his deep voice.

Great. Maybe this wasn’t such a fantastic idea. “Well, I—”

“Front of the class. Time to show the rest of us your mad skills.”

“You’ve done it now,” Meredith mumbled.

Mia moved to the front of the room and waited to see what Chaos would do next. For some reason he had it in for her. She didn’t know what his problem was, but she’d had enough. Zenon had stressed on more than one occasion during their one-on-one sessions that he could take whatever she could dish out, but still she’d held back, afraid she might hurt him. Which was ridiculous. These guys fought demons every day. Seriously hurting Chaos was an impossibility. And right then she kind of wanted to inflict some pain on the guy.

Without warning, he came at her. Taken by surprise, she tried to dodge his strike, but he changed tack, shoved her back then hooked his ankle around hers and swept her feet out from underneath her. The extra momentum had her hitting the mat hard.

While she was still sprawled on the mat, flailing, winded, and gasping for breath, he spoke to the class again like she didn’t exist. Like he’d made his point, made her the example of what not to do.

“You see Mia here? This is what happens when you don’t listen to your instructor.” His booted feet moved to her line of vision. “Up,” he barked in that clipped way that set her teeth on edge.

He sounded like Zenon when they’d first started training.

Anger welled up inside her. She didn’t need his shit. She’d had enough to deal with without this arrogant jerk taking pot shots every chance he got.

Stepping forward, he held out a hand. She went to take it, but then he grinned like he’d won. Like she’d proven whatever unflattering opinion he had of her.

Before she could think about what she was doing, she kicked out, nailing him in the balls. Which was kind of an accident, but whatever. When he doubled over, she slammed her foot into his knee like she had with Zenon then swept his feet out from underneath him. His big body slammed into the mat and she jumped to her feet, stood over him like he had her, and said, “Better?”

He shook his head, still cupping his balls. “You fight like a girl.”

Wrong thing to say. Making a fist like Zenon had shown her, and using the weight and momentum of her body, she dropped to one knee, punching him as hard as she could. Bone crunched—she wasn’t sure whose bones for a moment, her hand throbbed so bad—but then he rolled to his side, cursing and growling, blood spurting from his nose all over the blue mat.

“You’re damned right I fight like a girl,” she said.

The room went utterly silent behind her, and she winced as she turned to face her audience. There was more than one mouth hanging open. The astonished silence was broken by booming laughter.

Zenon must have come in sometime during her little display and now clutched his gut, propped against the wall by the door. Kryos wasn’t in any better shape beside him. And Rocco was laughing so hard he’d dropped to the floor and was gasping for breath and wiping his eyes.

Chaos stepped in front of her and she jumped. The guy obviously had a quick recovery time. He lifted the bottom of his shirt and wiped the blood from his nose, then offered her a huge full-on white-toothed smile that transformed his face from extremely good looking to off the charts. “Nice work.”

Humiliation heated her face to the point her eyes started to water. “I—I ah…”

“But next time, I’d appreciate it if you went easy on the jewels. I prefer them on the outside of my body.”

That statement was punctuated by more of Rocco’s howling laughter.

Yeah, she knew what just happened was a major fluke, never to be repeated. Chaos obviously hadn’t believed she’d go to those extremes and she’d managed to seriously surprise him, but she’d take it. “I’ll certainly take your suggestion on board,” she said, letting her own grin loose.

The session ended, since she’d broken their instructor, and as the room started to clear Zenon walked over and snuggled against her back, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Do you have any idea how hot that was?” he said against the shell of her ear. “I knew you could do it.”

She looked at him over her shoulder and arched a brow. “You liked that?”

“Fuck yeah, I liked it.” Her body heated like it always did when Zenon was near.

Chaos had moved to the other side of the room to grab his towel, and Mia could see him watching her and Zenon, his head tilted to the side like a curious lion.

He pushed away from the wall and came back over to them. “Look, Mia. I’m sorry if I’ve come across as a hard-ass, but you need to be strong. There’s no room for weakness in our world. With the way things are at the moment…” He left the rest of that sentence hanging.

His sharp gaze slid to Zenon, who tightened his arms around her. When Chaos looked back at her, his dark eyes held a weight that looked far too heavy for one man to carry alone.

“We’ve already lost one brother because his mate was taken from him. I can’t…” He ran a hand over the smooth surface of his shaved and tattooed head. “I just wanted you to know that you did good, Mia.”

That one sentence said so much about the hard, controlled male in front of her, and she had to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. “Thank you. And I’m sorry about the, ah…the…” She motioned to his below-the-belt area.

He grinned and inclined his head, stopping her before she said something really embarrassing, then without another word headed to the door. As he passed her troublemaking friends, they started up with the giggles again. And without breaking his stride, Chaos pinned them to the spot with a dark glare. “Your turn tomorrow. Be ready.”

Their giggles stuttered to an abrupt stop, and it was Mia’s turn to laugh.