"I've been holding back." His voice was low, rough, vibrating through me like distant thunder rolling across mountains. "With the others, I've been careful. Measured. The pack alpha setting an example." He leaned closer, his breath ghosting across my cheek, cedar and storm filling my senses until I couldn't think straight. "But I'm tired of holding back with you."
"Then don't." The words came out breathless, barely a whisper, my whole body trembling with anticipation.
"It's not that simple." His jaw tightened, control warring with want in his expression, muscles flexing beneath his skin. "I could make you submit. Right now. One word, one command, and your omega would bow to me." His eyes darkened, something primal flickering in their depths, ancient and powerful. "But I won't. Not ever. Not unless you ask me to."
I shivered — not from fear. Something entirely different. Something that made heat pool low in my stomach and my knees go weak.
"I want to kiss you, Keira." He said it like a confession, like a prayer, his voice strained with the effort of holding himself back, the tendons in his neck standing out with tension. "But I want you to ask for it. I want you to choose this. Choose me."
The power dynamics clicked into place in my mind. He had all the control — physically, biologically, in every way that mattered. But he was giving it to me. Putting the choice in my hands. Proving that he would never take what wasn't freely offered.
"Kiss me." I said it clearly, deliberately, holding his gaze without wavering. "I'm asking. Kiss me."
Something broke in his expression — relief, want, triumph all tangled together, his composure finally shattering. Then his mouth was on mine, and I understood why the others had saved him for last.
Jae-won kissed like a thunderstorm — overwhelming, consuming, impossible to escape. His hands left the wall to grip my hips, pulling me flush against him, and I gasped at the contact, at the heat of him pressing into every inch of me. He swallowed the sound, his tongue sliding against mine, claiming every part of my mouth like he was staking a flag. This wasn'tgentle. This wasn't careful. This was six years of control finally unleashed, and I was drowning in it.
My hands found his chest, his shoulders, the back of his neck, pulling him closer, needing more. He growled against my lips — actually growled, the sound rumbling through his chest — and lifted me like I weighed nothing, my legs wrapping around his waist automatically.
"I could devour you." He groaned the words against my throat, his mouth hot on my pulse point, his hips pressing me into the wall. "I've wanted to since the moment I saw you. Since the bond triggered and I felt you become mine."
"Then devour me." I gasped it out, past caring about dignity or restraint or anything except the feeling of him against me, consuming me.
He pulled back just enough to meet my eyes, his own wild and dark, barely human. "Not yet. Not until you're ready. You just stopped running…and I want to keep it that way." He pressed his forehead to mine, both of us breathing hard, our chests heaving in sync. "But I will scent you. I will make sure everyone knows you belong to this pack. To me."
"Yes." The word was out before I could think about it, pure instinct taking over, every rational thought burned away by his presence. "Yes, do it."
He lowered me to my feet, his hands sliding up my arms to my shoulders, then to my jaw, tilting my head to the side with gentle pressure. I felt his nose trace the line of my throat, his breath hot against my skin, making me shudder.
"Right here." He pressed his lips to the spot just below my ear, right over my bonding gland, his voice a rough murmur against my skin. "The claiming spot. Where a bite would go, if we were completing the bond."
"I know what it means." I breathed, my voice shaky but certain, my hands gripping his shoulders for balance. "Do it anyway."
He made a sound that was almost pained, low and guttural, then his mouth closed over the spot and he began to scent me properly. The sensation was unlike anything the others had done. The wrist, the temple, the hand, the nape — those had been intimate. This was claiming. Possession. I felt his scent sinking into my very blood, marking me at a cellular level, making me his in a way that couldn't be undone.
The bond blazed in my chest, joining the others, completing something that had been waiting to be finished.
"Mine." He growled the word against my throat, his teeth grazing the skin without breaking it, possessive and primal. "Ours. Pack."
"Yours." I agreed, my voice wrecked, my whole body trembling against him. "Pack." He worked his way across my throat, scenting every inch, his hands holding me steady when my knees threatened to give out. By the time he finished, I was boneless against him, completely overwhelmed.
"There." He pulled back, satisfaction blazing in his eyes as he surveyed his work, something triumphant in his expression. "Now everyone will know exactly who you belong to."
"Five alphas." I managed, still trying to catch my breath, my mind fuzzy with sensation, with the weight of what had just happened. "I belong to five alphas. That's insane."
"That's fate." He corrected, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead, his tenderness a stark contrast to the intensity of moments before. "That's the bonds choosing what they choose. That's five people finding one person who makes them complete."
"Do I make you complete?" I asked it quietly, something vulnerable in my voice, needing to hear the answer more than I wanted to admit.
"You make us possible." He cupped my face in his hands, his thumbs brushing away tears I hadn't realized had fallen, gentle against my cheeks. "Before you, we were a pack. We worked well together, cared for each other. But something was always missing. A balance. An anchor." He met my eyes, his gaze steady and certain, unwavering. "You're that anchor, Keira. You're the piece we didn't know we needed."
I didn't know what to say to that. So instead, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his chest, letting him hold me together. He held me without question, his arms secure around me, his chin resting on top of my head. We stood like that for a long time, his heartbeat steady against my ear, his scent surrounding me like a shield.
"Thank you." I said it into his shirt, my voice muffled but sincere.
"For what?" His hand stroked up and down my back, soothing and grounding, the motion repetitive and calming.
"For waiting." I pulled back just enough to look up at him, my eyes still wet, emotion thick in my throat. "For not pushing. For letting me come to this in my own time, in my own way. For being last so the others could go first."
