21. Chapter 21
The compound settled into uneasy silence after the meeting dispersed. Wolves moved through the darkness with purpose, preparing for what would come in three weeks. Nadia watched from Rhys’s doorway, her arms wrapped around herself against the wind.
At the far edge of the tree line, a single figure stood at the border. Pale eyes. Solid. Still. The Thornwood wolf she’d noticed before. But he wasn’t facing Blackridge. He was turned half away, watching the trail his own pack’s wolves had taken back toward Garrett’s compound.
Calculating contingencies the way he always did when fear threatened to overwhelm tactical thinking.
She could feel his tension. The way his wolf prowled beneath his skin, desperate to protect what it had claimed but unable to guarantee her safety.
“Come inside.” His tone was low. “You’re freezing.”
Nadia turned, finding him silhouetted against the lamplight. The scars on his face were shadows and edges, his weight braced against the doorframe to spare the side that hurt. Beautiful and damaged and hers.
She stepped inside. Let him close the door behind her, shutting out the compound and the preparations and the knowledge that everything could change tomorrow when they finalized the plan with Jace.
“I can hear you thinking.” She crossed to him slowly. “Feel your wolf pacing.”
“Can’t help it?” His hands found her waist, pulling her close. “Every instinct I have is screaming at me to lock you somewhere safe and face Thornwood alone.”
“But you won’t.”
“No.” His breath ghosted across her temple. “Because you’d never forgive me.”
Nadia pressed her face against his chest, breathing in his scent. Pine and snow and the musk that belonged only to him. “I’m terrified.”
“Good.” His arms tightened around her. “Fear keeps you sharp. Keeps you from making stupid mistakes.”
“Is that what you tell yourself?” She pulled back enough to meet his eyes. “When you’re afraid?”
“I tell myself that losing you would destroy me. That I need to be smarter and faster and better than I’ve been since the ambush. That if I fail you, ”
She kissed him. Hard enough to stop the spiral of self-recrimination she could feel building in him.
When she pulled back, his pupils were blown wide and his breathing unsteady.
“You won’t fail me.” Her hands framed his face, thumbs tracing the scars she’d memorized. “You’ve never failed me. Not once since I crossed into Blackridge territory.”
“I’m not the wolf you deserve.”
“You’re exactly the wolf I need.” She kissed him again, softer this time. “The one who gave me space when I needed it. Who let me find connection instead of forcing it. Who’s teaching me to fight instead of trying to fight for me.”
Rhys closed his eyes for a long moment. He’d held himself back from her since the day he’d scented her on the border. The holding back was the only habit he had with her. He felt it crack now. Against his will. He couldn’t stop it. He found, when he checked, that he didn’t want to.
His forehead dropped against hers. “I love you.”
The words were quiet. Rough with emotion he’d been carrying.
The sound punched through her. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” His hands cupped her face. “Have since the first time I caught your scent and my wolf woke up after two years of silence. Love you more every day you stay?”
Heat flooded her chest. Not just desire, but something deeper. Something that felt like safety and home and the future she’d stopped believing she could have.
“I love you too.” The confession came easier than she’d expected. “Didn’t want to. Fought against it because love meant vulnerability and vulnerability meant pain. But you made it impossible not to.”
His breath left him in a rush. He pressed his forehead against hers, and they stood like that, breathing each other’s air, something vibrating between them like a plucked string. She felt his heartbeat through their clothes. Felt the heat coming off his skin in waves.
Outside, a wolf called once from the boundary line.
Patrol change. The sound should have been ordinary.
It wasn’t, not this week. They both heard it.
Neither of them moved. They were listening for a second howl that meant trouble at the border.
The kind that would end the night. There was only silence.
“Tomorrow we finalize the plan,” she whispered. “But tonight is ours.”
His hands slid into her hair. Not gentle. Not careful. He gripped and tilted her head back, baring her throat, and pressed his open mouth against her pulse. The scrape of teeth against her skin made her knees buckle.
He caught her weight. Held her up with the arm around her waist while his mouth moved down her throat, tasting the hollow above her collarbone, the ridge of her shoulder, every inch of skin between her jaw and the collar of her shirt.
“Rhys.” She was already shaking. Already wet. Already his.
He kissed her then.
He lowered his head, letting the motion hang open long enough that she could turn aside.
She did not.
Their mouths met, careful at first. Testing. Then, deep and desperate, his hands sliding into her hair.
It went taut between them.
Nadia’s fingers found the hem of his shirt. “I don’t want to talk about the plan.”
“What do you want?” His voice dropped against her mouth. His thumb traced the inside of her wrist where her pulse fluttered.
“You.” She pulled back enough to meet his eyes. “All of you. Not the warrior trying to prove himself. Not the tactician calculating every risk. Just you.”
His expression cracked open.
“Okay.” He caught her hand, threading their fingers together. “Come here.”
He led her to the bedroom, moving slowly despite the urgency thrumming between them. Inside, he turned to face her, his hands gentle as they found her waist.
“Tell me what you need.” His thumb traced her hip bone through her shirt. “Tell me what you want.”
“Everything.” Nadia’s hands slid beneath his shirt, feeling the muscles that still trembled from exertion. “Want to memorize how you feel. Want to know what it’s like when you let go.”
His breath shuddered out. “I might hurt you.”
“You won’t.” She pulled his shirt over his head, baring the scarred landscape of his chest. “Your wolf knows me. Knows I’m yours.”
“Mine.” The word came out possessive. Hungry.
“Yours.” She kissed the scar that bisected his collarbone. “Show me.”
Rhys’s control fractured. His hands found the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head with careful urgency. His gaze tracked over her skin, pupils dilating as he took in the sight of her.
“Beautiful.” “Every part of you.”
Nadia’s fingers found his belt. “Then stop looking and touch me.”
He groaned, his hands sliding up her ribs to cup her breasts. His thumbs found her nipples through the thin fabric of her bra, circling until she gasped.
“Like that?”
“Yes.” She arched into his touch. “More.”
He unhooked her bra with practiced ease, tossing it aside before lowering his mouth to her breast. The first touch of his tongue made her knees weak. She gripped his shoulders, feeling the muscles bunch beneath her palms as he lavished attention on her sensitive flesh.
“Rhys, ”
“I know.” He switched to her other breast, his hands sliding down to unfasten her jeans. “Need to taste all of you.”
He knelt slowly, the joint catching as he moved, but his focus remained on her. He pulled her jeans down her legs, helping her step out of them before pressing his face against her stomach.
“You smell like mine.” The words came muffled against her skin. “Like pack and home and everything I thought I’d lost.”
Nadia’s fingers threaded through his hair. “Then claim me properly.”
He looked up at her, his eyes dark with hunger and something deeper. “You sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
He hooked his fingers in her underwear, pulling them down slowly. His breath ghosted across her inner thigh, making her shiver. When he pressed his mouth against her center, she nearly collapsed.
“Easy.” His hands gripped her hips, steadying her. “I’ve got you.”
He did. His tongue found her clit with devastating precision, circling and sucking until pleasure built in waves. Nadia’s fingers tightened in his hair, her hips rocking against his mouth as he worked her higher.
“Rhys, I’m, ”
“Come for me.” “Let me taste it.”
The orgasm hit hard. Nadia cried out, her body shaking as pleasure crashed through her. Rhys held her steady, his mouth gentling as she came down.
When she could breathe again, she pulled him to his feet. “Bed. Now.”
He limped toward the bed, his arousal obvious through his jeans. Nadia followed, her body still humming with aftershocks. She pushed him down onto the mattress, straddling his hips as she reached for his belt.
“Your turn.” Her fingers made quick work of his jeans, freeing his erection. “Want to make you feel what you did to me.”
“Nadia—” His voice broke as she wrapped her hand around him. “You don’t have to, ”
“I want to.” Her hand closed around him, her grip sure now. “Want to know what you taste like. Want to memorize every sound you make.”
She lowered her mouth to him, taking him deep. Rhys’s hips jerked, his hands fisting in the sheets as she worked him with lips and tongue and gentle suction. His breathing turned ragged, his wolf surfacing in his eyes.
“Stop.” The word was strangled. “Need to be inside you when I come.”
Nadia released him, crawling up his body to kiss him deeply. “Then take me.”
He flipped them with surprising strength, settling between her thighs. His erection pressed against her entrance, hot and hard and perfect.
“Last chance to change your mind.” His tone strained. “Once I claim you like this, ”
“I’m already yours.” She wrapped her legs around his hips. “Now make it official.”
He entered her slowly, giving her body time to adjust. The stretch was intense, pleasure edging toward pain before settling into fullness. Nadia gasped, her nails digging into his shoulders as he seated himself completely.
“Okay?” His forehead pressed against hers. “Need you to tell me, ”
“Perfect.” She rocked her hips, drawing a groan from his chest. “Move.”
He did. Long, slow thrusts that built heat between them. His weight shifted to favor the better side, but his rhythm never faltered.
Nadia met him stroke for stroke, her body learning his.
“Harder.” She bit his shoulder. “Stop treating me like I’ll break.”
His control snapped. He drove into her with desperate intensity, his hips snapping against hers. The sound of skin on skin filled the room, punctuated by their breathing and the soft cries Nadia couldn’t contain.
“Mine.” Rhys’s teeth grazed her shoulder. “Say it.”
“Yours.” She clenched around him. “Always yours.”
He reached between them, his thumb finding her clit. The added stimulation sent her spiraling. Her second orgasm built faster, sharper, until she was shaking beneath him.
“Come with me.” His rhythm turned erratic. “Need to feel you, ”
She came with a cry, her body clenching around him. Rhys followed immediately, his release pulsing deep inside her as he buried his face in her neck.
They stayed locked together, breathing hard, until their hearts slowed. When Rhys finally pulled out, he rolled to his side and gathered her close.
“That was, ” “I don’t have words.”
“Me either.” Nadia pressed against him, feeling his spend leak between her thighs. “But I want to do it again.”
He laughed, the sound rusty but genuine. “Give me ten minutes.”
She traced the scars on his chest, following the paths she’d memorized. “Tell me something true.”
“What do you mean?”
“Something you’ve never told anyone else.” She looked up at him. “Something that’s just for me.”
His expression softened. “When I caught your scent that first night, I thought my wolf was dying. The way it surged awake hurt so much I couldn’t breathe. And my first thought wasn’t that I’d found my mate, it was that I’d finally found a reason to heal?”
Tears pricked Nadia’s eyes. “That’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
“It’s the truth.” He kissed her forehead. “You made me want to be back in my body. Whole in a shape that still carries the damage. The wolf who stands at your side, not in your way.”
“You already do.” She kissed his scarred chest. “Every day.”
“When this is over,” Rhys asked it quietly. “When Thornwood’s pinned to the council record and Garrett can’t cross our border, what do you want?”
Nadia considered. “A future. A real one, where I’m not constantly looking over my shoulder. Where I can build something that’s mine.”
“What kind of something?”
“I don’t know yet.” She smiled against his skin. “But I want time to figure it out. Want to learn what I’m good at beyond surviving.”
His arms tightened around her. “We’ll make that happen.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” He tilted her face up to kiss her. “We survive tomorrow. Finalize the plan. Train until you’re ready. And then we show Thornwood that wolves who choose freedom are worth fighting for.”
“And after?”
“After, we build the future you want.” His hand cupped her face. “Together.”
Nadia kissed him again, slow and deep. What carried between them now was certainty. Not just connection, but commitment.
Not just survival, but the promise of everything that could come after.
Rhys pulled her closer, his breathing evening out as exhaustion claimed him. Nadia stayed awake a little longer, memorizing the feel of him.
The warmth of his skin. The steady beat of his heart. The way his wolf eased into stillness when she was close.
Outside, the compound was still moving in pieces. A door closing in the lodge. Boots in the yard. A patrol leaving for the eastern line. The pack knew what was coming. She listened to it the way she listened to him.
For this one quiet stretch, they had already won.