Chapter 31
Bronc
I’d been worrying about Juliet for weeks—four weeks since she’d come home hollow-eyed and brittle as winter branches.
The news about her mother hit like a sucker punch: all that desperate risk she’d taken to bring her home only to find out she’d never made it back alive took a toll.
But we’d had several conversations about how it had all come about, and she finally realized that she did not bear the responsibility.
Her parents truly set all of the events in motion by bringing Harrison into their lives in the first place.
Tragic? Yes. But Juliet bore none of the blame.
For anything. The only guilty party in the entire horrible situation is Harrison Hastings.
And we were going to fight our way through it.
Every night, I caught her staring at the scar on her shoulder like it held answers.
The guilt ate at her. It was all for nothing, she’d whisper in the dark.
I hated how she said it: not angry, just resigned, as if surviving Harrison hadn’t cost her enough already.
I was ready to put my mark back where it belonged.
But then there were the sessions with our pack therapist three times a week.
Small mercies. She came back softer some days, less shattered at the edges—started talking about “processing” instead of drowning in silence.
It didn’t fix everything (nothing could), but hell if I wasn’t grateful for whatever kept her from crumbling entirely.
We had started going as a couple last week and for the first time, I felt… hopeful.
Our session today got to the meat of it.
The counseling room was softly lit. It was far from where Juliet should have had to be, but for now, it was exactly where she needed to be.
I listened as I sat next to her on the large comfortable sofa.
“I’ll do everything I can to help,” Penny said.
“But, Juliet, it’s up to you to make that final commitment. ”
She sat across from us, comfortable and easygoing. Then she addressed me. “Her assailant turned their bond into a power play.” She leaned forward, then added, “She needs to explore that power safely.”
Accepting what happened was a part of moving on.
This room felt safe. Small touches of healing décor sat around us.
Peace lilies and framed quotes about faith and hope.
That’s what Juliet had. Hope. The sort that drew her out of captivity and straight into my arms, even if her time away had unleashed a part of her I’d never expected.
That I didn’t know how to protect her from. That I had no business wanting.
I stayed quiet, giving her room.
The soft scent of lemongrass made my wolf skittish.
“Omegas are rare, but I’ve had extensive training,” Penny said, confidence threading through the timbre of her voice as she looked at me.
“I’ve worked through what her assailant’s manipulation brought out in her.
She’s going to be fine.” Her understanding of my protective instincts and my stubborn nature was almost as strong as my mate’s.
I nodded once, acknowledging the weight of what she was saying and the risk of leaving my alpha control unchecked.
“His manipulation of the claiming bite brought out her desire,” Penny continued. “His sadism was his way of satisfying his needs. Her being an omega coincidentally answered her call. If she needs that from you, can you do it?”
I looked lovingly at my mate. “I am her mate, and her Alpha. Her needs come before my own just as the needs of this pack come before my needs. You need never worry about whether or not her needs will be satisfied. It is the reason I exist. As an Alpha, I am also predisposed to specific needs. I can temper those needs if I must. But dominance and demanding submission is my way. Dealing a degree of pain with pleasure is also my way. Knowing I have a mate who also finds her release and pleasure in those things brings me a great sense of pride and satisfaction. I loathe the method by which the discovery was made, however.” I pulled Juliet to my side.
Her tiny hand reached over and squeezed my arm.
Penny’s smile lit up her face. “I believe we have had what we like to lovingly call a breakthrough this evening. I believe y’all are on your way to many happy and successful years as Alpha and Luna of the Iron Valor Pack.”
Juliet
That morning I was eager when I woke, amber light sprawled over the cabin’s rough-hewn walls, so bright it nearly smothered us in gold.
Bronc’s warmth, the weight of his arms, grounded me in a way I hadn’t expected, like something pure and new was possible.
The past, this murky shadow I could finally see beyond, didn’t seem to matter for the first time in longer than I could remember.
It felt like waking from a fever, the edges of reality just as surreal and soft-focused as they’d been in the strange rush of revelations after yesterday’s couple’s therapy.
That ache of shame that once dug beneath my ribs now replaced by a tremor of anticipation.
The simple fact that I no longer had to look over my shoulder in fear that Harrison might finally have found me gave me freedom to breathe.
There were words that needed saying, and they tumbled out of me like confessions as I curled into him.
Words that had seemed impossible even a week ago but were as simple and honest as air.
“I’m ready for you to mark me, Bronc. Like before.
” And his sharp, sky-bright eyes told me he understood exactly what it meant.
Our breaths seemed too loud in the stillness, mingling with the creak of settling wood and the sharp cry of a bluejay.
I didn’t know what kind of new world I’d wake to after yesterday, but it felt like it might finally be ours.
He pulled me in tighter, and I melted into him, forgetting myself the way only he could make me.
The sun was warmer than it had a right to be in late November, but I didn’t complain.
Instead, I focused on the rhythm of my Alpha’s heart and the possibilities this day opened up.
We lingered over breakfast, the scent of fresh coffee filling the cabin like an invitation.
His big hands had wrapped around mine earlier, anchoring me in his wordless way while I spilled everything I’d kept locked away.
“You sure you’re ready, Juliet?” he asked, setting a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me.
His voice was low and steady, charged with the quiet intensity that made my pulse quicken.
“After yesterday?” I met his gaze, holding it with a certainty I hadn’t felt before. “Yes.”
Penny’s office was small and dim, the leather sofa warm and intimate.
She’d looked me in the eye and told me the truth: finding pleasure in pain wasn’t wrong for an omega.
It actually wasn’t wrong for anyone, but it was intrinsically natural for omegas.
Shame and desire tangled like vines around my ribs.
My words came haltingly, as if letting them out might shatter me.
Bronc had been quiet beside me. Steady. She’d asked me how I would feel if I knew my Alpha shared that need, and I’d frozen, the room tilting around me. “Relieved,” I finally whispered.
And now, my words rushed out like they couldn’t be stopped. “I needed to hear that I’m not broken. That it’s okay for me to need what I need.”
The mug was warm in my hands as I curled my fingers around it.
We were still on this strange frontier, exploring and pushing past the limits I’d not known before.
It was terrifying and exhilarating. I set the cup down, voice trembling with new resolve.
“I needed to hear that what Harrison did wasn’t so different from many omega’s stories.
But finding out that it was shifter blood—not something damaged—that made me want pain…
it opened my eyes.” I took a deep breath, holding his gaze as if it were a lifeline.
“But make no mistake. I hated that it was his touch that my body responded to. I told him that. There was not enough scalding water to wash the shame away afterwards. No matter how hard I tried. Everything was confusion and sadness. I never stopped thinking of how much I loved you and wanted it to be your hands on me. But at least now I understand that beyond his awful bite, I know my response was an honest one. I don’t have to be ashamed because of something that was done to me. ”
The world outside was obscenely bright, the sun hanging defiantly high and white. There was an impossible lightness to it, and it almost matched the feeling inside me. I’d left so much of the past behind in that dim office.
“Juliet,” he said, his voice like a magnet pulling me back to him.
“I thought I must be broken for finding pleasure in what he did.” The admission felt like stripping myself bare.
“Sick and ashamed. But now… Now I know it’s okay.
And yesterday, when I realized that you’re the kind of Alpha who finds pleasure in giving pain…
controlled pain, and I can trust you not to take it too far…
” My words faltered as the intensity in his eyes stopped them short.
He stood, came around the small wooden table, and pulled me to my feet. His touch was as electric as ever, a surge through my skin that left me dizzy and wanting.
“I cannot wait to mark you again. To feel you in my soul.” His words were a low rumble that made my chest tighten in the best possible way.
“Since our bond was severed, I have been like a ship without a rudder, drifting endlessly at sea. Lost. With no way to find true north. Only you can bring me back.”
“I want that more than I can say.”
A smile broke across his face, a warm, genuine thing that melted any resistance that might have clung to me. He took my hands again, pulling me closer, our foreheads touching as he breathed the most beautiful words I’d ever heard.
“You’ll have it. Tonight.”
The way he said it made my skin tingle with anticipation. A promise as vivid as the sky outside the large living room window. His words echoed through me, resonating deeper than anything had in weeks. Maybe years.
“I need to make you understand,” I said, needing to tell him everything before we both went forward.
“Losing you was the most devastating moment of my life. When I woke up in that bed and reached for you through our bond and felt nothing, I thought my life was over. I knew I’d made the single biggest mistake of my life.
At that moment, I knew what hopelessness felt like. It was like losing a limb.”
“Darlin’,” he whispered, pulling back to look into my eyes. His thumb grazed my cheek with the same care he might have given a butterfly’s wing. “I’m gonna make you mine. Completely. Exactly like before, but more.”
I felt a passion that ignited fierce and wild in my chest. Gripping his arms, I felt the heat of his skin and the promise in his pulse. My own pulse raced as I told him I’d take everything he had to give me. His eyes held my gaze. “I’m desperate for your knot, Bronc. I want it. I want everything.”
He groaned low in his throat, a sound that shot straight through me. Then he caught my mouth with his, a fierce claiming that spoke all the words we didn’t need to say.
The kiss seemed to stretch the morning out, bending time until there was nothing but the pulse of our heartbeats and the warmth of his hands threading through my hair. When he finally let me go, I was trembling.
“Tonight,” he said again, a vow that left me breathless.
His arms wrapped around me, lifting me from the floor in an embrace so fierce and tight it was like he was afraid I’d disappear. It filled me with a kind of liquid warmth that soaked into every part of me.
I buried my face in his neck, inhaling the familiar, grounding scent of him. “We’re going to be the Alpha and Luna this pack deserves,” I said, and I heard the conviction in my voice. The certainty.
He set me down, his eyes burning with something raw and open that mirrored my own. “The way fate ordained.”
I nodded, unable to find words, but they didn’t matter. I could feel his confidence and love in my heart, meeting the wild hope in my chest.
“You know how I hate waiting.” I whined.
His low laugh was a rumble beneath my palms. “You’re killin’ me, Juliet. But I want everything to be perfect. I have some preparations to make. There is a room in this house you haven’t seen. I was waiting for the right moment. It seems that moment will arrive this evening.”
My mind raced as I tried to figure out where this hidden room could be.
Honestly, I’d not explored the entire large cabin.
There hadn’t been time for that. But my anticipation was heightened, and I felt light as air, reckless with anticipation, as if daring the world to hold us back.
“I need to work on my curiosity. I never thought of exploring while I was home alone.”
“It’s not even hidden, sweetheart. You just didn’t pay attention to the door. You’ll see soon enough.”
The day was a shimmering promise that sealed itself around the edges of the world until there was no past and no shame. There was only Bronc and me and the bright certainty that tonight I’d become his, wholly and completely.