25. Leo
LEO
She carried me up out of the dark.
I don’t remember most of it. I remember her hands. I remember the bond pouring into me like warm water into a frozen well. I remember thinking, even half-dead, that I didn’t deserve any of it.
Now we’re in the Obsidian Suite, and I’m sitting on the edge of the bed while Brynn pretends she isn’t watching me breathe.
“You can stop counting,” I say.
“I’m not counting.”
“You’re counting.”
She drops into the chair across from me and pulls her knees up. “Fine. I’m counting. You stopped breathing for a second down there, so excuse me if I want to make sure you keep doing it.”
“It’s an overrated habit.”
“It’s the only one you have that I like.”
I smile. My wolf, quiet for the first time in days, stretches out somewhere deep in my chest and just... rests.
That’s new. That’s her.
“You shouldn’t have come for me,” I say.
“I know.”
“It was a trap built to drain an Alpha dry. You walked straight into it.”
“I know that too.” She tips her head. “And yet here you are. Annoying. Alive. So clearly my judgment is impeccable.”
I look at her. Really look. There’s dried blood on her sleeve. There are shadows under her eyes deep enough to fall into. She’s shaking, just slightly, the way you shake after the adrenaline burns off and leaves you hollow.
She is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“Come here.”
“That’s not a sentence you get to use after the day you’ve had.”
“Brynn.”
“You almost died.”
“And you saved me. Come here.”
She doesn’t move. Her chin does that stubborn thing. “Last time we did the almost-dying-then-comfort routine, the floor started screaming.”
“Then we’ll be quick.”
She laughs. It cracks halfway out of her, surprised, and something in my chest unknots at the sound. She crosses the room and stands between my knees, and I wrap my arms around her waist and press my face to her stomach and just hold on.
“Leo.” Her fingers slide into my hair.
“Give me a second. I just want to hold you.”
“Take ten,” she sighs.
This feels so right. I just keep hugging her and I can’t help but think about what we almost lost.
I let myself feel it, all of it, the terror of the archive and the cold of the bond fraying and the moment her voice cut through the dark and pulled me back.
When I pull back, she’s already looking at me.
“I ran,” I say. “I told myself I was protecting you. I was running.”
“I know.”
“I’m not going to do it again.”
“You probably will.” Her thumb traces my jaw. “You’re a catastrophe in a very expensive suit. But next time I’ll come find you faster.”
That’s the thing about her. She doesn’t pretend I’m better than I am. She just decides to stay anyway.
I stand. She has to tilt her head back to keep her eyes on mine, and I watch her throat move when she swallows.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to stop being afraid this isn’t real.”
“It’s real.”
“You read it from outside this time?” Her mouth tilts. “Or did you finally just take my word for it?”
“I took your word for it.” I cup her face. “I should have taken it days ago.”
“Yeah,” she breathes. “You should have.”
I kiss her and she lets me, her arms wrapping around my neck.
“Tell me about after,” I murmur against her mouth.
“After what?”
“All of it. The Circle. The throne. When it’s done.” I pull back enough to see her. “What do you want to do when it’s done?”
She goes still. Nobody’s ever asked her that. I can see it on her face, the strange shock of being asked to talk about wanting a future.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” she admits. “I’ve never let myself plan past tomorrow. Plans break. People leave. It’s easier to want nothing.”
“Well, now you can. Tell me what you want if you could have anything.” I press my forehead to hers.
Her breath shudders out. “Okay. Okay. Then... somewhere with a real kitchen. Where things only catch fire when I mean them to. With you being grumpy at the coffee machine.”
“Done.”
“That fast?”
“I’ve wanted you since the chandeliers went red.” I drag my mouth along her jaw. “The future was the easy part.”
She makes a small, undone sound, and that’s the end of slow.
I get my hands under her shirt and she’s already pulling at mine, and we come apart laughing because my cuff catches and she has to free my wrist before I can do anything useful with it.
“Smooth,” she says.
“Shut up.”
“Make me.”
I laugh and then I back her to the bed and follow her down, and the laughter turns into the press of skin and the catch of breath.
The rest of our clothes go.
My touch is firm and possessive as I slide my hand up Brynn’s side to cup her cheek, my thumb brushing her jawline as I gaze into her eyes.
“We are both so exhausted so how would you like to ditch that fucking pillow wall and let’s get some sleep. We can figure everything else out tomorrow. Together.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” she says as she wiggles her ass to spoon me. “I’m so tired.”
I put my arms around her, kiss her neck and settle in, feeling more secure than I ever have.
We are asleep in minutes.
I woke to the smell of coffee and Brynn humming a song.
“Hey! You’re awake. You slept for about 8 hours. How are you feeling?” she asked.
“I feel good, all things considered. I guess I needed that sleep. That place sucked all my energy down.” I took a drink of the coffee that Brynn handed me.
“I know. I slept great too and the storm has calmed down a little.”
“That’s great. Come here.” I patted the bed next to me and had a very wicked smirk on my face.
She narrowed her eyes and gave me a wicked smile right back as she came over and laid back on the bed and spooned me just like before.
“Now where were we last night?” I asked as I started kissing the back of her neck.
She giggled. “Greedy man.That tickles.”
“Says the woman about to scream my name.”
I couldn’t wait anymore so I kiss her as if I was trying to devour her whole.
My lips trailed down her neck, my teeth grazing her collarbone as I hear small little moans.
My hands started roaming over her body with a possessiveness that made her shiver.
“You’re mine,” I whispered, my voice a rough command as I kissed her again.
She responded with a sharp intake of breath, her head falling back, her hands tangling in my hair as she kissed me back.
I brace on my forearms over her. “Turn over for me.”
Her eyes go dark. She bites her lip. Then she rolls, rising onto her hands and knees, with her long hair loose and hanging down in front of her. The sight of her like that nearly undoes what’s left of my control.
I kiss the back of her neck and all the way down her back to the top of her firm ass. I run my finger down her crack all the way to her pussy below.
I growl when I palm her and feel how wet she is. “You are soaking wet for me already.”
I kneel directly behind her with her ass in the air at my face level.
I lean forward and run my fingers back and forth through her slit and her juices.
“Oh, I am definitely ready for you, big man!” She laughs as she wiggles her ass at me from all fours. I shove 2 fingers inside of her and curl them.
“Oh... Leo... yes…right there...” she gasps.
I start to move my fingers in and out of her. I learn what makes her shake and I do it again, slower, then faster. Then I pull her ass closer and bring her pussy right up to my mouth and use my tongue to go in and out of her instead.
She is moaning and writhing against my mouth as I keep fucking her with my tongue from behind. I lap up all the juices I can. I find her clit and suck. I can’t get enough of her!
I can feel the tension in her growing as her entire body tenses up. She finally comes apart loud and helpless as she’s grinding her pussy against my mouth and she starts screaming my name into the pillow.
“Oh! Fuck! Leo!”
As soon as her climax starts to wind down, I can tell that she is more than ready for me so I push my hard cock against her wet entrance. Her ass looks so hot up in the air leaned over like that.
I enter her in one thrust from behind, the bond flaring bright and warm where our bodies meet.
“Yes! Leo! I love that! Fuck me hard!!
So I do. I grab her ass with my hands on both sides and start to pound into her over and over as she pushes back against me with each thrust. We are so loud I’m sure the entire resort can hear us!
But, I don’t even care. It doesn’t take long before she builds up and starts to come again and that pushes me right over the edge to come with her, both of us screaming loud.
“Ahhhhh! Leo!!!”
“Fuck!! Brynn!!
For one long, shining stretch of time there is nothing in the world but this. Our heartbeats. The mark on her collarbone glowing soft silver in the dark.
We can’t even move for a few minutes as we try to catch our breath. We finally move into a comfortable position and I cradle her head on my chest, both of us so relaxed.
“Smug,” she pants. “You’re so smug right now.”
“Earned it.”
“Okay. We both did,” she chuckles.
Then she turns in my arms, boneless and grinning, and pulls me down to kiss her.
“I love you,” she says. Not a confession dragged out of her. A fact she’s done hiding. “I have for a while. I just didn’t have anywhere safe to put it.”
“Put it here.” I press my hand flat over her heart, over mine. “Put it right here. I’ll keep it.”
I kiss her slow and deep, and everything outside this bed stops existing.
Peace.
I’d forgotten what it felt like.
After, she’s curled into my side, one leg thrown over mine, drawing slow circles on my chest with her thumb.
“So,” she says.
“So.”
“The kitchen. I want windows. Big ones.”
“Whatever you want.”
“And a dog.”
“We’re apex supernatural predators, Brynn.”
“And a dog.”
I close my eyes and smile. “Fine. A dog.”
She smiles against my skin. I feel it more than see it. My wolf is silent and content for the first time in twelve years, and I think, this is it, this is the thing I spent my whole life telling myself I didn’t need.
I almost say it back. The words sit right there, easy now, no longer a weakness, no longer a wound.
“Brynn,” I start. “I...”
The mark on her collarbone flares white.
A hard, screaming pulse of light that throws our shadows up the wall, and Brynn sits bolt upright, her hand flying to her chest.
“No,” she whispers. “Not again!”
“What is it?”
Far below us, the throne answers. The whole suite shudders. Glass cracks in its frame. And under the groan of the resort settling comes another sound, one I know in my marrow, one that drops the wolf back into my chest with its hackles already up.
Wards failing. All of them. At once.
Then, distant and rising, screaming.
Brynn grabs my arm. Her eyes have gone wide, lit silver from the inside, reading something I can’t see.
“They’re here,” she says. “Leo. The Circle. They’re not coming. They’re already inside.”
The suite door blows off its hinges.