Ivy #2
He rumbles with a soft affirmative growl, lifting me with his hands on my hips. I wrap my legs around his waist for support as he guides me down onto him slowly, stretching me open one careful inch at a time.
My head falls back. All I see is the shimmering aurora over us, the cold air nipping at my flushed skin everywhere my clothes have fallen open.
"Oh fuck…"
His purr deepens approvingly, holding me steady while I adjust. His broad chest heaves under my palms, his scars burning hot even in the freezing air, and I swear steam rises off his skin into the night.
When I'm fully seated, we both go still.
I open my eyes and find him watching me.
He isn't even looking at the glorious show above us. His eyes are on me and me alone, his sharp teeth slightly parted with his soft, panting breath, ice flecks clinging to his dark lashes.
They're the same color as your eyes, he signs, gazing at me.
"Wh-what are?" I ask, breathless.
He points up, and I look, up at the shimmering blue-green aurora overhead, lighting up the dark. My heart flutters as I look back down at him, at the sign he's making with one hand, index and little finger and thumb extended.
I love you.
"I love you, too," I whisper.
He bends down, his dark hair falling forward to tickle my face, and gently licks at my mouth. He's already moving, every drag of him inside me pulling new sounds out of my throat.
His purr builds until my whole body vibrates with it as he thrusts up into me, deep and deliberate, and I cry out, my fingers digging into the scarred muscle of his chest and shoulders.
The world falls away until there's only us and the night. His body under mine. His eyes locked on my face. The green and blue fire crawling across the sky above us.
"Harder," I gasp. "I can take it, I promise—"
He snarls, low in his throat, and gives it to me.
I lose track of everything.
Time. Cold. The fact that we're naked on a frozen lake in the middle of fucking nowhere. There's just the building pressure of his knot swelling against my pussy, his breath coming faster and rougher through his teeth where the sharp edges graze against my throat.
"Yes," I pant. "Yes, yes, yes—"
The stretch is immense, the cold air prickling all along my skin as I grind down on his cock, trying to open up more for him, his massive knot pressing deeper into my folds with every thrust up into me.
He’s so big, I have to reposition myself to take all of him. I writhe in his lap, twisting against him, his mouth finding my breast again and lapping at my nipple as I lift myself up on one knee to change the angle just enough that he can enter me fully.
His knot presses harder, harder, and I grind down, letting gravity help. With one final push and a snarl tearing out of him, the steam from his breath pouring from his teeth like dragon’s smoke, he drives up into me one last time and the knot locks us together.
I shatter. I hear myself sobbing his name, both his names.
One hand comes up to cradle the back of my head, scarred fingers sliding into my hair. The other pushes his coat off my shoulder, then my own beneath it, baring the layered marks.
My old burn scar.
Thane's bite.
Whiskey's.
Plague's.
Valek's.
All of them silvered and waiting for the final claim.
The claim of the first alpha who ever made me feel safe.
His forehead presses against my temple.
R-E-A-D-Y? he writes into my palm with the tip of his finger.
"Yes," I whisper. "I'm yours."
He turns his head, and his teeth touch my shoulder.
For one heartbeat, he just holds them there. I feel his breath, hot and shaking. I feel his jaw tremble with everything he's holding back, everything he's terrified of, the side of his lashes flickering against my ear.
He lets out a long, slow breath, emptying his lungs.
And he bites.
His teeth slide through all four marks at once and the scar tissue and I scream, my back arching, my nails scrabbling and tearing at his shoulders. Blood wells hot and spills down my back, down my chest, soaking into the collar of my sweater beneath his coat.
It hurts.
It fucking hurts.
But then, beneath the pain, something else floods in.
And it silences the scream, flooding me with warmth.
His love. His loyalty. Every ounce of devotion this enormous, broken, beautiful alpha has been holding behind his walls, pouring straight into me through the bond.
I feel how he sees me. I feel what I am to him. I feel the exact moment his terror lets go and transforms into wonder and awe.
Tears stream down my face, and I don't know if they're from the pain or from this, from finally feeling his soul wrap itself around mine and swear, without a single word, to never, ever let me go.
And then I feel the rest of them.
Far away, faint with distance, but they're here. Thane's steady protectiveness thrumming in my very veins ever since the first mark. Whiskey's wildfire joy, bursting at the seams, all wrapped up in Plague's fierce, quiet heat. Valek's dark, patient devotion, a hunting wolf shadowing my every step.
Four threads that have been humming inside me suddenly snapping taut, and Wraith's thread, the one I've been reaching for since he held me in the tunnels that first night, finally blazes to life between us.
Wraith's teeth release.
He lifts his head, and the blue in his eyes flares with pure terror.
His scarred hand presses hard against my shoulder, trembling as he stares at the blood welling between his fingers.
And I stare at it, too, breathless and blissed out.
Did I… The one hand he's signing with falters, keeping the other pressed to the wound. He tries again, fingerspelling half of it one-handedly. Too deep. I went too deep. It's not closing. Ivy, it's not closing—
He's right. The other marks closed and silvered into shining scars while I watched. This one is still bleeding, sluggish and steady.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I…
"Hey. Hey, look at me." I catch his face in both hands, holding him still. "Look at me."
His eyes drag to mine, wild and glassy.
"It's okay," I promise him. "My body's been marked four times. It's tired. It's going to take a minute. That's all."
His jaw works under my palms. He doesn't believe me.
"You didn't go too deep. I felt it. It was perfect. Do you trust me?"
He nods, swallowing, then panting again.
"Then trust me when I say I'm okay. I know my own body. I'm fine. I'm better than fine."
The knot keeps us locked together, and I use it, settling my weight down onto his chest, draping myself up his massive torso with my cheek over his heart.
He holds me automatically, laying back onto the ice with his arms wrapping around my back, pulling his coat higher over my body with the hand that isn't still pressed to the bleeding mark.
His heartbeat slows under my ear.
Mine slows with it.
I gaze up at the aurora, blue and green ribbons folding and unfolding over the stars, and I feel the throbbing bond settling inside me.
Five alphas, all interwoven with my soul.
"Look," I whisper.
Wraith turns his head.
The bleeding has finally stopped. A soft silver shimmer creeps across the punctures now where Wraith's hand doesn't fully cover them, sealing one by one, his jagged bite knitting into a permanent shining crescent.
It's slightly bigger than the others, wrapping around all four of theirs, claiming each and every layer.
The last cut silvers and the pack bond seals itself whole.
Somewhere miles away, four alphas are feeling it, too.
A delirious laugh bubbles out of me even as the tears start flowing all over again. Because I know they are. I feel their shock and their elation echoing through the connection that's finally complete.
And then I see them.
Tiny bursts of gold and red and silver, blooming one after another after another, painting the far southern edge of the horizon where the aurora doesn't reach.
Military grade fireworks.
Nothing else would be visible from this far away.
"No fucking way," I choke. "Whiskey?"
Wraith shifts beneath me. I feel his chest expand with a slow, shuddering breath, and then his huffs vibrating through my entire body. He lifts one hand and signs lazily.
I warned him he shouldn't. He's going to get arrested.
"And Plague is so going to turn him in."
Another volley blooms, and my phone starts buzzing somewhere on the ice near my abandoned skates. But I don't need to read the messages to know what they're saying.
I feel all of them through the bond.