Page 77 of Scars of the Sun
Like hell was I going to turn back now.
Río brought his hand between our bodies and ripped through my bra and the thin shorts I wore. My panties went with them, becoming strips of tattered fabric that he shoved out of the way. Red lines raised on my skin, where his claws had swept through but didn’t break, and I used my own hands to tear at his clothes.
I didn’t have claws, but I had the burning in my heart and my own heightened strength on my side. His shirt tore like tissue paper, his sweatpants pretty much the same, until we were naked flesh on flesh.
“Río Bernal, do it now, so help me god.” I gasped into his mouth, blood coating my lips while I writhed beneath him.
He trailed wet and bloody kisses to the right side of my neck and stopped. I slapped at his shoulders, giving my own non-shifter version of a growl.
“You sure, baby? We don’t have to.”
“Río, make me your mate.”
He groaned, and the flash of pain made my heart burst with a golden light that overtook every one of my senses. The thread that was spun the moment we met, the fibers of which that felt like they’d always been there, strengthened until it was a truly glowing and living thing.
Río’s claws sunk into my hips, and I pierced the skin of his shoulders with my nails before sinking my own blunt teeth at the base of his neck.
With an inevitable thrust, he completed our joining in flesh and blood, and tears streamed down my eyes at the blanket of rightness and peace I felt. As he moved around me, inside of me,I knew that it wasn’t going tofixmy problems, but enhance the strength I had to face them myself. My Jaguar. My… mate.
Río released his teeth and licked over my new mark, plunging slowly with his hips while I answered his movements with my own. The storm outside continued to rage, making the moment between us feel even more tender and private. “I love you, Ramona. My mate. Mi alma gemela.” He groaned and held me like I was a treasure.
And in his arms, I… believed him. This love was new, only two months old, but the humming light filling both of us transcended time and space. “My mate. My Río.”
His eyes shimmered and spilled, creating joyous tracks down his angular face. I licked at them, held him, while we made love to each other and settled into the decision we’d made.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
RAMONA
Río took the next three days off of work, and I stayed at his apartment. Texts from my mother, and less so, Sylvie and Orion, filled my inbox, but I only responded to the necessary ones. Telling Sylvie where I was. Ignoring O’s reminders about his command.
I damn sure didn’t tell them that my brother’s prediction had already come true.
Number Fourteen. My mate, truly. Every time I thought of the word, the deep, fulfilled sensation in my chest would almost pulse, reminding me of its presence.
This time with Río was too sacred. My shifter side was fiercely protective of our mound of blankets and the tenderness with which we shared in them. I rebuilt it every time our fucking or lovemaking wore it down, and we lounged in each other’s arms, kissing and laughing and adjusting to this new feeling ofmore.
We talked for hours, filling in the gaps and enhancing our matehood in the process. Giving it sustenance to grow and fill, and already, I was acutely aware of his solid home within my heart.
And he told me more about the danger he’d spoken of. When he tried to warn me away from something that was unavoidable. As we sat up in his bed, he filled the picture of his past. That his father ran his family with a viciousness that was far, far worse than my mother ever could be.
“I lived in Georgia with my mom until I was ten.” That explained his slips into a Southern twang, at least. “My father demanded I come live with him and my sisters—Catalina and Xiomara—or he’d take it out on Mamá.” I nodded, remembering the names of his siblings that he’d told me a while ago. I rubbed his bare chest while he recounted for me the memories that haunted him. “And…” he took a deep breath, “I couldn’t let them find out about my younger brother. Javier. Or else our father would take him, too.”
My gaze trailed to his torso, where the three cranes flew, and I traced the wings of the two smaller ones that followed the larger. I flicked my eyes up to him, and he nodded at my silent question. “So I made sure that we all got out,” he smiled sadly, and a shallow dimple appeared on his left cheek. “Just wish we could’ve flown together.”
The sprawling sadness interwoven through this memory and his words was heavy. Too much for one person. I kissed his nose while he caressed the scars on one of my arms. “I’m sorry.”
“S’okay,” even though it wasn’t. “He’s grown, now. And Mamá is a fighter. I’ll see them again, someday. And they’ll both love you.” I felt the blush flare on my cheeks, so I hid my face in the crook of his neck. Some of his resignation gave way to an affectionate chuckle.
The one boyfriend I’d had before Río was a stupid high school thing. We’d gone to the same schools together since we were small, and our parents had already been acquainted before he asked me to homecoming when we were thirteen.
That had been an immature and flippant relationship. A puddle too small for a bird compared to the expansive ocean that was what Río and I were, now.
Still, we’d gone about this a little lopsided. As we’d eaten ice cream in our nest, with our marks still a fresh and lively red, he’d snarked and called our path ‘a little ass-backwards’. But then he’d grinned, his nose scrunching in happiness, and I couldn’t keep mine from rising to match.
“Um…” I mumbled now over his skin, right into his mark that’d healed to a brown impression of my teeth. “So, my brother.” Río traced the edge of my face, like he’d done on our first date—because itwasa date, I now realized—and kissed my temple in encouragement for me to continue. “He wants to meet you. Properly.”
He hummed but otherwise didn’t react. “As Pack Leader or as your brother?”