She traced the lines with her fingertip, watching them disappear beneath the water. They curved around his wrist like they were growing.
“Mating marks.” His voice was rough. “They appear when the bond takes hold.”
Her heart stopped. Started again twice as fast.
“The bond—you mean?—”
“We’re bonded. Truly bonded.” His hand covered hers. “There’s no going back now. Not for either of us.”
She should be scared. Some part of her knew that. The mating bond meant if one of them died, the other might follow. It meant her life was tied to his in ways she didn’t fully understand.
But all she felt was joy. Fierce and bright.
“Show me the other one.”
He raised his other arm. The same marks were mirrored there, twisting around his wrist like dark ivy.
She traced those too, pressing her lips to them and smiling as she felt him shiver.
“Beautiful,” she whispered against his skin. “You’re so beautiful.”
“Juni—”
She kissed him before he could argue. Softer this time. Slower. The desperation had burned itself out, leaving something deeper in its wake.
When she pulled back, she could finally name what she saw in his eyes.
Love.
“I’m glad,” she said. “About the bond. About all of it. I’m glad it’s real. I’m glad I’m stuck with you forever.”
His lips quirked at the corner. Almost a smile. “Forever is a long time to put up with a grumpy rancher.”
“Good thing I like grumpy.”
Settling against his chest again, she let the hot water and his steady heartbeat ease the last of the tension from her muscles. “You’re stuck with me too, you know. With my Christmas decorations and my optimism and my white snowmen.”
“Purple.”
“They’re white on Earth.”
“Wrong.” But his arm tightened around her, pulling her closer. “I suppose I can learn to live with wrong-colored snowmen.”
She smiled against his skin. This was home now. This man. This place.
“I love you,” she whispered.
His hand stroked down her spine, slow and reverent. “I love you too, kelarris. Always.”
The water steamed around them and the alien stars turned overhead, and Juni let herself believe in the kind of happiness she’d stopped hoping for a long time ago.
She was exactly where she belonged.
Epilogue
The power relay had fried itself from the inside out.
Daax crouched beside the junction box, his hands moving with the ease of long practice as he ran his fingers along the scorched housing.
