“Riley...” I forced myself to think clearly, which was nearly impossible when she was looking at me like that. “Is this... is this how friends behave?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was small. “I’ve never had a friend like you.”
“I’ve never had a friend at all.”
She laughed, surprised. “Really?”
“Not like this. Not someone I want to be around all the time. Someone who makes me laugh, who I think about constantly.”
“You think about me constantly?”
“Yes. I can’t stop it. Every minute, every second. You’re all I think about, Riley. When I wake up, when I fall asleep, when I’m doing anything at all. You’re there in my head, my chest. In every thought I have.”
Her breath hitched.
“Stay,” she said again. “Please.”
“You don’t have to beg.” The words were out before she finished speaking, urgent. “I told you I’d say yes to whatever the fuck you asked of me. I’m your humble servant, Riley. Of course I’ll stay. Whatever you need.”
She sucked in a breath at my intensity. I knew I probably should tone it down, but I didn’t care right now. She asked me to stay and I would burn down the world for less.
I climbed into her bed.
The mattress dipped under my weight. Her bed was small, not designed for someone my size, and I had to fold myself aroundher to fit. I would have slept on a bed of nails if it meant being close to her.
She fit against me like she was made for it. Her head tucked under my chin, her forehead pressed to my collarbone. Her hand curled against my chest, fingers splayed over my heart like she was checking that it was still beating. Her legs tangled with mine, her cold feet pressing against my calves.
She was warm and soft against me, and she smelled like every fucking single one of my fantasies come true. My wolf howled in triumph.Mine. Finally. Finally.This was what we’d been waiting for. What we’d been searching for years. This perfect, impossible rightness.
I wrapped my arms around her and held on like she might disappear if I let go.
“Thank you,” she murmured against my collarbone, her breath warm on my skin.
“For what?”
“Coming to help. Staying. Being here.” A pause. “Being you.”
“Always,” I said. It came out like a vow. “I’ll always be here. Whenever you need me. Wherever you are. You call, and I come. That’s not negotiable.”
She relaxed against me, her breathing evening out, her heartbeat slowing. Within minutes, she was asleep.
I didn’t sleep, could only lie there holding my mate, my world, and wonder what I ever did to deserve this moment.
So I lay there for hours, holding Riley, watching her breathe. Counting her eyelashes. Memorizing the curve of her cheek, the shape of her ear, the tiny scar on her forehead I’d never noticed before. The way her nose twitched when she dreamed. The way she hummed softly in her sleep, little sounds of contentment that made my chest ache.
At some point, she shifted, burrowing deeper into my chest, her hand fisting in my shirt like she was afraid I’d disappear. I held her tighter, pressed my lips to the top of her head, breathed her in.
She smelled like vanilla, like the candles scattered around her apartment and something uniquely her that I would recognize anywhere. I could track that scent across continents, across worlds. I would follow it to the ends of the earth if I had to.
My wolf rumbled contentedly. This was right. This was where we belonged. Not in Duskmere with its politics and expectations, not in the human world with its noise and chaos, but here. In this bed, with this woman.
I could do this forever. Iwoulddo this forever, if she let me. Wake up every day with her in my arms, fall asleep every night with her heartbeat against my chest. Build a life around this feeling, this rightness. This certainty that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
In Duskmere, I had everything. Wealth, power, a kingdom that would one day be mine. But I’d never hadthis. This peace. This feeling of completeness I hadn’t even known I was missing until I found it.
My wolf had settled completely for the first time since I arrived in the human world. Content. She was home.
Morning came slowly, gray light filtering through the curtains. The storm had passed, the world continued, and I was still lying in Riley’s bed, holding my mate, pretending to be just a friend. Just a normal man.
