Chapter 33
Nadia
The medic checks Jericho’s back one more time. Runs her fingers along where deep dragon claw wounds were just yesterday. Now there are only faint pink lines. Already fading.
“Remarkable,” she mutters. “Dragon healing is always impressive, but this is exceptional. You should still take it easy for another few days, but…” She steps back. “You’re cleared to leave medical.”
I breathe out slowly. He’s okay. Really okay.
The medic leaves. Jericho stands from the examination table. Stretches carefully. Testing his range of motion.
“How does it feel?” I ask.
“Good. Almost normal.” He rolls his shoulders. No wince. No hesitation.
“Almost?” I step closer. Check the healing wounds myself, even though the medic just did. I can’t help it. “Are you sure you shouldn’t stay another day—”
“Nadia.” He catches my hand gently. “I’m fine.”
“You died. Two days ago, you died, and now you’re walking around as if nothing happened.”
“Dragon metabolism.” He’s smiling slightly. Amused by my concern. “We heal fast.”
“Still.” I don’t let go of his hand. “You should rest. Be careful.”
“I will.” His thumb strokes over my skin. “But I don’t need to stay in medical. I’d rather be somewhere more comfortable.”
Somewhere more comfortable. My quarters. Where Viktor gave him permission to stay.
The significance of that hasn’t escaped me. Viktor sees us as a couple. Aurora sees us as a couple. The official permission for Jericho to share my quarters is Aurora’s acknowledgment of what’s between us.
Now we need to make it real.
The thought sends heat through me. Anticipation mixed with nervousness. We’ve danced around this since the mountains. Since the training facility. But now there’s nothing stopping us.
“Let’s go,” I say.
We walk through Aurora’s corridors. People watch us. Some nod respectfully. Others stare. Word has spread about what Jericho did. The hybrid rescue. Going back for Kaylin when he could have escaped. Nearly dying to save people he didn’t know.
Aurora sees him differently now. Not as the Syndicate defector accused of murder. As someone who proved himself through action.
My quarters are on the accommodation level. Private. Comfortable. Familiar in a different way now that I’m going to be sharing them with him.
We step inside. The door closes behind us. Suddenly, the space feels smaller. More intimate. We’re truly alone for the first time since he woke up.
Both of us turn to face each other at the same moment. Both start speaking simultaneously.
“I need to—” “We should—”
We stop. A beat of silence. Then I almost laugh despite the tension. “You first.”
He takes a breath. His eyes hold mine. “While I was unconscious. I heard you. Heard what you said to the nurse who tried to treat me. You called me your mate.”
My heart skips. Of course he heard that. My wolf had been so protective. So possessive. I’d threatened the nurse for touching him.
“I need to know if I heard correctly,” he continues. “Is that what you believe? What you feel?”
I could deny it. Could claim he was delirious. Could buy more time.
But there’s no point. We both know the truth.
“Yes.” The word comes out firm. Clear. “You’re my mate.”
His expression shifts. Something vulnerable and powerful at once.
“I was confused for so long,” I continue. “Everything got muddled with Chance’s death. With the guilt and the grief and the anger. I didn’t know how to separate what I felt for you from everything else.” I step closer. “But now I know. My wolf knows. You’re mine.”
“What about Chance?” He asks it gently. “How does this—us—affect that?”
The question deserves honesty. Complete honesty.
“Chance is dead.” The words are painful but true.
“But I’m alive. You didn’t pull the trigger, and you didn’t send him into danger knowing it would kill him specifically.
You operated under orders to fight a battle you believed in, just as Chance did.
You were both soldiers following commands from leadership you trusted.
” I reach up. Touch his face. “War is the real enemy here. And the evil men who put good men into battle for their own ends. Those men killed Chance, not you.”
He closes his eyes. Breathes like I’ve lifted a weight he’s been carrying.
“I forgive you,” I say quietly. “For whatever part you played. For the order you gave that led to his death. I forgive you because you’re not the monster I thought you were. You’re a good man who made terrible choices in service of what you believed was right. And you’re trying to be better now.”
When he opens his eyes, they’re shining with emotion. “You’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
“I knew from the beginning,” he says. “Before we even met. I was being transported to Aurora in a convoy. We were moving through the mountains, and I felt like we were being watched. Then I saw a wolf. Gray and silver. Watching us from the ridge.” He cups my face.
“It was you. I didn’t know it then. But my dragon did.
He recognized you even from that distance. ”
The memory surfaces. The day I’d seen him in the Aurora convoy. Watched the dragon prisoner they were transporting. Felt something pull at me when I looked at him.
“I remember,” I whisper. “I felt it too. I just fought it. It’s been so complicated, you know? Not just Chance, but…” My lips twitch wryly. “You’re a dragon. It was… unexpected.”
“Species doesn’t matter—dragon, wolf, human. When two souls are meant to be, they know.” His thumbs brush my cheekbones. “You’re mine. I’m yours. Nothing else matters.”
The certainty in his voice breaks something open in my chest. All the resistance. All the denial. It floods out and leaves only truth.
“Kiss me,” I whisper.
He does. Gentle at first. Like he’s still afraid I’ll pull away. But I don’t. I press closer. Deepen the kiss. Pour everything I’ve been holding back into it.
His hands slide into my hair. Mine find his shoulders. The kiss turns hungry. Desperate. Weeks of denial and restraint burning away. We’re breathless when we break apart.
“Come with me,” I say. Take his hand. Lead him toward my sleeping area.
We move slowly now, the urgency shifting to something deeper. More deliberate. My heart is in my throat, because I know. I know… This isn’t just sex. This is claiming. Mating. Forever.
By the bed, we undress each other. Careful. Taking time. His shirt first. He towers over me as I run my hands over his chest. The healed wounds. The scars. Proof of what he survived.
He pulls my shirt over my head. Unhooks my bra. His hands cup my breasts. Thumbs brushing my nipples until they harden.
We remove the rest. Stand bare before each other. Taking in what we’re about to claim.
“There’s still time to change your mind,” he says. “Once we do this, once we exchange marks—”
“Jericho… my love,” I feel my eyes moisten. “You know this is just a formality, right? Even if we don’t do this, I’m yours. Will always be yours.” I pull him toward the bed. “Mark me. I want people to see it.”
“And you’ll mark me?”
“Yes.” I nod. We’re both ready. Both done fighting what we’ve known since the beginning.
We move onto the bed. He lays me back gently. Follows me down. His weight settles over me. Familiar and right.
He kisses me again. Slow and deep. His tongue exploring my mouth. Tasting me. Exploring me.
His mouth moves to my throat. Kissing. Sucking. Making me gasp. My hands are in his hair. Holding him there.
He works his way down, trailing hot kisses to my breasts. He teases my nipple with the tip of his tongue before sucking it into his mouth, hot and wet.
“God!” I choke out, pressing his face more firmly against me. His tongue is circling. Then teeth scraping. The sensation shoots straight to my clit.
“Jericho.” His name is half moan.
He moves to the other breast. Gives it the same attention. Sucking and biting until I’m writhing beneath him. His hand slides down my stomach. Between my thighs. He strokes through my folds. I’m soaked. Ready for him. Have been since we entered my quarters.
He circles my clit. Slow. Deliberate. Building the sensation. I buck against his hand.
“Please.” I don’t care how desperate I sound. “Now. I need you inside me now.”
He positions himself between my thighs. Lines himself up with one hand. His cock pressing against my entrance. Thick. Hard. Ready.
“Look at me,” he says as he teases me by sliding the tip along my slit.
I do. Our eyes meet. Dragon and wolf. Mates.
He pushes inside slowly. The stretch is intense. He’s thick, and I’m tight, and the sensation of him entering me is overwhelming. He goes slow. Careful. Letting me adjust. Letting my body open for him.
“Oh! Yessss,” I hiss when he’s fully inside. My pussy grips him tight. He’s so deep I can feel him everywhere.
“God,” he breathes against my neck. “You feel… perfect. Like you were made for me.”
“I was.” I wrap my legs around his waist. Pull him deeper. “Move. Please move.”
He does. Slow at first. Pulling almost all the way out. Then pushing back in deep. Controlled thrusts that hit something inside me that makes me choke on my breath.
I can feel everything. Every inch of him sliding in and out. The drag of his cock against my walls. The pressure building with each thrust.
Scales appear on his shoulders where he’s braced above me. His eyes are slitted, glowing. Dragon riding close. My wolf loves it. I nip at his chin, his throat, his jawline.
“Harder,” I breathe after several minutes of this measured pace.
He complies. His hips snap against mine with more force. The bed creaks. I’m making sounds that are half human, half wolf. He’s growling low in his chest. Pure dragon.
Heat builds between us. Actual heat. His fire manifesting without flames. Surrounding us. Warming everything. I can feel my own energy rising. Wolf power meeting dragonfire. The air crackles.
His mouth finds my throat again. Kissing. Sucking. Getting closer to the claiming spot. Where neck meets shoulder. The vulnerable place where marks are given.
I’m so close. The pressure building. My claws fully extended now. Breaking skin on his shoulders. He groans at the sensation.
“Come for me,” he growls against my throat. “Let me feel you come around my cock.”
The command is all I need. I shatter. My pussy clenching around him rhythmically. Waves of pleasure crashing through me. I cry out. Can’t control it. Can’t control anything except how tightly I’m holding him.
He keeps thrusting through my orgasm. Making it last until I’m shaking beneath him.
When I finally come down, he’s still hard inside me. Still moving. Chasing his own release.
“Now,” I gasp. “Mark me now.”
His fangs extend. Sharp. Deadly. Dragon fangs designed to rend and tear. He positions his mouth at the junction of my neck and shoulder.
“This will hurt,” he warns.
“I don’t care. Do it.”
He bites down.
Pain explodes. Sharp and bright. His fangs break through skin. Deep. Drawing blood. The taste of me in his mouth.
Then magic floods in behind the pain. The bond that’s been forming snaps into place with enough power that I scream. Not pain—connection. The thread between us solidifying into unbreakable cord. Mate bond complete.
I feel him. Feel his dragon. Feel his emotions crashing into mine. His love. His fierce protectiveness. His absolute certainty that I’m his.
He releases my neck. Licks the wound. His saliva already healing it, but the mark will remain. Permanent. Visible. His claim on me.
“Now you,” he says. His voice is raw. Primal. Taut with need. “Mark me. Make me yours.”
My fangs lengthen. Wolf claiming instinct surging. I don’t hesitate. I pull him down and bite the same spot on him. Neck and shoulder junction.
His blood fills my mouth. Hot. Rich. Dragon blood tastes like smoke and fire and power. The bond magic surges again from the other direction. Completing the circle. Him to me. Me to him. Permanent. Unbreakable.
His hips jerk. His body stiffens. He thrusts in one final time and comes so deep inside me that I’m sure it floods everywhere. I feel him pulsing. Filling me. Claiming me in every way possible.
The sensation triggers another orgasm. Smaller. Softer. But exactly right. Our bodies climaxing as the bond settles into place.
When I release him, I lick the wound. Taste him. See the mark forming. My claim on him matching his on me.
We’re both marked now. Both claimed. The bond between us humming with power and certainty.
He’s still inside me. His huge body still covering me with his weight. But I love it. Love every inch of him.
Neither of us moves. Don’t want to separate yet.
He kisses me. Gentle now. Tender. I can taste my blood and his blood mixed in our mouths. The physical proof of what we’ve done.
Eventually, he shifts slightly. Takes some weight off me, but doesn’t pull out. Just adjusts so we’re more comfortable. I lock around him. Legs still hooked around his waist. Arms around his shoulders.
We’re slick with sweat and release and blood from the bites. The sheets beneath us are damp. My wolf is purring. His dragon is radiating contentment.
I rest my head against his shoulder. Near his mark. Breathe in his scent. The familiar hint of smoke I’ve grown to seek out.
His hand traces lazy patterns on my back. Down my spine. Over my hip. Soothing. Grounding.
I can feel his heartbeat through his chest. Strong. Steady. Matching rhythm with mine now that we’re irrevocably connected.
My fingers find his mark. Trace the shape of it. My bite. My claim. Proof that he belongs to me as much as I belong to him.
He shivers at the touch. “Sensitive.”
“Good.” I press a kiss there. Feel him respond. Feel the bond pulse warm between us.
Neither of us speaks. We don’t need words. The mate bond carries everything we need to say. The contentment. The certainty. The peace. The love. Even without words, I feel it surrounding me like a warm wave.
I think briefly of Chance. But the grief doesn’t come now. Just… acceptance. He was part of my past. Part of who I was. But Jericho is my future. My wolf chose him. And she chose well.
I breathe out slowly. Let the last of the tension leave my body. Sink deeper into Jericho’s embrace. Into this new reality where I’m not alone anymore.
His arms tighten around me. Protective even now. Even when there’s no threat. Just us and the quiet aftermath of claiming.
This is what I needed. What I’ve needed for five years without knowing it.
Not just a mate. But him. This specific dragon, who saw me on a mountain ridge and knew. Who fought his way through guilt and history and impossible odds to be here with me now.
I press closer. Feel him still inside me. Feel the bond humming steady. Feel his breathing slow as he starts to drift.
And I let myself drift with him. Safe. Claimed. Home.