“I love you,” she said.“I love you so much.”
The bond went incandescent.
A radiant warmth filled her chest, wrapped around her spine, lit her veins with quiet fire.Gray exhaled shakily, pressing his brow more firmly to hers as if he needed to feel the words through every inch of contact.
He kissed her slow, deep, aching.The kind of kiss that wasn’t about need or urgency but about devotion.Promise.Home.
When they drew apart, foreheads still touching, his voice was barely audible.
“You’re everything.”
Her fingers slid through his hair.“So are you.”
Outside, the world debated what came next.
Inside, Hannah and Gray held each other in the soft glow of the bond, their hearts finally spoken, finally known.
Finally safe.
Gray drifted toward sleep with his forehead still resting against hers, their breaths slowly syncing.Hannah felt the exact moment when exhaustion finally claimed him.It was in the subtle loosening of the muscles in his back and the steadying of his heartbeat into a deeper rhythm.The bond dimmed but didn’t fade, resting like embers pulsing low in her chest.
She didn’t move.Didn’t dare.
He wasn’t falling into unconsciousness because his body had been broken or because he’d pushed himself too far for strangers who’d never thank him.He was falling asleepsafe, wrapped around her, trusting her to watch over him.
That trust hit her harder than anything tonight.
Slowly, she eased down against the pillows so he could settle fully.He didn’t release her hand even in sleep; his fingers curled loosely around hers, warm and steady.She brushed her thumb across his knuckles, tracing the faint scars on his skin.
The room hummed gently with the ambient sound of machines monitoring him.A screen on the far wall cycled through muted news broadcasts.More headlines about the Senate vote, the explosion, and the unprecedented display of combined variant power.Words likemiracle, threat, historic,anddangerousflashed in competing graphics.No one seemed to agree on what Gray had done tonight.
Except her.
She shifted slightly, careful not to wake him, and pressed her lips to his temple.“You were extraordinary,” she said.“And you’re mine.God, I never realized how much I needed you too.”
A soft knock broke the silence, and Hannah looked up sharply as Rick peeked inside.He didn’t speak at first, his gaze going immediately to Gray’s sleeping form.
“You two okay?”he asked.
“We’re better than okay,” she said.
Rick nodded once, understanding.“The doctor says he’ll sleep for a few hours.His vitals are stabilizing.Bonding helped.”
Hannah felt that in her bones.“It did,” she murmured.“For both of us.”
Rick hesitated before stepping farther inside.“Senate’s in chaos.Vice President is calling for an emergency joint session tomorrow morning.Pierce is nowhere to be found.”His gaze flicked back to Gray.“You scared the hell out of half the country tonight.And saved the other half.”
Hannah absorbed that quietly.“He didn’t do it for them,” she said after a moment.“He did it because it was right.”
“That’s exactly why it worked,” Rick replied.
He started to leave, then paused, giving her a softer look than she’d ever seen from him.“Get some sleep too, Charge.You look wrecked.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“Didn’t think you would.”He slipped out, closing the door behind him.
Silence returned, deep and still.
