Chapter Eighty-six (At The Cabin)

"Arric…"

"I don't think you understand that you are mine…"

"I know we are mated, Arric, I know what it means. Do you?"

"What are you saying?"

"We are going to spend a long time together, Arric, I don't want to spend it with you hating me!" she cried. A frown furrowed his eyebrows.

"I don't hate you," he rasped in the gentlest tone she had ever heard him use. Cupping the side of her face, he stroked her skin with his thumb.

"Arric…."

"Stop imagining nonsense and perish the thought that we would ever be separated," he whispered, cutting her off. Tears welled and spilled down the sides of her face. "The only thing that's going to separate me from you, is death."

Raising her head from the mattress, Eirika pressed her lips to his. Arric groaned and gave her room to deepen the kiss, she probed his lips with her tongue and he parted them for her, shutting his eyes as she nibbled his lips, moaning his name. His entire frame shook at the wonderful surge of pleasure that raked throug