Another wave of pleasure rips through me and I’m screaming, clenching around his knot, and I feel his release echoing mine, our bodies and emotions tangled together until we’re both sobbing, shaking, completely overwhelmed.
“Mine,” he rumbles against my neck, the word vibrating through his chest in a deep, satisfied purr. His tongue laps at the bite mark. “Finally fuckingmine.”
“Yours.” I can barely get the word out. “Always.”
“I love you.” The words are muffled against my throat, his voice wrecked, vibrating with that same deep purr. “Cara. I love you.”
The words hit me like a physical blow. Nate. SayingI love you. Out loud. He never—in all the time we were together, he showed me every day but he never?—
And now I can feel it. Through the bond. Every ounce of love he’s never been able to say, pouring into me like sunlight.
He stays buried in my neck, licking the wound, and I feel the bond settling into place. It’s like a thread connecting us, right through the center of my chest. I can feel his heartbeat like it’s my own. Feel the trembling satisfaction rolling through him.Feel how overwhelmed he is, how he can’t quite believe this is real.
His arms tighten around me, and I feel a surge of emotion through the bond. Gratitude. Relief. Love.
We stay locked together for what feels like hours. His knot throbs inside me, still filling me up. A low rumble starts in his chest—a purr, deep and satisfied—and I feel it vibrating through both of us. I can feel his release leaking around the seal of his knot, slick and warm between my thighs. Every few minutes, an aftershock ripples through one of us and the other feels it too, pleasure echoing back and forth until we’re both gasping.
I lose track of time. There’s just his heartbeat and mine, his breath and mine, his purr and my contented sighs, his emotions and mine all tangled together. I’ve never felt so close to another person. I’ve never felt so completely claimed.
Eventually, his knot starts to soften. He rolls us onto our sides, still inside me, one arm wrapped tight around my waist like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go. His other hand comes up to touch the bite mark on my neck, gentle and reverent.
“Did I hurt you?” he murmurs against my hair.
“No.” I press a kiss to his chest, right over his heart. I can feel his heartbeat under my lips, and echoing in my chest. “That was... god, Nate. That was everything.”
He’s quiet for a moment. I feel his emotions shifting through the bond. Wonder, disbelief, a fragile kind of hope that makes my heart ache.
“I can feel you,” he says softly.
“What?”
“Here.” His hand presses flat over his heart. His voice cracks. “I didn’t know it would be like this.”
Tears spill down my cheeks. “I can feel you too.”
“I thought...” He stops, swallows hard. Through the bond, I feel his uncertainty, his lingering fear, sharp and clear, like it’smy own. “That if I let myself have this, it would hurt more when you left.”
“I know.” I cup his face, make him look at me. “I know. But I’m not leaving. Not ever again.” I press my forehead to his. “Can you feel it? Through the bond?”
He closes his eyes. Through our connection, I feel him reaching, searching for my emotions. Finding my certainty. My commitment. My love.
When he opens his eyes, something in him has finally settled.
“Yeah,” he whispers. “I feel it.”
He makes a sound, this low, rumbling vibration in his chest that I feel more than hear. It takes me a moment to realize what it is.
He’s purring.
Nate Thorn, stoic deputy, king of one-word answers and granite expressions, is purring because I’m in his arms. The sound reverberates through his chest and into mine, and his contentment washes over me, warm and golden, like sunlight after a long winter.
“Are you laughing at me?” he asks, but there’s no heat in it. The purr hasn’t stopped. If anything, it’s getting louder.
“Never.” I snuggle closer, pressing my ear to his chest so I can feel it better. The vibration is soothing, primal, something deep in my omega brain responding to it with pure satisfaction. “I love it. I loveyou.”
The purr gets louder. His arms tighten around me, pulling me impossibly closer.
“Love you too.” Short. Gruff. Like the words are still hard for him, even now. But he’s saying them. Finally saying them.
