The rumble fills the closet. A soft purr made only for her. The sound settles through her body like a drug. She melts into my chest, muscle by muscle, her breathing growing slow and steady as the tension drains from her.
Her weight grows heavier and sleep pulls her into its tide.
I’m bone-tired, but I fight against sleep. I lie there awake, clutching my omega to my chest like someone might try to pry her out of my arms if I dare close my fucking eyes.
CHAPTER3O
NOA
“How much did Seren tell you?”The question slips out, fragile and uneasy, before I can fully gather the courage to hear his answer.
I’m still draped across Rennick’s chest, still naked, still wrapped in the heat of his body and the softness of my nest. For a few stolen minutes after waking up, I simply existed here. Didn’t move. Didn’t speak. I let myself just bask in his heat and breathe him in, floating in the little bubble of peace we managed to carve out in the chaos hounding us.
The shower. The nest. His mouth. His body clutching me close as he pushed into me for the first time. It all felt like surrender. Not just to him, but to myself. To everything I’ve been too afraid to want.
But the bubble was never meant to last, not with all the unsaid things sitting between us like a shared held breath. If I’m going to let him into my heart and not just my body, then I have to stop keeping parts of myself tucked out of his reach. And he has to do the same. We can’t build anything real if we’re both still carrying secrets.
I know Seren, with her fierce determination to protect me from myself, already did the heavy lifting of this conversation, but the rest of it? That’s all on me.
His arms tighten around me the second I break the silence. They’d been loose a moment ago, his fingertips drawing lazy lines up and down my spine since I woke from my nap. Now he pulls me closer, holding me like he’s trying to keep the whole world from stealing me from him. The steady heartbeat beneath my ear kicks up.
I brace myself for what I’m sure is coming—his anger, his disappointment, the brief flash of hurt I’d deserve after keeping so much from him. A part of me is already curling in on itself, waiting for the sting.
But it doesn’t come.
All I get is a weary sigh before he tells me everything. How Seren had laid everything out for him while I was unconscious. How she walked him through the parts of my sickness that I’ve been hiding from everyone. Or willfully ignoring, depending on who you ask. She took it upon herself to share how the rejected mate syndrome isn’t just getting worse, it’s gutting me from the inside out. Quietly. Methodically.
“And she told me that it physically hurts you to be apart from me,”he goes on, the words rough with something that sounds like it’s breaking him. “That when I’m near you, it's the only relief you get from the pain."
Listening to him unravel all my truths feels similar to being peeled open and exposed in a way that should terrify me. But itdoesn’t. There’s a strange and unfamiliar relief in knowing I’m not alone in the dark anymore. But I’m torn from this warm sense of safety when he chokes out the next hard truth.
“It’s killing you, Noa.”
Hearing it spoken aloud,by him, punches the air clean from my lungs.
I curl closer without conscious thought, tucking my face tighter beneath his chin like I can hide inside him. My throat burns. The fear I’ve been locking away in the neat little box ironically labeled‘problems for future Noa’claws its way free and spills over. Hot and jagged.Not because I didn’t know, but because Rennick is now forced to look it in the eye too.
“I know.”
His hand leaves my back. For a heartbeat, silly panic flares sharply until I feel his fingers slide into my hair. He cups the back of my head and presses me tighter against him, terrified I’m going to slip away and go somewhere he can’t follow. And the very thought has my throat burning for him.
Sensing my distress, the low purr that lulled me to sleep before vibrates behind his ribs again. It sinks into me—liquid warmth being poured into all my frozen places.
“I won’t let that happen,” he rasps, his voice rough from the fear he’s failing to swallow whole. “You’re not leaving me. I won’t survive losing you twice.”
My heart thuds painfully, but it’s the kind of pain that resembles relief. All the fears I’ve been nursing for weeks—every nightmare where Rennick learns how bad off I am and still chooses to walk away from me—finally release their hold on me.
I whisper against his shoulder, “Did Seren tell you how to save me?”
The question is so small I’m not entirely sure it made it out of my mouth. I only know it’s reached him when his fingers tighten in my hair and the purr dies off. He guides my head back, gentlebut firm, lifting my cheek from his chest until I’m looking up at him.
I’m not sure how long I slept on him, but the sunshine that had slipped through the half-open door when we first entered has faded. The closet is now dark enough that I can only make out the shadowed outlines of his face instead of all the details I know by heart. I know his shifter sight is allowing him to see more. He can probably see every detail of my expression, every flinch, every wince. In my haze, I know my wolf broke through her manacles earlier, just enough to peer out through my eyes for the first time. My vision had sharpened, the change undeniable, but also involuntary. I’m strung too thin now to attempt to do it again.
Even without seeing the gray of his eyes, I can feel him studying me—his gaze settles on my skin like a physical touch.
“If I thought you were ready, I’d sink my teeth into you right now, baby. Before you even had the chance to moan my name, my mark would be on you.” Of course, he answers that way. Not yes. Not no.This.The option that sends my heart skittering against my ribs. Rennick’s fingers slide from the tangled strands of my hair, but they don’t leave me. His hand comes down to wrap around my neck, his palm applying careful pressure to the front of my throat. His thumb strokes the curve where my shoulder meets it, a touch that manages to be both hot with possessiveness and agonizingly tender. “I already have the spot picked out.Right. Here. My claim is going to look so fucking good on you.”
My skin flushes and I just barely manage to gulp down a needy whine from my wolf.
