28. Chapter 28
Three weeks later, Nadia found Rhys in the training yard, watching Sage work with the Thornwood refugees. His leg was braced against the fence, taking weight without flinching.
The limp remained, but the pain had lessened. Or maybe he’d just learned to carry it better.
She moved to stand beside him, her shoulder brushing his arm.
“They’re doing well.” She nodded toward the refugees. “Getting stronger.”
“They are.” Pride colored his voice. “Takes courage to start over.”
“I need to ask you something.” The words came steadier than she’d expected. “About claiming.”
His body went still. His attention sharpened, focused entirely on her.
“All right.” He turned to face her fully. “What do you want to know?”
“What it means to you?” She met his gaze. “Not pack tradition or ceremony. What it means when you think about claiming me.”
He didn’t answer right away, his expression turning thoughtful.
“Permanence.” Rhys held her gaze. “A mark that can’t be undone, even if we wanted to. Which I wouldn’t.”
“What else?”
“Visibility.” He reached up, his fingers gentle on her jaw. “Telling every wolf who sees us that you’re mine and I’m yours. That we claimed each other.”
“And?” She leaned into his touch.
“Equality.” His thumb traced her cheekbone. “Marking each other. Not me taking ownership, but both of us sealing what we’ve built.”
She felt his honesty pulse between them. His certainty. His desperate hope that she wanted this too.
“I’m ready.” Her voice rang clear. “I want to be claimed. Want to claim you back.”
He closed his eyes. “Nadia, ”
“I spent years believing I had to stay hidden to survive.” She covered his hand with hers. “That being visible meant being vulnerable. But hiding didn’t keep me safe. You did.”
“Not just me.” His tone dropped low. “You kept yourself safe. I just stood beside you.”
“You taught me that being marked doesn’t mean being owned.” She turned her face to kiss his palm.
“It doesn’t.” His arm tightened around her. “Never with us.”
“So claim me.” She looked up at him. “Publicly. In front of the pack. Show everyone what a real partnership looks like.”
His love hit her like warmth through glass. Pride and certainty and the overwhelming relief that she’d just offered everything he’d been afraid to ask for.
“When?” The word came barely above a whisper.
“Tomorrow night.” She smiled. “Unless you need more time, ”
“I don’t need more time.” He kissed her hard. “I’ve been ready since the moment I scented you on the border.”
“Then tomorrow.” She pressed her forehead to his. “We’ll do this right.”
The clearing behind the main lodge filled with pack members as the sun set. Maren had helped Nadia dress. Not in ceremonial robes, but in simple clothes that let her move freely.
Combat boots and fitted jeans. A soft sweater that bared her throat.
“You look perfect.” Maren squeezed her hand. “Strong and beautiful and absolutely terrifying.”
“I’m shaking.” Nadia admitted.
“You stood in front of every pack at the hearing and made your case.” Maren set a hand on her arm. “This is just your family watching you claim your future.”
“That’s what makes it terrifying.” But she smiled as she said it.
Jace stood at the clearing’s center, his expression unreadable. The pack formed a loose circle around him, giving space for the ceremony. Nadia caught sight of Sage near the back, her face fierce with approval.
Then Rhys stepped into the clearing, and everything else faded.
He’d dressed simply too. Dark jeans and a black shirt that emphasized his shoulders. His face was calm, but she could feel anticipation rolling off him in waves. His love. His absolute certainty that this was right.
She walked toward him, her steps steady. The pack watched in silence, witnesses to something that would bind her permanently to this man, this pack, this future.
“Nadia Garcia.” Jace’s words carried over the clearing. “You come here freely?”
“I do.”
“Rhys Alston.” Jace turned to him. “You offer this freely?”
“I do.” Rhys’s gaze never left Nadia’s face.
“Then speak your intentions.” Jace stepped back. “Let the pack hear what you’re claiming.”
Rhys took her hands. His grip was warm and steady.
“I claim you as my mate.” His voice thickened with emotion. “Not because you’re omega and I’m alpha. Not because tradition demands it. But because you taught me that healing is possible. That strength can be gentle. That love doesn’t have to hurt.”
She felt everything he wasn’t saying. How she’d given him a reason to walk again. To fight again. To believe he could be more than his injuries.
“I claim you as my equal.” He continued. “My partner. The wolf who stands beside me, not behind me. I promise to protect your right to decide. To support your strength. To love you exactly as you are.”
His thumb traced circles on her palm, grounding them both.
“I promise being claimed by me will never mean being owned.” His voice went raw. “Standing beside me does not make you small. It makes us stronger.”
Nadia’s throat tightened. She’d prepared words, but they suddenly felt inadequate. Two neutral packs had already sent formal inquiries about Blackridge’s sanctuary model. A third had quietly shifted its trade routes east.
“I claim you as my mate.” She squeezed his hands. “Because you showed me that alphas can be patient, that dominance isn’t the same as strength, that a wolf can heal from things that should have ended him.”
His love surged against her so hard it stole her breath.
“I claim you as mine.” Her voice steadied. “Not something forced on me. Not something I accepted because I had no other option. But something I want. Something I’m taking freely, in front of witnesses, because you deserve to know that I’m yours by will, not by obligation.”
“And I promise—” She had to pause, emotion threatening to close her throat. “I promise to trust you with my fear. To let you stand beside me when I’m strong and catch me when I’m not. To build a future where being omega means power, not something to be owned and counted.”
Rhys’s face was wet. He didn’t bother hiding it.
“Then speak your promise where the pack can see it.” Jace said it gently. “This is the vow. The rest belongs to the two of you.”
Rhys pulled her closer, his hand cradling the back of her neck.
His mouth found the spot where her throat met her shoulder, the place that would carry his mark when they finished this in private.
He pressed his lips there, slow and deliberate, a promise without the bite, and the pack saw it for what it was.
“Soon.” He murmured against her skin. “Where it’s just us?”
She tilted her head and let the pack see the shape of the trust. “Where it counts?”
The pack watched her bare her throat for him without a single wolf moving to question it. That was the vow they had come for. Not blood. Witness.
When Rhys eased back, his eyes had gone wolf-bright, but his touch remained gentle. He brushed his thumb across the place his teeth had not gone. The pack saw the restraint, and that was a vow too.
“Your turn.” His voice dropped to a rasp. “Make me the same promise.”
She rose on her toes and pressed her mouth to the same place on his throat. Not the bite. Not yet. The promise of it. She felt him swallow beneath her lips, his body tense with anticipation that was nowhere near release.
When she pulled back, Rhys was watching her like she had already given him everything. The pack saw that too.
Jace rejoined the circle. The pack stilled with him.
“Witnessed and accepted.” Jace’s voice carried satisfaction. “Pack recognizes Nadia and Rhys as mates. The rest belongs to them, where it is meant to belong.”
The pack erupted in celebration. Wolves howling approval, voices raised in congratulations. But Nadia only had eyes for Rhys.
“We’re recognized.” Wonder colored his voice. “In front of every wolf who matters.”
“We are.” She touched the place on his throat where her mouth had been, feeling it pulse beneath the skin. “How does it feel?”
“Right.” He kissed her softly. “Like everything finally makes sense.”
They left the celebration together. The pack noise stayed behind them, loud and warm and slowly fading with every step down the trail.
Rhys kept his pace slow, slower than her urgency would have walked alone.
He matched her, the way he had been matching her since the border.
Letting the night carry them at the speed she chose.
They barely made it inside his quarters before the need came back. The promise they had made in the clearing burned in both of them, demanding the part the pack had not seen. Physical connection. The bite that would finish this where it counted.
Rhys backed her against the door the moment it closed, his mouth finding hers with desperate hunger.
“Need you.” “Need to finish this.”
“Yes.” She pulled at his shirt. “Please.”
They stripped each other frantically, clothes falling away until nothing separated them. Rhys lifted her easily, his leg bracing them both as he carried her to the bed.
“Your leg—” Her protest cut off.
“Is fine?” He laid her down gently. “Stop worrying about my leg and let me worship my mate.”
The word sent heat through her. Mate. Not possession. Not property. Partnership.
He kissed down her throat, his mouth lingering where the bite would land. The sensation shot straight through her, every nerve lit and singing.
“Rhys.” Her hands found his shoulders. “Please.”
“I know.” He kissed lower, his mouth finding her breast. “I’ve got you.”
His hands mapped her body with reverent attention. Learning her curves, her sensitive places, the spots that made her gasp. She arched into his touch, her own hands exploring the landscape of his back.
When he finally settled between her thighs, she was already trembling.
“Look at me.” His tone dropped low. “Want to see you when we complete this.”
She met his gaze, seeing everything reflected there. Love and desire and absolute certainty that this was right.
He pushed inside slowly, giving her time to adjust. The sensation was overwhelming. Physical pleasure layered with an intensity that blurred the line between his body and hers.
She could feel his pleasure mixing with hers, climbing on top of itself, threatening to consume them both.
“Move.” She dug her nails into his shoulders. “Please move.”
He obeyed, his hips rolling in steady rhythm. Each thrust drove deeper, the angle perfect, the friction exactly what she needed.
She felt his control fraying. His wolf demanding he claim harder, faster, more. But he held back, keeping his movements measured despite the instinct screaming at him to let go.
“Stop being careful.” She pulled him down for a kiss. “I won’t break.”
“I know.” He nipped her lower lip. “But I want to savor this. Want to remember every second of claiming my mate properly.”
His hand slid between them, fingers finding the place that made her cry out. He stroked in time with his thrusts, building pleasure with devastating precision.
“Come for me.” His voice was command and plea together. “Want to feel you fall apart.”
Orgasm crashed through her. She felt her pleasure and his at the same time, the sensation doubling, his climbing into her until there was no telling them apart. Her body clenched around him, pulling him deeper.
Rhys groaned, his control finally breaking.
His thrusts turned harder, faster, and at the edge of his own release his mouth found the spot at the junction of her throat and shoulder, the place he had promised the pack he would not take until it was just them.
His teeth sank in. The bond ignited bidirectionally.
Heartbeat folding into heartbeat. Breathing into breathing.
His pleasure mixing with hers until she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began, the permanence underneath it all locking in at once.
She bit him back when his teeth eased free of her skin, finding the matching place on his throat. Blood on her tongue. Copper and salt and him. It closed tight between them, permanent in a way no ceremony could have given them.
He collapsed beside her carefully, his breathing ragged. Their fingers linked without either of them looking.
“That was—” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Perfect.” She supplied. “That was perfect.”
His satisfaction radiated from every point where their bodies touched. His love. The quiet, stunned wonder that this was real.
“The mark suits you.” She traced the claiming bite on his throat. “Everyone will know you’re taken.”
“Good.” He kissed her knuckles. “Want every wolf to know I’m yours.”
“Yours and mine.” She corrected. “We claimed each other.”
“We did.” Wonder colored his voice. “Equals in everything.”
She curled against his side, her head on his chest. His heartbeat was steady beneath her ear, the warmth humming contentedly between them.
“What happens now?” She asked quietly.
“Now we build the future we promised.” His arm tightened around her. “Help more refugees find safety. Strengthen our alliances. Show other packs what real partnership looks like.”
“Sounds like work.”
“It will be.” He kissed the top of her head. “But we’ll do it together.”
“I love you.” The words came easier each time she said them. “My mate.”
“I love you too.” The words came thick with everything he felt. “My partner. My equal.”
Outside, the celebration continued. Pack wolves honoring what they’d witnessed. But inside Rhys’s quarters, the world narrowed to just the two of them.
But Rhys had shown her differently. Had proven that being claimed could mean being wanted. That permanence could mean security rather than imprisonment. That visibility made her powerful instead of weak.
She was Nadia Alston now. Mated omega. Partner to a warrior who’d learned that strength could be gentle. Voice for wolves who hadn’t yet learned to speak.
And she was exactly where she belonged.
“Sleep.” Rhys was already drowsy. “We’ve got the rest of our lives to figure everything else out.”
“Promise?” Her cheek pressed into his chest, smiling.
“Promise.” He pulled the blanket over them both. “We’ve got each other now. That’s all we need.”
For this one stolen hour, they could rest. Could hold each other and remember why they’d fought so hard.
They’d found each other freely. Had claimed their partnership in front of witnesses. Had proven that love was stronger than possession.
And they were home.