Mac drove in one last, deep time, burying himself to the hilt as his own orgasm ripped through him. It was a blinding, white-hot silence that emptied him of everything but Melvin’s name. He spilled inside him, a hot, endless flood, marking him in the most primal way possible.
For a long moment, he was aware of nothing but the pounding of his own heart and the frantic beat of Melvin’s beneath him. He collapsed forward, catching his weight on his elbows, his face buried in the sweat-damp hollow of Melvin’s neck. He breathed him in, the scent of honey and amber now forever mixed with the scent of their joining.
Slowly, carefully, he pulled out. Melvin winced, a full-body shiver following the loss. Mac bent and kissed the mark on his shoulder, a soft apology, then lingered there, his tongue brushing the place where teeth had broken skin. The taste of salt and iron was faint now, already fading beneath the warmth of living flesh. The wound would close quickly, he knew that, but the mark would remain, a claiming anyone who knew what to look for would recognize.
He gathered Melvin close and turned them onto their sides without letting go. His front pressed against Melvin’s back, his arm a heavy band across Melvin’s waist. He could feel every breath, every aftershock.
For a time they just breathed. The radiator hissed. A car alarm blared somewhere down the block and cut off. The world outside was noise, but in the tangled sheets there was only the sound of their hearts slowing.
Mac nuzzled the back of Melvin’s neck, his lips brushing the short hairs there.
His hand splayed over Melvin’s stomach, feeling the rapid flutter of his heartbeat gradually settle. His fingers traced idle patterns through the cooling mess there. “You’re a disaster,” Mac murmured, his voice rough against Melvin’s skin.
Melvin huffed a weak laugh. “Your disaster.”
The words sent a quiet warmth through Mac’s chest. He tightened his arm, pulling him closer. “Yeah.”
He reached for the edge of the rumpled sheet and wiped gently at Melvin’s stomach. The cloth came away sticky. He tossed it toward the foot of the bed. Melvin shifted, wincing slightly as he moved. He turned his head on the pillow, eyes heavy-lidded. “Feel like I got run over by a truck. A really good truck.”
Mac’s mouth quirked. He smoothed a hand down Melvin’s side, over the dip of his waist, the curve of his hip. Heat still radiated from his skin. “You okay?”
“Never better.” Melvin caught his hand, lacing their fingers together over his stomach. “Just… full.”
Mac knew what he meant. He pressed a kiss to Melvin’s shoulder blade.
They lay in silence again. Distant neon from the window played across Melvin’s back, painting his skin in shifting reds and blues and catching the dark mark on his shoulder. Mac’s thumb stroked over the bite, the skin raised and tender. The wolf inside him was calm. Sated.
“Does it hurt?” Mac asked.
“Aches,” Melvin said, voice drowsy. “In a good way. Like a reminder.”
Mac’s chest tightened. He had spent so long holding everything at a distance. Now it was all here, in this shabby room, in this man’s breath against his arm.
Melvin’s breathing evened out, slow and deep. Mac thought he’d fallen asleep.
Then Melvin spoke, the words soft with exhaustion. “Love you, you know.”
The air left Mac’s lungs. He’d known. But hearing it now was different.
He buried his face in Melvin’s hair and held him tighter, hoping his hands could say what his throat couldn’t yet.
Outside the city pulsed on, indifferent.
Mac shifted behind him and turned Melvin carefully until they were face to face in the dim light. Melvin’s eyes were dark and soft with exhaustion.
Mac cupped his jaw, his thumb tracing the pale curve of the scar beneath Melvin’s left eye, the last visible mark of the night that could have taken him.
The words sat heavy in his throat.
“I love you too.” It came out raw. No poetry. Just truth.
Melvin’s breath hitched. A slow warmth spread across his face, a smile beginning in his eyes. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to Mac’s, his hand covering the one on his cheek. They stayed like that, breathing the same air while the neon sign outside blinked the room through red and blue shadows. Mac kissed him slow and gentle. Melvin sighed into his mouth and melted against him. When they parted, Mac brushed his lips along Melvin’s ear. “Say it again,” he murmured.
“Love you,” Melvin whispered without hesitation. “Always have.”
A shudder ran through Mac as something deep inside him finally unraveled. He pulled Melvin in, tucking him under his chin, wrapping himself around him until no space remained. Melvin’s leg slid between his, a warm weight.
Mac’s hand drifted down over the curve of Melvin’s ass. He squeezed lightly, just to feel the solid reality of him.
