Chapter 21 #5
"I am going to murder this entire species. Why is everything about you EXTRA. You run hot, you bite hard, you’re HUGE, your skin is armor, what is even—"
"Try again."
"Don't condescend."
She tries again. Goes for my pec this time. Bites hard. Her whole face screwing up with effort.
Nothing.
"You don't even feel that. Do you?"
Nope, not at all.
"I feel it."
"You do not. You are LAUGHING. Keer. Are you laughing?"
I am laughing. Quiet. Helpless. My chest shaking under her teeth.
"You're LAUGHING AT ME."
"No."
"You ARE."
"You're delightful."
"I am trying to bond you, Keer, this is supposed to be a moment, and your skin is mocking me—"
She tries one more time. Throws her whole jaw into it. Her teeth slip off my skin entirely and she nearly faceplants into my collarbone.
"OH FOR—"
She pulls back. Wipes her mouth. Glares at me. Eyes wet from frustration, hair wild, completely magnificent.
"This is so humiliating. I have human teeth. I have HUMAN TEETH, Keer. This is not equipment-appropriate—"
"Mel."
"What."
"Wait."
I lift one hand. Cover my mouth. Close my eye for a beat. Reach for the half-shift—just the jaw, just the teeth, a small surge through my face. Bone moves. Canines lengthen. I feel the grind of one against the others, the one I'm choosing.
She is staring.
"What are you—Keer—what is your FACE doing—"
I work the canine loose with my tongue. Wolf strength behind it. The root tears free with a sharp crack of pain that I let myself feel and don't react to. Then the half-shift releases. My jaw resettles. Human again. Tooth in my mouth, bloody at the root.
I spit it into my palm.
Hold it out to her.
"Keer."
"Take it."
"Keer that is your—"
"I know."
"You just pulled out your tooth."
"I know."
"With your face. By yourself. With NO ANESTHETIC—"
She takes it. Slow. Reverent. Small wet thing in her hand—four inches, sharp, white at the tip, dark red at the root. Heavy. Solid.
Her eyes are very wet.
"Keer. I am extremely turned on right now."
A laugh comes out of me.
"STOP THAT."
"What."
"You laughing makes your whole self vibrate and you are very large, Keer, and I cannot handle that right now. I am holding your tooth, Keer."
"Mel."
"I am holding part of you."
"Use it. The tip is sharp enough. Open my skin with it."
“Open?—oh right. I was trying to bite you.”
Her face scrunches, focusing.
She lifts the tooth. Holds it carefully. Sets the point against the skin of my shoulder, above where she was trying. Her hand is shaking.
"I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't."
"I might."
"Mel."
"What."
"I just bit through your shoulder and locked us together for hours. I think we are well past worrying about tooth-cuts."
A laugh escapes out of her, breathless.
She presses the tooth in.
It opens my skin clean. Sharp. Wolf-tooth, made for this. Blood wells up immediately. She drops the tooth onto the pallet. Leans in. Sets her mouth over the cut. Bites down with her human teeth this time, where the skin is already broken, and takes my blood into her mouth.
The wolf in my chest goes still all over again.
Different stillness. Reciprocal. Bonded back.
She holds it. Then pulls back. Mouth red. Eyes red. Eyes alive.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"I just had your blood."
"You did."
"Is that going to do something. Is there a wolf-receipt for me too—OH am I going to turn into a wolf now?"
"It binds you to the bond. The wolf knows you now. You'll feel me. Sometimes. Distance. Mood. It's faint for humans. But it's there."
"Oh. That's. Wow. Okay. I just got a wolf-husband and a wolf-thread at the same time."
"A what."
"A thread. A line between us. Wolf-thread."
"Stop talking."
"Make me."
I kiss her. Hard. Bloody mouth against bloody mouth. The tang of both of us mixed, copper and salt and the bite of it.
When I pull back her face is wet. Tear-streaked. She is smiling.
"Keer."
"Yes."
"I'm keeping the tooth."
"Good."
"I'm going to make it into something."
"Expected nothing less."
"Everyone is going to know."
"Yes."
"Are you sure about this? About me. Like. Really sure. Because I am extremely going to be wearing your tooth around like a banner and there's no quiet version of that—"
"Melori."
"What."
"I bit through your shoulder, gave you my blood, pulled out my own tooth and handed it to you, and locked us together for hours. I'm sure."
"Right. Yeah. The receipts are extensive."
"The receipts are extensive."
She settles back down against me. Careful—we are still joined, I am still inside her, my shoulder is still slow-bleeding, hers is too. Her cheek finds my chest. Her hand curls over the cut on my shoulder, palm flat. Holding it. Holding me.
Quiet.
Long quiet.
"Keer?"
"Mm."
"Is this what people mean when they say home."
My throat closes.
"Yeah, Mel."
"Okay." Sleepy. Small. "Okay good."
Her breath evens out. Heavy against my chest. Thigh hooked over mine. Her hand on my shoulder, marking the spot. The tooth on the pallet beside us, dark with blood, waiting to become whatever she will make it.
The pack is asleep outside.
The army is coming.
The cottage is gone.
Tomorrow there will be a hundred decisions to make and I will make all of them as the man who just claimed a human woman and locked himself to her by blood and bone and tooth, and I do not care. I am not afraid. I am not tired. I am awake in a way I have not been awake in a long time.
Mine.
Mine.
Different word now. Different weight. The wolf knows. The man knows. She knows.
I find her hair. Stroke it once. Rest my hand at the back of her neck, over the spot where her pulse is. Feel it beating slow against my palm.
I do not sleep for a long time.
When I do, it is with her bite on my shoulder, my bite on hers, my body still locked inside hers, and my tooth on the pallet beside us, slow-drying in the lamp light.
Mine.
Sleep takes me.