The second wave slammed into him with no warning.
Arik’s growl vibrated through Liam’s chest before his mind caught up with the sound. The bond flooded with pheromones so thick they coated the back of Liam’s throat—caramel and warm stone.
His body answered before he could form a word. Slick gushed around Arik’s already-hardening cock. The sweet scent bloomed in the small space between them, and Arik’s eyes snapped to his with a predator’s focus.
"Again," Arik said, and it wasn’t a request.
Liam’s legs, still trembling from the first round, tried to wrap around Arik’s waist. Arik caught both ankles in one hand before they could close.
"No."
The single syllable sent a shiver straight to Liam’s aching length. His omega instincts sharpened at being handled, positioned, and controlled, even as his mind catalogued the changes in Arik’s ether signature. Faster pulse. Higher concentration. The Core’s distant current pulled harder at his channels while the rut drove everything else into a single need.
"You planned this too, Eshara." Arik’s free hand found Liam’s hip. "You chose this knowing what a full rut would do to me."
"I hoped."
Arik’s laugh was dark and rough. "You hoped."
Arik’s fingers traced the delicate chain at Liam’s hip, then twisted.
The links tightened across his belly and withdrew.
Liam’s protest died in his throat as Arik flipped him onto his stomach.
The sheer robe bunched under his chest. Gold chains slid across his back, catching on his shoulder blades. His cheek pressed into the mattress, one of Arik’s hands keeping his thighs wide, his entrance exposed and slick-shiny in the low light.
Behind him, Arik’s breathing turned ragged.
"Look at you." The words were half-growl, half-reverence. Arik’s palm smoothed over Liam’s ass, spreading him wider.
Liam’s fingers curled into the sheets.
"Now you’re going to take everything I give you."
The blunt pressure of Arik’s cock found his entrance. No teasing. No slow push. Just the full, brutal slide of a rut-maddened alpha claiming what belonged to him.
Liam screamed.
Not from pain. The stretch was incredible, his body still sensitive from the first knot, but flooded him with slickness and endorphins and the bone-deep satisfaction of being bred. The sound that tore from his throat was pure relief.
Arik didn’t pause. His hips snapped forward, driving deeper than the angle had allowed before. Liam felt him in places he hadn’t known existed, and the bond carried the echo of Arik’s pleasure right back into his own nerves.
"Yes," Liam gasped. "Yes."
Arik’s hands found the gold chains draped across Liam’s back and pulled.
The links tightened in a dozen places at once. Liam’s spine bowed. His shoulders lifted off the mattress. Arik used the chains like reins, dragging him back onto his cock with each thrust.
Liam had never been more aroused in his life.
The sovereign ether surged.
It came through the bond in a golden wave, following Arik’s rut like lightning follows thunder. Liam felt the Core’s weight press against his channels—the same immense, distant current he had sensed during the oath, but sharper now, more focused. Arik’s control was slipping, and the ether was slipping with it.
"Feel that?" Arik’s voice was barely recognizable. The rut had stripped it down to something primal. "That’s what lives inside me now. That’s what I’ve been carrying."
Liam tried to answer. What came out was a sob.
The ether pressed deeper. It slid between his muscles and his bones, warm and vast and terrifying, while the containment formations around his corruption held steady. Arik’s presence wrapped around the intrusion, filtering the Core’s raw power into something Liam’s body could withstand.
Even now. Even in the grip of a full rut, Arik was protecting him.
The realization cracked something open in Liam’s chest.
His fingers tightened on the sheets as Arik’s pace increased. The chains chimed. The bedframe groaned. Slick dripped down Liam’s inner thighs, pooling on the mattress beneath them. His untouched length wept against his stomach, and every brutal thrust sent sparks rushing down his spine.
"Arik." His voice was wrecked. "Arik, I can’t—"
"You can."
Arik released the chains with one hand and fisted it in Liam’s hair instead. He pulled Liam’s head back, baring his throat, exposing the bonding mark that still tingled from Arik’s earlier attention.
"You will take everything," Arik growled against his ear. "Every drop. Every wave. You don’t get to surrender until I’m finished with you."
The knot began to swell.
Liam felt it catch at his rim, thicker than before and heavier. The rut was driving Arik’s body to its biological limit. His alpha instinct wasn’t satisfied yet.
The stretch burned.
Liam’s vision whited out at the edges. His omega instincts screamed approval even as his rational mind fragmented into pure sensation. The knot pressed past his sphincter, locking them together with a finality that made his toes curl.
Arik’s teeth closed over the bonding mark.
Liam shattered.
His release streaked across the sheets beneath him, drawn from somewhere so deep he couldn’t have reached it on his own. The bond went incandescent. Golden ether poured through him in a flood, and for a single suspended heartbeat, he felt everything Arik felt—the Core’s endless pull, the exhaustion hiding beneath the rut’s ferocity, the desperate, consuming love that had no words.
Then Arik’s knot locked fully, and his own release flooded Liam’s insides.
The sensation of being filled was so intense that Liam’s spent body tried to climax again. Nothing came. Just the helpless clenching of muscles around the knot, milking every pulse of Arik’s seed while the alpha’s growl vibrated against his bonded mark.
They collapsed together.
Arik’s weight pressed Liam into the mattress, the gold chains digging faint patterns into his skin. Neither of them moved. Neither of them could.
Minutes passed. Maybe longer.
Liam’s voice was barely a whisper when he finally found it.
"You’re still holding back."
Above him, Arik went rigid.
The bond told Liam he was right before Arik’s silence confirmed it. Even through the rut. Even through the ether storm and the brutal claiming, Arik had kept one hand on the reins. Protecting him. Filtering the Core’s full weight.
Liam’s fingers, still tangled in the sheets, uncurled slowly.
"Let go."
"Liam."
"You heard me."
Arik’s breath was hot against the back of his neck. "I can let go only if we do the mate ceremony."