Page 96 of Brody
I tilted my face up to meet his gaze, finding his eyes in the moonlight.“Now I’ve found my home.”The simple truth of it caught in my throat.“Not this cabin.Not the Ridge.You.”
Something shifted in his expression, a vulnerability I’d never seen before, like I’d unlocked a door he’d kept barricaded.He brushed his thumb across my cheekbone with such reverence that tears pricked behind my eyes.
“After my grandma Una died,” he said quietly, “I thought I’d never have a home again.Just places I existed.”His voice roughened with emotion.“Then I came to the Ridge with my pack brothers and found peace.But there was something still missing… you.And now you came back into my life, all fire and fury and beauty, and suddenly I have something to fight for again… you.”
We lay in comfortable silence for several minutes, his heartbeat steady beneath my ear, his fingers tracing patterns on my skin.The moonlight shifted through the windows, casting silvery patterns across the bed.In this perfect moment of peace, my mind returned to our work, to what we’d accomplished together.
“What if it really works?”I whispered into the darkness, my head resting on his chest.“What if we’ve actually found the cure?”
He traced lazy patterns on my bare shoulder, sending pleasant shivers down my spine.“Then you’ll have changed the lives of unmated males everywhere,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.“And given them the time they need to find what we have… a fated mate and love.”
I propped myself up on one elbow to look at him properly.In the moonlight, with his eyes soft with love and his claiming mark against his skin, he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.How had I denied myself this for so long?
“Do you think the unmated males will understand?That the serum is just a bridge until they find their mates?”I asked.
His smile made my heart flip.He lifted his hand to cup my cheek, his touch reverent.“They will.Nothing compares to what happens when you find your fated mate.”He brushed his thumb across my lower lip, his eyes darkening as they followed the movement.“The serum may stabilize their neural pathways, but only the mate bond can make them feel truly complete.”
“Like us,” I whispered, the simple truth of it still sometimes overwhelming.
“Like us,” he agreed, pulling me down for a kiss that quickly escalated into much more.He slid his hands against my skin, callused palms skimming up my sides to cup my breasts.I gasped against his mouth as he circled my hard nipples with his thumbs, pleasure coiled inside me.
“I’ll never get enough of you,” he growled, rolling us so that I was beneath him, his powerful body caging mine in the most delicious way.“A thousand years wouldn’t be enough.”
“Prove it,” I said, wrapping my legs around his waist to pull him closer.
His answering smile was pure predator.“Gladly.”
CHAPTER23
ROZI
The next morning, we were back at the Brewstillery, in the lab.The forty-eight-hour check-in brought even more dramatic improvements.Logan showed nearly 70 percent reduction in symptoms, with neurological scans confirming what we’d hoped to see, stabilization of the pathways between human and animal consciousness similar to what the mate bond created naturally.
By the seventy-two-hour mark, the evidence was undeniable.Logan’s tremors had completely disappeared.Most importantly, his neural scans showed complete regeneration of the pathways that had been deteriorating.
“It worked,” I breathed, staring at the final test results.“It actually worked.”The words seemed inadequate for the magnitude of what we’d accomplished.
My hands trembled as I gripped the test results.A wave of dizziness washed over me, the physical manifestation of hope realized after years of searching.Behind my sternum, an expanding warmth spread outward, like sunlight breaking through clouds after a lifetime of rain.I’d chased this moment through countless failed experiments, sleepless nights, and professional ridicule.Now it was here, and my body didn’t know how to contain it.
Brody must have sensed the emotions overwhelming me.He pulled me into his arms, lifting me off my feet in an exuberant embrace and spinning me around the lab.“You did it,” he whispered against my hair.“You found the cure.”
“We did it,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck, my body pressed against his in a way that made it difficult to remember we weren’t alone.“I couldn’t have done this without you.”
The love shining in his eyes made my breath catch.He kissed me then, right there in the lab, a kiss filled with such joy and pride that I forgot everything else for a moment.He framed my face with his hands as if I were something infinitely precious, his lips moving over mine with a tenderness that made my heart ache.
Logan cleared his throat loudly.“Uh, guys?Still here.”
I pulled back, but not apologetic.Brody kept his arm firmly around my waist as I turned to face our test subject, his hand splayed possessively across my hip.
“So, Doc,” Logan said, grinning at our display.“Does this mean I’m officially cured?”
I extracted myself slightly from Brody’s embrace, though I kept my hand firmly in his.“The data confirms complete neural stability,” I said, unable to keep the smile from my face.“All indicators suggest a permanent integration of your human and animal consciousness.In layman’s terms, yes, your pre-feral symptoms are cured.”
“But,” Brody added, his tone serious though his eyes remained warm, “this isn’t a substitute for finding your fated mate.The serum stabilizes what the feral progression threatens to destroy, but only your true mate can complete you in the way you’re meant to be completed.”
“It gives you time without the ticking clock of pre-feral progression,” I explained.“Freedom to find your mate without the threat of losing yourself in the process.”
Logan nodded, understanding dawning in his expression.“So Freya’s spell might still bring my fated mate to the Ridge?”
