And me.My scent on her skin, in her hair, marking her as mine in ways she didn’t understand.The wolf rumbled with satisfaction at that.At the evidence of our claim soaked into her very pores, impossible to wash away.
Mate stayed.Mate chose us.Mate is here.
I had been awake for hours.Hadn’t moved.My left arm had gone numb beneath her weight, the pins and needles spreading from shoulder to fingertips, but I hadn’t shifted a single inch.Hadn’t dared.As if any movement might shatter whatever fragile spell had kept her here through the night.
She had cried during her orgasm.Tears sliding down her temples while her body clenched around mine, and I had kissed them away without asking why.Without demanding she explain herself or justify the vulnerability she had shown.I had just held her afterward, wrapped around her like a shield, and waited for her to bolt.
She hadn’t.
Her breathing had evened out within minutes.Her body had gone soft and heavy against mine, surrendering to sleep with a trust she had never shown me awake.And I had stayed motionless in the dark, counting her breaths, terrified that morning would bring her defenses crashing back into place.
The wolf rumbled low in my chest.That purring sound I couldn’t quite suppress, vibrating through my ribs.She had felt it last night, I knew.Had pressed closer instead of pulling away.
What did that mean?
I didn’t let myself hope.Hope was dangerous.Hope got people killed.But the axis between us had tilted, and even my relentlessly suspicious mind couldn’t deny it.
She stirred against me.
My heart stopped.I held my breath, watching her face in the gray light as consciousness slowly returned.Her brow furrowed.Her lips parted.Her body tensed in that moment of disorientation, trying to place where she was, why she was warm, whose arms held her.
Her eyes opened.Met mine.
Neither of us spoke.The question filled the silence between us.
What now?
I waited for the flinch, for her guard to slam up behind her eyes, for the cold mask of hatred she had worn since the courthouse.
It didn’t come.
She blinked once.Twice.Then she let out a slow breath, and her expression softened into acceptance.Not surrender or defeat, just acknowledgment that she was here, that she had stayed, that whatever this was, she wasn’t running from it.
Not yet, anyway.
I let her set the pace.Didn’t speak, didn’t push, didn’t pull her closer or let her go.Just watched as she slowly untangled herself from my arms, sat up, pushed her hair back from her face.The sheet pooled at her waist, baring the curve of her spine, the marks I had left on her shoulders from my mouth.
“Stay.”The word came out rougher than intended, thick with sleep and want I had no business feeling.
She glanced back at me over her shoulder.“Ask me again tomorrow.”
Four simple words, loaded with everything neither of us was ready to say.
She rose from the bed without looking back.Gathered her clothes from where they’d fallen last night, disappeared into the bathroom.I heard the shower start, and I finally let myself exhale.
Two nights.She had stayed twice.
The wolf rumbled approval.Pattern forming.Mate is ours.Mate is staying.
I told him not to get used to it.But even I didn’t believe that anymore.
By the time I reached the hotel that morning, the investigation had consumed my focus entirely.
Viktor was already waiting in the office we’d commandeered, surveillance reports spread across the desk, his silver-streaked hair catching the fluorescent light.Petrov stood by the window, phone pressed to his ear, murmuring in rapid Russian.
“The Diamantis clan,” Viktor said without preamble as I entered.“They’ve been probing hotel security for weeks.Dmitri confirmed three separate reconnaissance attempts since the beginning of the month.”
I pulled off my jacket and hung it over the chair.“Show me.”
