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She’d take it. She’d welcome it. She’s pouring thatyesinto me with every breath, every beat, every trembling sob of satisfaction and joy and surrender.

But I don’t.

I press my mouth to the curve of her neck instead - kiss her there, just above the place I’m meant to mark - and I breathe her in.

Because I can’t. Not yet.

Not when everything about this has been bigger than just the two of us from the start.

Andfuck, it kills me.

My arms lock around her tighter. My knot pulses deep inside her - and I don’t move. Not even an inch.

She sags forward, boneless, utterly spent, held upright only by my grip and the sheer size of me still locked inside her. Her breathing comes in shallow gasps. Her skin glistens. Her body trembles with the aftershocks.

I lower my forehead between her shoulder blades and close my eyes.

The bond hums, louder now. Familiar. Ancient. Fated.

It sings in my blood. In hers.

Because I’m inside her now. Because I’minher now.

We’re tied. Bound. And for the first time in what feels like forever… I don’t feel rage. I don’t feel fury.

I feel calm. I feelher.

“You’re mine now,” I murmur, voice frayed and low, reverent even as it burns. “Finally.”

And she nods.

Just once. Small. Sure.

But I feel it through the bond.

Yes.

I hold her for minutes - maybe longer - still buried, still knotted, still full. Her slick coats my thighs. My come seeps from where we’re locked together.

Eventually, I’ll carry her to the bed. Eventually, my knot will release. Eventually, I’ll clean her, kiss her wrists, her hips, her collarbone. Worship the ruin we made.

But right now, we stay.

Not because we’re stuck, but because this is where we’re meant to be.

Burning.Together.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Rhea

Lucian is still inside me.

Knot and all.

And let me just say: there is nothing - and I mean nothing - in the omega pamphlets about what to do when you’re post-orgasm, emotionally raw, and currently skewered like a marshmallow on the world’s grumpiest alpha.

I can feel the knot - thick and swollen, still pulsing faintly. It's not uncomfortable anymore. It’s... solid. Heavy. Like a door that’s been locked behind me with an audible click.

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