Page 168 of Specter Bred

Epilogue: Maeve Archer

Graduation came and went in a blur. Unsurprisingly, Grizzly selected two recruits for his new unit: Samuel Hayes and Maeve Archer.

I still remembered the looks on everyone’s faces when Graves called our names and we crossed the stage to receive our Specter insignias. Shock rippled through the audience. Disbelief showed plainly on the faces of our fellow recruits, along with more than a few looks of outright jealousy. A female alpha and a beta hadn’t just survived Specter training. We’d graduated, earned the insignia everyone said we had no business wearing, and then been personally selected by one of Arca’s most notorious war heroes to serve in his unit.

The only two people who didn’t look even remotely surprised were Cutter and Alvarez. If anything, the smug bastards looked like they’d known exactly how this would end long before the rest of us did.

Later that night, Nolan gave me my graduation gift. First his knot, and then, while we lay locked together beneath the sheets, his mark.

He didn’t rush it.

For a long time, he simply held me against him, his mouth wandering over my skin as though he was searching for exactly the right place. I could feel the weight of his decision in every lingering kiss and every pass of his lips, until he finally stopped at the soft curve beneath my breast.

An intimate place that my uniform would cover.

Somewhere that belonged only to us.

Nolan lingered there, his lips brushing the spot once, then again, and the tenderness of it felt almost unbearably at odds with the man everyone else knew. This was the same alpha who commanded rooms without raising his voice, who had spent months pushing me harder than anyone else, and who had fought every fucking inch of what existed between us.

Now he was choosing where to leave proof that he wasn’t fighting it anymore.

His arms tightened around me.

Then he bit down.

I gasped, clutching his shoulders as the sharp sting spread through me, quickly chased by a deep warmth that seemed to settle somewhere far beneath my skin. Nolan held me through it, his body wrapped around mine as he left something permanent behind.

When he finally lifted his head, he didn’t move away. He pressed his lips gently over the mark instead, and rested his forehead against my skin.

Hidden beneath my uniform, no one else would ever know it was there unless I chose to show them.

But I would know and Nolan would know.

I chose to return his mark somewhere far less discreet.

After a bit of searching, I settled on the scarred side of his neck, right over the strong column of his throat where everyone would be able to see it. I chose to mark his scarred side because I couldn’t stand the thought of adding another wound to the unmarked flesh beside them.

Nolan Graves had enough fucking wounds.

So I pressed my lips against the burnt tissue first, giving him the same quiet warning he’d given me, then sank my teeth into his throat. His whole body reacted beneath me, a rough sound leaving him as his arms tightened around me.

Apparently, Major Nolan Graves liked a little pain mixed with his pleasure. Good to know.

When I finally released him, I kissed the mark I’d left behind.

His had been hidden away beneath my uniform, something private that belonged only to us.

Mine sat proudly on his throat.

Let the whole fucking world see it.

Once our dual lock finally slipped free, I called out for Sammy.

He appeared in the doorway a moment later, took one look at the bloodstained sheets and the fresh puncture marks on both our bodies, and immediately shook his head.

“Uh-uh. Nope.” He pointed between Nolan and me. “That’s an alpha thing. Betas don’t do marks. That shit looks painful.”

“Come here, Sammy,” I crooned.