Page 31 of Silent Fire

Noel swallowed hard, leaning back against the wall as he fought to draw even breaths. He couldn’t go in there, couldn’t face those memories head-on. Tomas squeezed his hand, a silent reminder that he wasn’t alone.

“Right here with you,” he murmured, voice a low rumble meant only for Noel’s ears.

Giving a shaky nod, Noel pushed off the wall and followed Tomas into the room. Then he froze, eyes going wide.

It was completely different. The space was completely transformed. Plush new carpet covered the floor, and sleek modern furniture filled the room. Even the walls had been repainted a soft, soothing gray. There was no trace of the horror that had occurred here mere days ago, the ghosts of their trauma had seemingly been exorcised.

“What...” Noel’s voice emerged as a strangled rasp. He turned to Tomas, brow furrowed in confusion.

Tomas stepped behind him, arms winding around Noel’s waist as he nuzzled into the curve of his neck. “We don’t live in trauma, mi alma,” he rasped out against Noel’s skin. “We recalibrate and move forward.”

The words unlocked something in Noel’s chest, allowing the tightly wound knot of fear to slowly unravel. He sagged back against Tomas’s solid frame, letting his mate’s steady presence ground him.

Without a word, Tomas scooped him up and carried him to the bed. He settled them both amid the crisp sheets, cradling Noel against his chest like he was something infinitely precious. Noel burrowed closer, breathing in the comforting scent of leather and smoke.

They simply held each other for a long while. Noel traced idle patterns over the inked swirls on Tomas’s chest, finding solace in the rise and fall of each breath, in the beat of his mate’s heart against his cheek.

“Got you, cariño,” Tomas rumbled, the words a hushed promise into the stillness.

Noel tilted his head, meeting that scorching gaze he’d come to crave like air. There was such fierce tenderness in those whiskey-brown depths, such unshakable devotion. He was utterly transfixed, lost to everything but the solidity of Tomas surrounding him.

With a low growl, Tomas carefully rolled them until he blanketed Noel’s smaller frame. He sealed their mouths together in a searing kiss that quickly turned filthy, all clashing teeth and velvet tongue and naked hunger.

Noel eased up to meet him, ignoring the pain in his side as he fisted one hand in those dark silken strands to hold Tomas close. His free hand mapped the hard planes of Tomas’s back, nails scoring delicious lines of heat. This wasn’t soft or romantic. It was pure, primal need—an affirmation that they were both alive and undeniably bound together.

Tomas broke the kiss with a ragged groan, trailing a blazing path down the column of Noel’s throat. “Need you,” he groaned against Noel’s thundering pulse. “All of you, cariño. Let me reclaim what’s mine.”

A tremor rocked through Noel at the raw demand in Tomas’s tone. He tilted his head in a silent offering, surrendering to the driving need to be consumed, to let his mate imprint himself on Noel’s very essence.

Tomas wasted no time divesting Noel of his clothes. Then he was on Noel again, branding him with searing kisses and the exquisite glide of bare skin. Noel clung to him, spiraling higher with each rasp of calloused palms and graze of stubbled jaw.

When Tomas finally sheathed himself in one smooth thrust, they both went still for a suspended moment. Noel panted against the sweat-slicked curve of his mate’s shoulder, overwhelmed by the feeling of fullness, of completion, as though the final piece of his shattered self finally clicked back into place.

Then Tomas set a slow rhythm, each powerful snap of his hips driving Noel deeper in love with his wolf. Noel matched Tomas’s slow intensity, fingertips leaving crescent marks in the bunched muscles of that powerful back.

It was beautiful and messy and utterly grounding. Noel surrendered to the wildfire of sensations with each slick thrust, each rasping growl against his lips. There was no room for doubt or fear, only the blazing truth that this was where he belonged—twined with his mate in the most elemental way.

Tomas pinned him with that searing gaze, teeth worrying at Noel’s bottom lip until he gasped. “You’re mine,” he snarled, voice wrecked. “Say it, cariño. Let me hear you.”

“Yours,” Noel said without hesitation. He hooked one leg over Tomas’s hip, opening himself wider to the claiming thrusts. “Always yours, mi lobo. Always.”

With a feral snarl, Tomas sank his canines into Noel’s tender flesh. He growled in response to the whimpers that spilled free, swallowing each broken keen as their rhythm grew frantic, animalistic.

Noel hurtled toward the edge, the coil of pleasure winding tighter and tighter until, finally, it snapped. He came apart beneath Tomas with a sobbing cry, back slightly bowing as his climax ripped through him in searing waves.

Tomas extracted his canines, following him over immediately, burying himself to the hilt with a guttural snarl. He stilled, panting harshly against Noel’s damp skin as they clung together in the aftermath.

In the quiet that followed, Noel simply held his mate close, tracing soothing patterns over the sweat-slicked planes of Tomas’s back. The room faded away until there was nothing but Tomas’s ragged breaths, the thunder of his heart where they were pressed chest to chest.

“I love you,” Noel murmured, the words slipping free on a contented sigh before he could second-guess them. He’d spent his whole life running from those three simple words, from the vulnerability of laying himself bare. But here, in Tomas’s arms, there was no fear—only a bone-deep sense of rightness that settled into his very marrow.

Tomas stilled then pulled back just enough to pin Noel with that searing gaze. His expression held a raw vulnerability that stole Noel’s breath, hope and adoration and wonder all swirling in those whiskey depths.

“Mi alma,” he whispered, the words seeming to resonate straight into Noel’s bones. “My heart.” He sealed their mouths together in a scorching kiss, deep and soul-shaking in its intensity. When they finally broke apart, Tomas rested their foreheads together, eyes shining with unshed emotion. “With everything I am, for as long as I breathe. You’re my forever, cariño. Te amo, Noel.”

For the first time he could remember, Noel drifted off to sleep without a trace of fear lingering in the back of his mind. He had his wolf to stand sentry, his shelter from the storm.

Tomas held him through the night, keeping the nightmares at bay. In his arms, the horrors of Noel’s past faded into insignificance. Only peace remained, a fragile yet unbreakable thing.

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