He tucked me against his chest. He’d ditched his shirt, so it was deliciously bare.
Not in a sexual way. Just a comfortable one.
“When I asked Harper about your ring, she told me there are two rules of being friends with you. I told her what we had was more than friendship, and she told me tofuck off with that bullshit. That the best relationships are friendships first and foremost,” he said aloud.
“She’s not wrong,” I said into the dog bed.
“I know.”
“What were the rules?”
“The first is that when you say you want to be alone, you’re lying. You spiral when you try to process alone.”
Damn her for knowing me so well.
“The second is that you always stuff your emotions away, and they often have to be dug out brick by brick, so whoever is mated to you is going to have to be really damn stubborn.”
“My best friend is a bitch,” I informed him.
“No, she’s a vampire. And looking back, I realize she was only telling me those things because she thought she was going to die.”
I sighed into the dog bed, and finally turned my head to the side so I could look at him. He’d pulled the blanket over his head, forming a tent over us with it. “I don’t know how to deal with this, Mav. Any of it.”
“It’s a lot,” he admitted.
Somehow, the admission cracked something within me. Something that hadn’t broken yet, by some miracle.
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to take a nap, and then we’re going to deal with it like we deal with everything else. One step at a time.”
“I don’t know how you always make things feel so… manageable.”
“You can add it to the long list of qualities that make me irresistible.” He leaned down, and kissed me lightly. “Whatever else happens, wherever else the future takes us, you’ve got me, and we can handle it. Agreed?”
“Agreed. Love you,” I said against his chest.
He chuckled. “You’d better, because I’m fucking lost to you.”
My smile was so wide it hurt.
epilogue
MAVERICK—ONE MONTH LATER
“We’re—going—to—die,”Bloom panted, jogging humorously slowly on the treadmill she’d occupied for approximately four minutes.
“We’re—already—in—hell,” Harper gritted out, jogging even slower on the treadmill she’d occupied for approximately two minutes.
“Vampire speed is useless if you can’t run long enough to escape your enemies,” I told them, folding my arms over my chest and watching my mate’s form. “Your shoulders need to be straighter.
“Go fuck yourself,” Harper muttered. Being turned had made her quieter, but she was relatively stable, and seemed to want to stay that way most of the time.
“I was talking to Bloom.”
“This is pathetic,” Rhone said flatly. “They’re never going to be able to defend themselves.”
Both women turned their glares to my Beta.
