They didn’t speak after that. Bryce slicked his fingers and worked Tom open slowly, watching his face every second. Tom’s breaths turned ragged, his hips shifting in tiny, urgent motions, and when he finally nodded, Bryce pushed inside with a groan that sounded like it scraped his throat.
It feltright. Too right. Like his body had been waiting for this, forhim.
Bryce moved slowly, deep strokes that stole the breath from both of them. Tom curled an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer, their chests pressed together, sweat-slick and shaking.
“Bryce,” he gasped, and the sound of it undid Bryce. He buried his face in Tom’s neck, shaking as he came. And when Tom followed him over, Bryce’s name on his lips sounded like a prayer.
* * *
It started with warmth. A slow, comforting heat wrapped around his back and across his hips, a steady rhythm of breath at the nape of his neck. Tom surfaced slowly, and for a moment, he didn’t remember where he was.
Except Zack didn’t cuddle.
And then whoever it was shifted behind him, one strong thigh nudging between his, an arm tightening briefly around his waist. That familiar scent, the scrape of stubble at his shoulder—there was no mistaking it.Bryce.
A smile curved at the edge of Tom’s mouth. He didn’t move. Didn’t want to disturb the quiet. Something about the way they fit together made him ache, though not in a way that hurt.It was...rightness. As though everything in his life had tilted into place without asking permission.
And then his wolf, normally a low hum in the background of his awareness, rose. Not demanding or urgent, but content.Settled.
It startled him, and he stayed still, letting it roll over him as he tried to figure out exactly what it was. The sense that nothing needed to be done. That everything—right here, right now—was exactly where it should be. And when had that ever happened before?
He’d known he was falling in love. But this was deeper than that. This wascertainty. He breathed, and it felt like a key turning in a lock he hadn’t known was there.
Mine, his wolf whispered.
They were mates.
His breath hitched. He turned carefully onto his back, not wanting to lose the feel of Bryce beside him, the connection still humming between them.
When he looked up, Bryce was already awake, watching him. His expression was unreadable as something flickered in his eyes.
Tom smiled, tentative and full of wonder. “You felt that too. Didn’t you?”
There was a moment of silence. A long one.
Then Bryce breathed out sharply and pulled away.
Chapter Eighteen
BRYCE
Bryce woke with Tom curled against him, warm and familiar, like he’d always been there. And just like that, he knew.
His wolf had stilled, and his breathing had matched Tom’s without thought. When Tom shifted closer with a sigh, it wasn’t surprise that hit him—it was certainty. They were mates.
And Bryce couldn’t fucking breathe. Because this wasn’t a gift. It was a trap. Something he hadn’t asked for, couldn’t control, and didn’t trust.
Tom had turned toward him, smiling, so open it hurt to look at. “You felt it too, right?”
Bryce should have lied, said he didn’t understand what Tom was talking about. That would have Tom doubting what he felt, and Bryce wouldn’t have had to face this. Instead, he’d looked away and said nothing because he didn’t knowwhatto say. Not to Tom.
“Bryce?” Tom’s voice was quiet and careful.
And still, Bryce said nothing. He got up instead. Pushed the covers back and sat on the edge of the bed, chest tight, hands braced on his knees.
“Don’t,” he said finally, still not looking back. “Please don’t say anything else.”
There was silence behind him, followed by movement as Tom sat up.
