A silent, internal click, like a universe sliding into perfect alignment.
The completed mate bond locked into place with the force of a thunderclap in her soul. Winslet’s breath caught, her eyes squeezing shut. Every nerve ending fired at once, not with pain, but with a stunning, electric awareness. It was a floodgate opening inside her mind and heart.
Desire and protection woven together like twin threads. Fear and safety existing simultaneously. A fierce, possessive urgency tempered by a bone-deep sense of surrender. It was all Korrak—his strength, his control, his latent wildness, his hidden tenderness—pouring into the empty, guarded spaces within her. She feltseen. Not just her body, but every scar, every doubt, and every hope she’d buried. She had been irrevocably claimed.
This,her soul whispered in awe.This is what forever feels like.
A perfect, terrifying, exhilarating synchronicity hummed between them, a new energy that pulsed in time with their slowing heartbeats. It was deep, instinctual, and as fundamental as breathing.
She was his. He was hers. The circuit was complete.
Korrak’s teeth retracted, his mouth softening against her skin. He laved the wound with a slow, soothing stroke of his tongue, the gesture profoundly intimate. He was still buriedinside her, their bodies joined, the new bond a living thing thrumming in the space between their hearts.
Winslet went boneless against him, her forehead dropping to his shoulder. The emotional and physical onslaught left her trembling. She was branded, bound, and reborn all in the space of a few heartbeats.
He pulled her with him as he leaned back onto the bed, never breaking the connection between their bodies, settling her so she lay atop him, her head cradled on his chest.
For a long moment, there was only the sound of their breathing and the profound internal humming of the completed bond.
Then Korrak’s hand came up, his fingers sliding into her hair with a possessiveness that now felt like home. “Mine,” he said, the single word resonating through the bond and the room.
It wasn’t ownership. It was a truth, etched into her skin and sealed in her soul.
A slow smile touched Winslet’s lips. She nuzzled into the warm skin of his chest, listening to the strong, steady beat of his heart. Her heart now.
“And you’re mine,” she whispered back, the truth of it settling into her bones with a rightness that felt ancient.
EIGHTEEN
KORRAK
Dawn crept through the frost-etched windows like a cautious predator, painting the cabin walls in shades of pearl and blue. The light seemed sharper somehow, brighter, as if the world itself had been retuned overnight. Korrak stirred slowly, his consciousness surfacing from the deepest sleep he’d experienced in years.
The first sensation that registered wasn’t the cold mountain air or the familiar weight of his responsibilities pressing against his mind. It wasrightness. A bone-deep certainty that settled in him like an anchor finally finding purchase on solid ground.
The mate bond hummed between them—not the sharp, demanding pull of an incomplete connection, but something steady and unshakeable. A foundation. His polar bear, usually restless in the early hours, lay quiet and satisfied, a contentment radiating through him that felt foreign and perfect all at once.
Winslet slept curled against his side, her dark hair spilling across his chest and her breath warm against his skin. Her weight against him felt calibrated, as though every curve and angle had been designed specifically to fit his body. He looked down at her neck and found that his mate mark was alreadystarting to heal, the edges becoming a silvery glow instead of angry red.
So this is what I denied myself.
For eighteen long years, he’d convinced himself that solitude was his destiny. That an Alpha who needed no one was an Alpha who couldn’t be broken. He’d worn isolation like armor, telling himself that emotional entanglements were weaknesses. Every woman who’d shown interest had been politely but firmly discouraged. Sure, he’d allowed himself the occasional physical release—his polar bear demanded that much—but he’d never permitted anything deeper than flesh meeting flesh in the dark.
The irony wasn’t lost on him now. All those years of believing that ruling alone kept him sharp, unencumbered, untouchable. All those careful barriers he’d constructed to protect himself from the kind of loss that had nearly destroyed him at seventeen.
What a fool he’d been.
With Winslet’s presence threaded seamlessly through his awareness, the completed bond locked firmly into place, the truth was impossible to ignore. This attachment didn’t weaken him. It sharpened every instinct and clarified every choice, making his previous existence feel like stumbling through fog.
Today, he felt invigorated, aligned, as though his life had finally clicked into its intended shape. Colors seemed more vivid, sounds more distinct. Even the familiar weight of leadership felt different—not lighter, but more purposeful.
The completed bond wasn’t a chain around his neck. It was a catalyst. A potent energy source he could harness to be stronger, to protect more fiercely, and to act with surgical precision. Because now he had something worth fighting for that extended beyond duty and territory.
He had a future with her that he would kill to protect.
His gaze traced the delicate line of Winslet’s jaw, and the dark fan of her lashes against her cheeks. So human. Yet braveto the point of recklessness, stubborn enough to match his own iron will, and fiercer than most shifters he’d known. The warmth in his chest deepened, spreading through him like whiskey on a cold night.
But he wasn’t naive enough to believe the clan would accept the completed bond without reservations. There would be questions—spoken and unspoken—about a human mate in the Arctic. Concerns about vulnerability, about longevity, about an Alpha binding himself to someone who couldn’t shift, couldn’t heal as quickly, couldn’t survive the brutal conditions that were second nature to them.
