The remaining tether of our mate bond, the sliver that leads me to Noa, flares bright inside my chest. And then the light wanes; it’s not as bright, but it isn’t snuffed out. That’s all I need to keep going.
I go back to compressions, back to breathing for her, back to begging. I promise her everything. I promise her I won’t live in a world without her. I swear I will follow her if she leaves, that I won’t exist where she doesn’t.
Then the thread surges again, thrumming hard behind my sternum.
My mouth is on hers when it happens, my breath filling her lungs, and suddenly she inhales sharply against me.
I flinch back, terrified of what I might not find but more terrified to hope, then I reach for her anyway. One hand cradles her cheek, my thumb brushing over skin that’s still too cool, while my other presses to the unmarked side of her neck. I hold my breath, the silence stretching until I’m suspended in agony.
There.
A heartbeat. Then another.
Weak and staggering at first, but very real and already growing stronger. Her chest lifts with a shallow breath, then another, and relief crashes through me so hard my vision whites out.
“Thank you,” I whisper hoarsely, over and over, to the Goddess, to the universe, to Noa for fighting. Anyone who can fucking hear me. “Thank you. Thank you…”
I pour everything I have into the thread between us, giving myself over blindly to an instinct I don’t fully understand, feeding it until it hums deep and sure in my chest. It’s stronger than it’s ever been, no longer the fragile wisp I’d grown used to harboring, the one my wolf shielded so carefully from me. Butnow, as I force energy and love and whatever the hell else I have down the connection, the thread thickens. Solidifies. It becomes something that no longer needs protection.
As she comes back, so does it.
As she lives, it does too.
And that’s the only thing that matters to me.
I fold forward, the strength and fight I used to keep going draining out of me all at once, and I rest my forehead against hers. A broken sound catches in my throat. I don’t bother trying to choke it back and I don’t dare move—one hand staying on her cheek and my other hand on her throat, fingers resting over her pulse. I’m terrified letting go will undo this miracle. My eyes squeeze shut but the emotions escape anyway, bleeding a trail down my face. I know they’re probably landing on her cheeks, her mouth, on her skin I feared I’d never feel warm again.
I stay like this, using my hearing to track the way her heartbeat grows stronger and her breathing eases. I don’t move until she starts to shift in my hold, movements that are nothing more than small flinches. Only then do I lift my head from hers enough to see her face.
The sight waiting there freezes me in place.
Noa’s eyes are open. But it’s not her staring back at me. It’s her wolf.
A gleaming mix of liquid gold and stark, arctic blue locks on to me with an intensity I’ve never felt in my mate before. Sharp. Aware. Her gaze tracks me with a focus reserved for us predators. I’ve never had the pleasure of being hunted by Noa’s wolf, but I don’t believe I’ll mind it.
I’m still caught on the simple truth that she’s breathing and awake, and I don’t react in time when she moves.
Her hands shoot out, reaching for me with supernatural speed. Her fingers fist the back of my neck and with strength that doesn’t belong to her human body, she yanks me downtoward her—brutal in her force. The growl that rips from her chest, low and unmistakably wolf, is not something I only hear, but feel against the sensitive skin of my throat.
And that’s where she bites me.
Her teeth sink into my neck, high and a little forward, under my jaw where my beard meets skin. The pain is immediate and unforgiving—her blunt human teeth tearing instead of piercing cleanly the way they would have if her canines had shifted. Blood spills warm past her lips and down the side of my throat.
I don’t care about any of it. The pain. The mess.
All I can feel is pleasure, hot and consuming, because my mate is claiming me back. Marking me in a spot no shirt collar will ever be able to hide. A place everyone will see. One look will be enough for anyone to know what I am.
Hers.
Which is all I’ve ever wanted to be.
Noa—or her wolf—doesn’t retract. Her straight, white teeth remain buried in my flesh when another wave of magic starts to make the air quiver again. It’s stronger this time, diving deep enough to make my nerves hum and bones itch. The half-formed bond beneath my sternum surges in response. It flares bright and reaches for her.
There’s a sharp, sudden snap—a rubber band pulled taut then released.
And then…completeness.
The euphoria that follows is unlike anything I’ve ever known. It isn’t just pleasure, it’s wholeness. It’s as though my soul is finally settling into the shape it was always meant to take—it’s been incomplete all these years but its final piece is now sliding into place. The bond burns hot and sure behind my ribs, no longer weak or fractured, but fully formed into something so indestructible, nothing apart from death can ever break it again.And through it, I can feel Noa. Her lifeforce. Her emotions. Her undeniable presence grounding me.
