“You aren’t theirs.”
“And?”
I press my mouth to her marked shoulder.“You are mine because you chose me.”
Her eyes soften.“And you?”she asks.
I cover her hand with mine.“I am yours because you claimed me back.”
She closes her eyes, and for the first time since I met her, Briana falls asleep without fighting it.In my arms.Marked and mated.
Still afraid and still furious.But alive, and as I listen to her breathing deepen, the beast in me settles around one final truth.Claiming her was never about making her mine.It was about becoming safe enough for her to choose.
Chapter Eleven
His Mark Beneath the Lie
Briana
I wake to warmth.
That’s the first strange thing.
Not panic.Not the sharp snap of my body dragging me out of sleep with a knife already in my hand and a scream locked behind my lips.Not the press of remembered restraints around my wrists or phantom hooks biting into my throat.
Warmth and Breathing.
Knox.
For one suspended second, I don’t move.
My eyes open to pale morning light spilling across my bedroom floor.The curtains are still too thin, the city beyond them already awake and rude, but none of that matters because there’s a heavy arm around my waist and a massive body curved behind mine.
My back is against his chest, and my legs are tangled with his as his breath moves against my hair.And I am not afraid.
The realization hits so hard that I almost become afraid out of habit.
