They brought Vane in just after midnight, half-carried by two soldiers, blood soaking the left side of his armor.
Cassian was already on his feet when the flap tore open.
The General’s face was gray under the dirt and rain.
A long, ugly gash ran from ribs to hip, the edges black and smoking with the same dark energy that lived under his skin.
The poison on the blade had fed it.
The lines had spread, crawling up his chest like living ink.
“Out,” Vane ordered the soldiers, voice raw.
They dropped him onto the pallet and fled.
Cassian was on him in a heartbeat, hands already stripping the ruined armor.
“You went out while the transfer was still settling.” “The skirmish did not wait for my convenience.” Vane’s breath came short.
His cock was still half-hard from the residual alignment, body refusing to separate the pain from the need.
“The poison is accelerating it.
Ordinary healing will not touch this.
I need everything you have.
Now.” Cassian’s hands shook as he finished stripping him.
The wound looked worse up close, dark energy pulsing outward with every heartbeat.
“If I push that hard it could burn us both out.” “Then we burn.” Vane’s golden eyes locked on his, fever-bright.
“Straddle me.
Full contact.
Cock inside.
Mouth on my throat.
I need your scent, your slick, your seed, everything at once or the dark will take the rest of the night to finish me.” Cassian did not argue.
He stripped in seconds, already hard from the flood of pain-laced Alpha pheromones filling the tent.
Slick gathered fast between his thighs.
He climbed onto the pallet, knees on either side of Vane’s hips, and reached back to guide the thick length of the General’s cock to his entrance.
He sank down in one continuous motion.
Both of them cried out.
The stretch was brutal after the earlier rounds, but the moment Cassian bottomed out the energy transfer roared to life, bright and desperate.
Vane’s hands clamped on his hips hard enough to bruise.
“Move,” Vane snarled.
“Hard.
Do not stop for anything.” Cassian braced his hands on the Alpha’s chest, careful of the wound, and rode him.
Deep, punishing strokes that forced the thick cock against the sensitive place inside him on every drop.
Slick poured down Vane’s length, easing the way.
The wet sound of their bodies meeting filled the tent over the sound of the General’s ragged breathing.
“Talk to me,” Cassian demanded, voice already breaking.
“Stay with me.
Tell me what you feel.” “I feel the dark trying to eat the light you are pouring into me.” Vane’s hips snapped up to meet every downward thrust.
“I feel your hole gripping me like it never wants to let go.
I feel how hard you are against my stomach.
Give me more.” Cassian leaned down, chest to chest, and sealed his mouth over the scent gland on Vane’s throat.
He sucked hard, flooding the Alpha with pure Omega perfume while his hips never stopped moving.
The dual contact made the transfer spike.
Bright energy flooded through the places they were joined, fighting the black lines spreading from the wound.
Vane’s hand tangled in Cassian’s hair and held him there.
“Bite.
Mark me while you fuck the poison out.” Cassian’s teeth sank in.
Not a full mating bite, but deep enough to break skin.
Vane’s cock jerked hard inside him.
A guttural sound tore from the Alpha’s throat.
Cassian tasted blood and dark energy and pure need.
He kept riding, harder, the angle driving the thick length deep enough that every thrust punched a broken sound out of him.
“Your cock is leaking all over me,” Vane rasped.
“Stroke it.
Come on my chest while I fill you.
The seed strengthens the bond of the transfer.” Cassian’s hand wrapped around his own length.
He stroked in time with the desperate rhythm of his hips.
The overload of scent, cock, and the life-or-death edge of the healing pushed him toward the cliff too fast.
The dark lines under Vane’s skin began to recede, slow and fighting every inch.
“I can feel it working,” Cassian gasped against the Alpha’s throat.
“The poison is losing.
Do not you dare die while I am open on your cock.” “Not dying.” Vane’s hands dragged him down harder, forcing every inch inside.
“Fucking living through you.
Come for me.
Now.” Cassian shattered.
His orgasm ripped through him in violent pulses, spilling hot across Vane’s stomach and chest.
His hole clamped down like a fist.
The healing surge exploded outward with it, bright and searing.
Vane roared and followed, hips slamming up as he flooded Cassian with thick heat.
The dark energy lines shuddered, then began to pull back in earnest, retreating toward the original wound.
They stayed locked together, Cassian still seated deep, both of them shaking.
Vane’s hand stroked up and down his spine, rough and possessive even in exhaustion.
“Again,” the General said, voice wrecked but alive.
“The poison is not finished.
I can still feel it under the ribs.
Stay on my cock and give me another transfer before it rallies.” Cassian lifted his head.
His lips were stained with Vane’s blood.
His own cock was still half-hard, the first orgasm barely taking the edge off under the flood of residual pheromones and healing need.
“You are asking for everything I have left.” “I am demanding it.” Vane’s hips rolled once, still buried to the hilt, the motion sending aftershocks through both of them.
“Ride me until the black is gone or until you cannot move.
Those are the only two options tonight.” Cassian braced his hands on the Alpha’s chest again and began to move.
Slower this time, deeper, grinding down so the thick cock stayed pressed against the place that made his vision white out.
The energy flowed between them in a continuous current, bright against dark, life against the poison that had tried to finish what the blade started.
Vane’s hands never left his hips.
The rain still hammered the canvas outside.
Inside the tent there was only the wet sound of Cassian taking him over and over, the matched scent of their bodies, and the desperate, necessary union that was the only thing keeping the General alive.
Cassian leaned down once more, mouth against Vane’s ear, and whispered the only truth left in the storm.
“Then take it.
Take all of it.
I am not letting you go.”