The beast and the blessed novel by Ashley Breanne novel Chapter 78

Seventy-Eight: Natalie

Natalie's P.O.V.

My head moved up and down on Killian's chest with every breath he took. Since I had shifted, my stamina had significantly increased. While our time together was wild and exhilarating, it was nothing like now. Now it was pure, raw, and primal.

Killian seemed to be enjoying that he could let himself be free and wild with me. He held nothing back, and I enjoyed every second of it. Being too rough wasn't an issue when we healed within seconds. My nails, his nails... my teeth, his teeth. They scratched, scraped, and bit the other person as we lost ourselves to our natural instinct, but not a single mark was left in the end.

My fingertips trailed over his chest in small circles, enjoying how his fingers mirrored my movements along my spine. After so long without his touch, I was half tempted to climb back on top of him and never let him leave the bed again. I felt whole when he was here, even more so when he was inside me, but I couldn't keep him as a prisoner here. Eventually, someone would barge in looking for him, demanding he leave our bed.

I didn't want him to, but he had to. As the sun rose in the sky higher with each passing minute, I knew he was about to.

"Do you want to get an hour or two of sleep before we start the day?" My breasts pressed against his side as I bent my elbow and rested my chin on the back of my hand over his peck. He was staring at the ceiling, his hand continuing to travel over my bare flesh, and I could practically see the thoughts flying through his head. He was with me physically, but the sun was up, and he was now in work mode.

"I can't, my love."

My eyes closed as I savored the way the word rolled off his tongue.

There had been a moment in our relationship where Killian went from calling me Little One to My Love. I hadn't pinpointed exactly when the change from sexually desired to adored happened. Still, I would cherish my new term of endearment. Because even though, at the time, he hadn't been ready to tell me that he loved me, he still indirectly told me in his own way.

I would never get tired of hearing it. But Killian's next statement had me opening my eyes and anxiously picking my head up.

"We have their location now, but we lost four men. We must plan our attack before they can prepare any more defenses." His jaw was tense as he

refused to look down toward me, and I knew he was angry at the loss of more of his men. But that was uncontrollable in war. There would be

losses. We just had to do our best to minimize the casualties.

"How can I help?" My lips pressed against his skin, and he sucked in a breath through his teeth before clearing his throat.

"I need you to keep training.’ Killian looked down at me, rolling onto his side slowly until we were chest to chest. "I could care less about my life, but I can't have them take you from me. Even if we were to lose, I need you to live."

"We won't lose. The good guy always wins, right?" I forced a smile as he pressed a kiss to my forehead. I knew it wasn't true. It was a very ignorant statement, but I was trying to stay positive.

’History is written by the victors, and the person writing it will always write themselves to be the good guys."

I mulled over his words briefly, but he changed the subject before I could respond.

’Did you talk to Charlie?"