She was alive.Probably.
His arms tightened around her as he rolled, taking her with him in one smooth motion.The world shifted, and then she was sprawled across his chest, her cheek pressed against the hot, damp skin over his collarbone.His cock slipped free, and she pouted at the sudden emptiness, her inner muscles still fluttering with tiny aftershocks.
Okay.Definitely alive.Yeah, definitely alive.
His hand found the back of her head, fingers threading through her sweat-damp curls.The other arm locked around her waist like he was afraid she'd evaporate if he loosened his grip.Under her ear, his heart hammered, slowing gradually from the brutal pace it had been keeping.
She could have stayed there forever.Just breathing him in, feeling the solid rise and fall of his chest beneath her.No guards outside the door.No emperor waiting.No ceremony, no politics, no?—
Her gaze snagged on his wrist.
Dark lines traced the inside of his forearm, standing out against his skin.They hadn't been there before.Intricate, spiraling patterns that wound around both wrists like living tattoos, the black ink still settling into his skin as she watched.
"What the hell?"She grabbed his hand, turning it over.
A smile curved his lips.Slow and lazy and so thoroughly satisfied, it made her stomach flip.
"Mating marks," he breathed.
She blinked, tracing one of the lines with her fingertip.It was warm to the touch."Okay… and what does that mean, exactly?"
He cupped her jaw with his free hand and kissed her.
Soft and sweet, it was so gentle it made her chest ache.Nothing like the desperate, bruising collision of minutes ago.This was a different kind of claiming entirely.A promise.The kind she could see stretching out ahead of them… messy and imperfect and absolutely, stubbornly theirs.
Breaking away, he rested his forehead against hers.
"It means you're mine," he murmured."And that even the gods agree."
A smile spread across her lips.Settling back against his chest, she flattened her palm over the rough black scar above his heart.His pulse beat steady and strong beneath her hand.
His gods were a bit slow off the mark, she decided.But at least they'd gotten there in the end.
