Chapter 15 #2
Her hand slides higher. Bold for her in daylight. "Tell me."
"No. You'll find out when I have you naked and pinned beneath me."
Her breath catches. Her thighs press together. The anticipation building between us like static before a storm.
Two months later, life has settled into routines that feel permanent.
Helena's clinic operates as an official trafficking survivor resource now. State funding is secured. A partnership with the Aurora Covenant formalized. She's building something that matters. Something that saves lives.
And she comes home to me every night.
She moved into the cabin at the edge of town with us six weeks after the trial.
Her things appeared beside mine gradually until one day the house just felt complete.
Her scent in the sheets. Her coffee mug in the cabinet.
Her body wrapped around mine every morning when I wake already hard and wanting.
The sex hasn't dulled. If anything, it's intensified. Domesticity mixed with dominance.
She loves it. Needs it the same way I do. That edge between civilized behavior and raw claiming. The certainty that no matter how professional she is at the clinic, at home she's mine to do with as I please.
Traci's adjusted better than expected. Volunteers at the clinic three days a week. Training as a medical assistant under Helena's supervision. Learning to help instead of needing help. Progress measured in small victories.
She speaks in full sentences most of the time now. Sometimes trauma still rises up and steals her voice. But more often than not, she chooses words. Calls me Uncle Eli without the weight that name used to carry.
We're family. The kind neither of us knew we needed.
It's late afternoon when I walk into the clinic. Helena's at the desk reviewing files. Dark hair pulled back. Reading glasses perched on her nose. Professional competence that makes me want to mess her up.
She glances up. Sees me. Her expression shifts—professional to personal in the space of a heartbeat. Reading the intent in my eyes. Knowing exactly what I'm planning for later.
"Are you done for the day?" I ask.
She checks the schedule. "Last appointment cancelled. We're clear."
"Good." I move into her space. Crowd her against the desk. Hand finding her hip with possessive pressure. "We have a date remember and plans for later, big plans."
She knows that tone. Knows what kind of plans I mean. Her pulse jumps under my thumb when I press it against her throat. "Sounds perfect."
"You okay?" Her question. The one she asks when she sees me checking for threats that aren't there anymore.
"Yeah. Why?"
"You get this look sometimes."
"Habit." I pull her closer. Kiss her hard enough she gasps. Claiming her mouth the way I claim everything else about her. Mine. Permanently.
When I pull back, her eyes are dark. Lips swollen. Already anticipating what I'm going to do to her later when Traci's asleep and we have privacy.
"Go tell Traci we're heading out," she says. Voice rougher than before. "I'll finish locking up."
I find Traci in the exam room organizing supplies with methodical precision. "Ready to go?"
She nods. Strips off gloves, washes hands. "Did the clinic get the referral from Aurora Covenant?"
"Which one?"
"Rebecca called this morning. Said there's a woman who needs medical care. Trafficking survivor from a different network. Has information about remaining loose ends from the investigation."
Tactical instincts activate. Loose ends mean uncompleted objectives. Threats still operational. "What kind of information?"
"Rebecca didn't say. Just that she needs medical evaluation and victim advocacy. And she specifically asked for Dr. Sage."
I file that away. Another survivor. Another piece of the puzzle. The network that took Traci might be dismantled, but there are always more. More victims. More perpetrators. More missions.
But that's tomorrow's problem.
Helena emerges from the back office, coat on, ready to leave. The three of us walk out together into cold afternoon air that smells like snow coming.
The Talon Mountain crew is gathering at The Hollow Hearth tonight for an official celebration. Zeke and Sadie. Rhys and Harlow. Finn with Cara, their relationship solidified after the investigation wrapped. Chosen family formed from people who survived bad things together.
The place is warm when we walk in. Fire crackling. Smell of grilled meat and beer. The kind of gathering that happens when people need to acknowledge something too big for normal conversation.
Zeke raises his glass when he sees us. "To Traci. For being braver than any of us have a right to ask."
Traci ducks her head. Uncomfortable with attention. But Sadie pulls her into a hug that says you're one of us now.
Rhys approaches. Nods at me with the kind of respect operators give each other when the mission's complete. "Graves in jail and the Marshal’s network is finally down."
The Marshal. Years of trafficking networks and corruption traced back to one man. Survivors trying to expose him. Cases that went nowhere because he controlled the system from inside.
And now he's in a cell for the rest of his life.
"Hope he serves every damn day of the sentence," I say.
Finn joins us, Cara tucked under his arm. "A toast to fast deliberation and unanimous verdicts."
"Three hours. Jury didn't have any doubt."
"Because Traci didn't break," Cara says. She looks across the room to where Traci's sitting with Sadie and Helena. "She's stronger than he ever was."
Yeah. She is.
We eat. Drink. Tell stories that get louder as the night goes on. Zeke recounts how it felt seeing Graves under arrest arriving for the trial. Rhys talks about tracking Graves's network through financial records. Finn describes Cara's face when the arrest warrant finally came through.
Helena's beside me the whole time. Her hand finds mine under the table. Thumb stroking across my knuckles. Grounding me when the noise gets too much. Knowing I need the connection even when I can't ask for it.
When Traci starts fading around nine, I catch Helena's eye. Time to go.
The three of us walk home through cold night air. Stars visible above Glacier Hollow's minimal light pollution. Mountains dark shapes against darker sky.
Traci walks between us. Small frame bundled in a coat that's still too big. But she's not shrinking anymore. Not trying to disappear. Just tired after a long day.
Inside, she heads straight to her room. Pauses in the doorway. Looks back at us.
"Thank you," she says. Voice quiet but steady. "For making this feel like home."
Then she's gone. Door closing softly behind her.
Helena leans into me. Her body fitting against mine like it was designed for this. "You did that. Gave her somewhere safe to heal."
"We did that." I turn her to face me. Hand cupping her jaw. Thumb tracing her lower lip. "You. Me. Her. We're family now."
Her eyes go dark. Reading the shift in my tone. The promise beneath the words. "Eli—"
"Bedroom. Now."
She goes. Always does when I use that voice. I follow her down the hallway. Close the door behind us. Lock it.
Then I'm on her. Backing her against the wall. Hand around her throat. Not squeezing, just holding. Claiming. "Been thinking about this all night. Watching you at dinner. Knowing you're mine and everyone in that room could see it."
Her pulse hammers under my palm. "They could see it because you kept touching me."
"Damn right I did." My other hand finds her hip. Slides under her shirt to bare skin. "And now I'm going to touch you everywhere. Make you come until you forget how to think about anything except my hands on your body."
"Yes." Breathless surrender. The kind that makes me want to devour her.
I strip her down. Take my time despite the urgency. Memorizing every curve. Every mark I've left on her skin. Evidence of my possession written in bruises and bite marks that fade and reappear with deliberate frequency.
She's mine. Permanently. The woman who saw what I am and wanted me anyway. Who chose this life. This family. This future we're building one day at a time.
I carry her to bed. Make good on every promise. Take her apart with hands and mouth and cock until she's gasping my name and clinging to me like I'm the only solid thing in her universe.
Afterward, she's wrapped around me. Sated and sleepy and exactly where she belongs.
"Love you," she murmurs against my chest. Words she started saying a month ago. Words I'm still learning how to return.
"Love you too." Rough admission. But true. She changed everything. Gave me a reason to stay. To build instead of hide. To believe I could be more than the operator who hesitated and got children killed.
She falls asleep first. Breathing evening out. Body heavy and trusting against mine.
I lie there in the dark. Listening to her breathe. Traci asleep down the hall. Family I didn't plan on but can't imagine living without.
Some reckonings take years. Some justice requires patience and precision and the willingness to keep fighting when the system fails.
But when it's delivered—when the enemy is in chains and the survivors are healing and the woman you claimed is yours forever—that justice is earned.
Every goddamn bit of it.
And Helena? She's the best part of the reckoning. The prize I didn't know I was fighting for until she was already mine.
Four years I spent in the wilderness thinking I was broken beyond repair. Turned out I was just waiting for the right mission.
This family. This woman. This life.
Worth fighting for. Worth staying for.
Worth everything.