Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Viper hadn’t slept this deeply in years. Maybe ever. No nightmares. No cold sweats. No ghostly memories clawing at the edge of his subconscious. Just peace wrapped in heat and the solid weight of Ward tangled around him.
He blinked against the early gray light slipping through the crannóg’s shutters and found Ward’s face nestled into the curve of his shoulder, lashes still fanned across his cheeks and his lips slightly parted in sleep.
A tiny crease tugged between his brows, like even his dreams came with questions and consequences.
Viper reached up and smoothed his thumb along the line, watching the tension melt away.
How the hell did this man get under my skin so fast?
No. That wasn’t right. Ward hadn’t gotten under his skin—he’d carved himself a space in his heart, and Viper didn’t know how the hell to separate where Ward ended and he began.
The mating mark across his chest pulsed, low and slow, in tune with the man in his arms. He’d never felt anything like this.
Not even close. He wasn’t quite sure what would happen if they managed to get back to their own time and universe, but he was starting to hope that what was between Ward and him would thrive in that realm, too.
Because he found himself in the unnerving situation of not wanting to find out what it would be like to go on with his life without the mate he’d never known he needed in it.
He exhaled slowly and pressed his mouth to the top of Ward’s head.
Thank fuck I didn’t wake him .
Ward sighed softly and tucked himself closer, like he knew this was the safest place on earth.
Viper tightened his arms around him. He didn’t understand how he could be so fiercely protective and wildly unprepared for how much Ward mattered.
Last night hadn’t been just sex. It hadn’t even been caused solely by the bond.
It had been a fucking revolution inside his soul.
One Ward had lit on fire and then handed him the matchbook as if to say, ‘Set the bed on fire with me or don’t bother starting this thing between us at all. ’
I’m surprised we still have furs at all.
Because we brought some serious heat in here last night, for sure.
“Stop thinking so loud,” Ward mumbled sleepily against his chest.
Viper huffed a breath, amused and a little in awe. “You spying on my thoughts now?”
“Not on purpose.” Ward’s arm curled tighter around his waist. “They’re just loud. Like a radar pinging through the bond or static that won’t stop.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Ward blinked up at him. “It’s nice. Hearing someone think about me and not want to run the other way.” He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and flexed his back, groaning. “But I think I threw my back out at some point, because damn, I ache so good.”
Viper chuckled and preened just a little before he tipped Ward’s chin up and kissed him, slow and unhurried. “Not going anywhere. Not unless you make me.”
“Good. Because I’m not done with you yet.” Ward’s smile turned wicked. “There’s this position I read about that I want to—eep.”
Viper rolled onto his back, dragging Ward with him until he lay sprawled half across his chest, all warm limbs and sleep-mussed hair.
“Is that right?” He never wanted to stop touching him.
A thumb brushed the back of Ward’s neck, a palm settled low on his spine, and a lazy stroke of fingers across the glowing mark still etched across his ribs that marked him as his.
Ward tilted his head and traced the edge of the mating mark that wrapped around Viper’s chest. “Still glowing,” he murmured.
“Yeah.” Viper watched the lines pulse faintly. “Think it’s gonna do that forever?”
“Maybe.” Ward’s voice was hushed and thoughtful. “Or maybe it settles once it’s sure we’re not about to bolt.”
Viper’s lips quirked. “You planning on bolting?”
“Not unless you give me a reason to.”
“Same.”
Silence stretched for a long moment, but it was full somehow, as if what was between them didn’t need to be filled with words when the bond hummed so clearly between their skin.
Ward shifted up on one elbow, eyes dark and serious. “Do you… um… worry that it’s too much?”
“The bond?”
“Us.”
Viper didn’t hesitate. “Every second.” He couldn’t explain it to himself, so he had no idea if he could explain it to someone else, never mind Ward.
“I’ve survived a dozen deployments. I’ve been shot, burned, and once I damn near got blown to bits.
But there’s nothing that scares the shit out of me like waking up next to you and realizing very little in this world, or any world, matters quite so much as keeping you safe does. ”
Ward’s eyes flared, wide and stunned. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. “Wow.”
“Yeah, well,” Viper muttered, “don’t get used to the poetry. It’s a one-time deal.”
Ward leaned in and kissed him again. “I don’t need poetry. I just need you.”
Fuck. This man is going to break me in the best way.
A soft knock echoed from the door. Then Zero’s voice, half-muffled and way too chipper for so early in the morning, filtered through. “If you two lovebirds are still rolling in the furs, send a smoke signal when it’s safe to approach. Kaze tried to open the door earlier and got growled at.”
Viper groaned. “Tell him next time I’m throwing a knife.”
“Please do. But only after you send coffee to me.”
“Go ask Oisín for coffee,” he yelled. “I gave them some of ours and they promised they’d see if they could reproduce it with magic.”
“But, Boss, magic coffee might not be as good as coffee, coffee,” Kaze whined.
Viper moved an arm up to cover his eyes and groaned. “The bastards are doing this on purpose. I’m going to kill them.”
Ward chuckled and flopped back against Viper’s side. “I guess we have to get up.”
“Eventually.”
Knock. Knock
This time, Juice’s voice: “Viper, Trace and I need to talk to you and Ward about the portal.”
Portal?
Well fuck.
He already knew that his 2IC wasn’t going to leave without an answer. He tensed under Ward’s weight. “Give us ten,” he called out.
“Got it.”
He winked at Ward who raised an eyebrow and asked, “Portal?”
He nodded. “Looks like the real world’s knocking again.” There should be a rule about being allowed a day off when your whole world had imploded, your heart had found the only one it would ever want, and you’d had the most epic, blow-your-mind sex of your life.
Ward sighed and rolled upright, rubbing a hand through his hair. “It was nice while it lasted.”
He caught his wrist and tugged him close to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “It’s not over.”
There was something raw and vulnerable in Ward’s gaze. “Promise?”
“I promise.” Viper tugged him in for one last kiss.
“I don’t break promises.” As soon as he said it, he figured it might be better to explain how things worked on their team for displays of affection.
“I may not be touchy-feely in front of the guys, because I’m their CO.
There are levels of protocols and shit that we have to maintain.
But when it’s you and me, then all bets are off. ”
“Makes sense.”
By the time they’d dressed and stepped into the pale light of morning, Dun Fianna had already started shifting into that strange rhythm Viper was coming to recognize—equal parts ritual and readiness.
Warriors patrolled with their eyes sharp and their shoulders squared.
The air carried the weight of something unsaid, as if a storm was being held off by sheer force of will or waiting to drown them in a downpour.
Juice stood with Trace near the fire pit.
From the changing expressions on their faces, Viper knew they were talking through the mate bond in their heads.
Kaze and Reaper lingered nearby, quiet for once, and Zero was perched on a stone with his ever-present knife and a piece of wood he’d been carving down to a spike.
Viper caught the look on Trace’s face—serious and thoughtful, with a hard-edge riding just under the surface—and silently cursed.
Fuck.
He pulled Ward in tighter beside him before they joined the others. “Problem?” he asked as he came up beside Juice.
“Maybe.” Trace’s voice carried that eerie calm he always had before shit got real. “We’ve been talking with Fionn about a possible way home.”
“Not sure we want the way home yet,” Reaper said with a glance toward the woods. “Still too many questions here.”
“If we do manage to get home,” Zero added, “how do we explain away how we survived a volcanic blast?”
“We can worry about the nitty gritty of what to tell the brass later, and I wasn’t talking about abandoning anything.
” Juice shook his head. “But the Fianna… they once built something called a Fianna Door. It was a controlled portal. Less like the rift we came through and more like a bridge that only answers to certain keys.”
“A key made of what?” Ward wanted to know.
“Magic,” Trace answered. “Blood. Song. Sometimes it was the name of the warrior who stood as the anchor to open the portal. Sometimes it’s a bond between mates or family.”
“You’re saying we could build one,” Viper said slowly. “A way to travel between this world and ours intentionally?”
“That’s the theory.” Juice’s mouth was a grim line. “I think Fionn hopes we’ll stay. But I say that’s not a decision anyone else gets to make for us.”
“Agreed.” There was a reason why Juice was his second in command. This conversation was a demonstration of one of those reasons.
Ward crossed his arms. “You think we could actually build one? That the magic here would allow it?”
“I don’t see why not.” Trace shrugged. “There was a time when we lived on your side of the veil, and Oisín was doing a line with a fairy called Niamh of the golden hair. They created a portal that was big enough to bring her horse through multiple times. So if we can find a suitable anchor key, I don’t see why we can’t give it a shot. ”