Something in him shattered.
His rhythm became frantic, driving into me with a ferocity that stole my breath. The ladder creaked and groaned beneath us, but I didn't care—all I could feel was him, filling me, claiming me,owningme in a way that went beyond flesh.
"Come for me," he commanded, his voice wrecked. "Come with me.Now."
The orgasm crashed through me like a tidal wave. I screamed his name, my inner walls clamping down on his cock as wave after wave of pleasure rolled through me. He followed a heartbeat later, burying himself to the hilt and groaning my name against my throat as his release flooded my core.
We stayed like that, locked together, trembling. The vampire venom slowly faded, leaving me boneless and sated and utterly, completely claimed. Darius pressed soft kisses to my throat, my jaw, my lips—tender now, reverent, a complete contrast to the desperate claiming of moments before.
"I love you," he whispered against my mouth. "I've loved you since you looked at me in that clearing and saw a man instead of a monster. I was just too afraid to say it."
My heart swelled. "I love you too. All of you. The vampire and the man. The control and the hunger. Everything."
He pulled back, his silver eyes soft and unguarded in a way I'd never seen before. "You mean that."
"Every word."
He reached up and untied my wrists, gently lowering my arms and massaging the circulation back into my hands. Then he lifted me like I weighed nothing and carried me to one of theoversized armchairs, settling me in his lap and wrapping a soft throw blanket around my shoulders.
"Stay," he said quietly. "Just for a little while. Let me hold you."
I curled into his chest, listening to the steady thrum of his ancient heart. The library was quiet around us, the candles burning low, the shadows soft and welcoming. And in that moment, wrapped in the arms of the vampire who had finally let himself love, I felt something settle into place inside me.
I belonged to them. All of them. Not because they'd claimed me, but because I'd chosen them. Because they were my family, my home, my heart.
And I was theirs.
"I'm not going anywhere," I murmured against his chest. "You're stuck with me now, vampire."
His arms tightened around me. "I can think of no fate I would rather have."
We stayed like that until the candles burned out and the first gray light of dawn began to creep through the windows. And when I finally drifted to sleep in his arms, I knew—with absolute, bone-deep certainty—that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
Home.
