"I'm staying," I whisper. "I'm here, Harek. I am not going anywhere."
His whole body shudders.
He is trembling while holding himself completely still because he is asking the question with his whole body —will she still be here in one minute, in five, in an hour— and the only way he can ask it is to not move and find out.
I press my mouth against the side of his head.
I do not move either.
My answer isI am staying.
His pulse inside me steadies. The frantic heartbeat against my chest slows. One. Two. Three. I can feel him deciding to believe me one breath at a time.
When he moves, it is a single long slide upward.
He lifts his hips, his shaft dragging against the entire length of my walls, and I groan against his neck, my thighs tightening around him. He fills me to the brim.
The rhythm is slow. Each thrust is a deliberate weight shifting between us.
I am completely in my body. The cabin around us has gone quiet and the only thing in the world is Harek under me and inside me and breathing my name against my collarbone.
"Harek," I moan, my head falling back as the warmth in my belly deepens.
He feels it.
Heat is building in the line under my ribs. He speeds up. His thrusts turn shorter, harder, his breath coming in short grunts against my ear.
His hand slides up my back. His long fingers find the nape of my neck. He holds me steady as his hips slam into mine with a heavy final intent. I feel him so deep, pushing me higher, every thrust dragging across the spot that makes my whole body tighten around him.
The wave breaks.
It comes up through me from where he is buried, a hot full pulse that climbs my spine and locks my thighs around his hips, and I cry out into his shoulder, my body clenching around him in long rolling waves. My fingers dig into the back of his neck. I am shaking. I cannot stop shaking. The world has gone down to the place where he is inside me and the heat that is movingthrough me and his hand at my nape keeping me steady while I come apart.
"Mine," he growls, the word breaking into a three-note purr — the low continuous alpha note he used through the concrete wall of the cell.
He feels me coming around him and his body answers.
One last hard upward thrust and his whole body locks under me. His mouth finds the slope of my shoulder.
He does not bite to hurt. His teeth catch the skin right at the junction of my neck, pressing down with a sharp burning pressure, and a searing ring of heat flares on his neck and mine at the same time. The brand forms.
The third bond seals.
Harek comes with a long shattered roar that fills the kitchen, his body pulsing inside me over and over, the heat of his release pouring out around him onto the floorboards.
He stays buried in me. His head heavy on my shoulder. His purr vibrating into my lungs like a small steady engine.
The room feels quieter after.
The morning mist outside the window seems thicker. The house has stopped feeling like a place we are hiding in and has started feeling like a place where we are.
Harek does not slide out of me. He keeps his weight inside my body, his arms around my back, holding me against his chest while the brand on my neck cools to a permanent warmth.
From the bedroom, a low growl moves through the floorboards — Crull, awake now, acknowledging the change in the air. Then a second pulse, warm and clear down the oldest line — Thaw, sending a quiet welcome home across the house to the brother who finally crossed the threshold.
Harek lifts his head. His green eyes are clear, the black centers shrinking back until the bright intelligent green is fully readable.He looks at me. His mouth softens into something that is not a smile but lives in the same family.
"Jen," he says. His voice is flat and certain. "Ours."
