Chapter 70: The Bonding Heat Begins
Her tears soaked into the neckline of his shirt, a hot, silent flood.Her breath hitched, the words torn and watery against his skin. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… you didn’t… you didn’t want to… I made you, I’m so sorry, alpha, please…”
Each apology was a blade, twisting in the cavity of his chest. He held her tighter, his hand splayed across the bare, fevered skin of her back, feeling the frantic trip of her heartbeat. She was apologizing for existing.For needing.For the bond his own teeth had sealed.
“Shhh,” he murmured, the sound rough.It did nothing.
“…you hate me now,” she wept, the conviction in her trembling voice absolute.“I know you do. You didn’t want a mate, you didn’t want me, and now you’re stuck and I’m… I’m so sorry.I just wanted to be good for you. I just wanted…”
Her voice dissolved into incoherent sobs, her small body convulsing against him. The raw, unguarded heartbreak of it cleaved through every cynical, self-protective wall he’d spent years building.His ex’s dramatics had been weapons, calculated for effect. This was a soul pouring itself out onto the floor, believing itself to be a burden.
In that moment, something tectonic shifted inside Rhys.It wasn’t a loud decision. It was a quiet, irrevocable settling.A locking into place.This weeping, shattered creature in his arms was his. Not a mistake.Not a convenience.His. The bond in his chest wasn’t a chain; it was a compass point, and it pointed only to her. And he would spend every fucking second of whatever life he had left making sure she never, ever had a reason to cry like this again.
Gently, he adjusted his grip. He hooked a finger under her chin, the touch firm but yielding, and lifted her face from the shelter of his neck.
Her eyes were glazed, pupils blown wide with heat and distress.Tears tracked continuous, shining paths through the flush on her cheeks. She looked utterly ruined, and yet, when her wet, hazel eyes met his, there was a desperate, flickering hope there that nearly broke him.
“Look at me,” he said, his voice low, leaving no room for argument.She blinked, a fresh tear spilling over.
“You listen right now, Aurora.” He held her gaze, his thumb stroking the line of her jaw. “I am not stuck.I am not sorry.” He let that sit, let the words penetrate the haze. “I bit you.My choice.My teeth. My mark.” He leaned in, until his forehead rested against hers, their breath mingling.“You are mine. And I am coming to understand that I am yours.That’s not a prison. That’s a fact.”
A small, shattered sound escaped her lips.Not quite a word.A question.
“Do I look like a man who hates what’s his?” he asked, his tone dropping into something almost soft. He watched as her gaze searched his face, tracing the lines of fatigue and intensity, the set of his mouth, the focus in his eyes that was for her alone.
She gave a tiny, hesitant shake of her head.“No,” he affirmed.“I don’t.I want you.This. All of it.” It was the truth, stark and simple. He hadn’t known he could.But he did.“The only thing I hate is that I left and let you think otherwise. That’s on me.Not you. Never you.”
Her crying had quieted to shaky inhalations.She was listening, her whole being straining towards his words like a plant towards light.
Another wave of her heat shuddered through her, a violent tremor that made her clench around nothing, a fresh trickle of slick warming the skin where their bodies met. A soft, pained whimper escaped her.
“The heat’s still here, baby,” he stated, his hand moving from her jaw to cup the back of her neck, his fingers tangling in her damp hair. “It’s okay.Let it happen. I’m here.”
Her eyes fluttered closed for a second, overwhelmed. When they opened, the raw panic had receded, replaced by a deep, hungry need.“Alpha… it hurts…”
“I know,” he said. He shifted then, moving with a controlled strength that felt effortless. He stood, lifting her with him, her legs instinctively wrapping around his waist.He didn’t take her to the bed. He walked them to the wall beside the closet, bracing one hand flat against it, cradling her weight with the other. The new position pressed her core flush against the hard plane of his abdomen, and she gasped, her head falling back.“You feel that?” he growled softly, lips grazing the shell of her ear. “I’m not going anywhere.Your alpha is right here. And he is very, very pleased with his good girl.”
The words, the solidity of him, the sheer possessive certainty in his voice, acted like a balm on the ragged edges of her omega mind.The crying stopped. A low, submissive purr rumbled in her chest, tentative at first, then growing stronger as he rubbed his stubbled cheek against her bonding mark, saturating her in his scent.
“That’s it,” he encouraged, his own control fraying at the edges. Her heat scent was everywhere, a sweet, potent call that his body was hardwired to answer. “Let go. I’ve got you.”
She nuzzled into him, her lips finding his neck, her kisses soft and open-mouthed and searching.No technique.Just instinctual worship. “Need you,” she breathed against his skin, the words thick with longing. “Please.”
It was all the permission he needed.He kissed her, swallowing her plea. It wasn’t like the frantic, exploratory kisses from before.This was deep, claiming, and infinitely tender. A sealing of the promise he’d just made.
When he pulled back, her eyes were clearer, focused solely on him.“The nest is broken,” she whispered, a thread of that old sorrow returning.
He looked over at the chaotic pile of blankets on the floor, then back at her. A slow, genuine smile touched his mouth for the first time since he’d returned. It transformed his face, softening the hard lines. “So we’ll build a new one,” he said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Together.”