She stirs slightly, follows my gaze, and goes completely still.
Bob’s posture is stiff, like he’s pretending he didn’t just witness the whole thing. Patricia’s notebook flickers in her smoky little hands. Finnick does a slow, approving nod. Carl looks confused. Linda’s expression is somewhere between maternal approval and mild exasperation. Steve is upside-down.
For a long moment, neither of us moves.
Then Kaia starts laughing.
Not a polite laugh. A full, breathless, uncontrollable laugh that shakes her entire body.
I can’t help it. I start laughing too.
“Oh my gods,” she gasps, covering her face with her hands. “You all areterrible!”
Bob salutes.
Finnick bows.
Patricia’s notebook flares brighter—probably adding an appendix.
Kaia groans and buries her face in my chest, still laughing. “I can’t believe them.”
I grin, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “They’ve been here the whole time, haven’t they?”
“Probably,” she mutters.
The shadows finally drift down from the headboard, settling around us.
They around us like a blanket. My heat wraps around her like a shield.
Chosen.
She falls asleep against me.
I stay awake for a long time—holding her like she might disappear if I let go.
Just before sleep takes me, I whisper:
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I mean it with every part of me.
Chapter 15
Malrik
The bond shifts in the night—warm, final, chosen.
Torric.
Good.
She needed that. He needed that.
From across the hall, I hear Finn turn over in his bed.
He doesn’t make a sound.
That’s worse.
