I’m still inside her. Still locked deep, knot pulsing, her body wrapped tight around mine like we’re made for this.
And maybe we are.
But that doesn’t mean I meant for it to happen like this.
I exhale through my nose, jaw tight, heart pounding so loud it drowns out everything else. She’s limp beneath me, her bare back rising and falling with each wrecked breath, neck flushed and bitten where I—fuck.
Where I claimed her.
I claimed her.
The realization drops heavy in my gut, cracking through the haze of rut like a warning bell. I didn’t just lose control—I gave in. Fully. Viscerally. There was no restraint, or rational thought: just sheer and utter instinct, along with need, and the unbearable scent of another alpha on what I already knew was mine.
Now, that’s exactly what she is.
Emery shifts slightly, her body flexing against mine, and a soft moan escapes her lips.
“Still with me?” I rasp.
She hums, warm and breathless, and turns her head just enough for me to see her face. Her cheeks are pink, and her lips swollen. There’s a dazed little smile tugging at her mouth, and something fluttery in her hazel eyes that I’ve never seen before.
“I think I broke you,” I mutter, only half-joking.
“You did,” she whispers, dreamy. “It was great.”
She’s smiling, but guilt and heat churn together in a way that feels dangerous.
“I didn’t mean to,” I say after a beat, my voice lower now, threaded with something that almost sounds like regret. “I mean: I didn’t plan for it to happen like that.”
Her smile doesn’t fade.
“I know.”
I press a kiss to her shoulder, then rest my forehead against the curve of her neck. Her scent is everywhere—ours now—but I still catch the echo of him.
Connor.
Fuck.
“You’re sore,” I say quietly. “From earlier.”
“Mhm.”
“I should’ve—”
“Beau.”
She cuts me off gently, turning her head until her lips brush my temple.
“I liked it. All of it.”
That shouldn’t make me hard again. Not when I’m still knotted inside her, and especially not when we’re barely through the fallout of my fucking rut.
But it does.
“You let him knot you.”
It’s not a question. I already know.
