"Ours," I say back.
I press my face into his neck, right over the warm fresh circle of his brand. He does not let me go. I feel his three-note purr rumble through his chest. He is not going to let me go for a long time. I do not want him to.
Chapter nine
Jen
The kitchen floor is cold under us and Harek is still inside me. Then his arms tighten and his mouth finds my hair.
"They're coming," he says.
He hears them before I do. The bedroom door opens down the hall.
Crull first. His amber eyes find us on the floor. He registers the scene — me on Harek's lap, the brand on my neck, the brand on Harek's — and he nods once, slow.
Then Thaw. He stops in the doorway and his gold eyes go over me once, then over Harek, and something warm passes across his face.
Thaw says, "We need to talk."
Harek slides my sweatshirt over my head, then his hands find my hips. He lifts me off him slowly — the slide of him leaving meis too much for one second — and then he sets me on my feet. He pulls his pants on and stands behind me with one arm around my waist. He does not let go.
I am not going to be without him touching me for a while.
Dean and Daron come in the front door with a rush of cold air. Rifles slung across their backs, the matched pair. They have been outside all night. Dean crosses to the table and takes a chair across from Thaw. Daron stays standing near the door.
Harek lowers himself against the wall behind my chair without a sound. He has not put on a shirt. The brand at the side of his throat is bright pink against deep olive skin, the matched twin of the one at mine. He puts his back to the wall and sits with his hand resting on the back of my chair.
Crull takes the wall behind me beside Harek. Harek gets up and goes to the coffee maker. He pours a mug. He brings it to me. He sets it down at my elbow.
"Drink," he says, then, "It is hot."
The kitchen goes still.
Daron barks a laugh from the back door. "Look at that. A whole sentence."
Harek does not look at him. "Two."
Dean nearly chokes on his coffee.
"Two," Daron says. "Brother is counting."
"He has always counted," Crull says behind me, low. The first he has said all morning.
"He has not always corrected me out loud."
Harek smiles. Small. Crooked. The first one I have seen.
"Less broken now," he says. To me.
The kitchen goes quiet a different way. Daron's grin softens. His eyes get bright. He looks out the back door at the trees for a second and when he turns back the grin is still there. Dean has put his coffee down. He is looking at his brother.
Across from me, Thaw is smiling.
"The bond gives it back. Slowly," Harek says, while everyone is still watching.
"He always took everything slow," Daron says. "Did you ever see him eat. He chews thirty times."
"Not true."
