He pushed into me slowly, filling me, and the sound he made was low and rough like it had been pulled straight from his chest. I felt him everywhere, felt the way our bodies fit together in a way that made sense on a level deeper than thought.
“Artemis,” he breathed, his forehead resting against mine. “I love you.”
The words hit me harder than anything else had. I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him closer, needing him closer.
“I love you too,” I said. “So much.”
He began to move, careful at first, then deeper, like he was trying to say everything he felt with the way he held me. Every movement made me feel more open, more full, more alive.
“You feel like heaven,” he said quietly. “So warm. So tight. So perfect.”
The praise went straight through me, through every old doubt and fear I had ever carried. Tears stung at my eyes, not from pain, but from how right it all felt.
“Arthur,” I gasped. “Please don't stop.”
“I wouldn’t,” he said. “Not for anything.”
He moved with me, our bodies finding a rhythm that felt like belonging. There was nothing else in the world but him and the way we held each other. When it finally overwhelmed us both, we clung to each other, breathless and shaking. We collapsed in a tangle of limbs and heartbeats, still holding on, still not ready to let go.
Arthur pulled me closer until there was no space left between us. My leg was tangled with his, my face tucked against his chest, his arm wrapped around me like he was afraid the world might try to take me back if he loosened his hold.
“Artemis,” he said quietly. “I want you. Not just like this. Not just now. I want you forever.”
My heart did a strange, soft lurch.
“You are my mate, but I want to do it right,” he continued, his hand moving slowly over my back. “I want to earn your love. I want you to choose me, every day, not because you have to, but because you want to.”
I tilted my head so I could see him. “I do choose you.”
He looked at me like that mattered more than anything. “I want to court you,” he said. “I want to take you everywhere you have ever wanted to go. I want to give you the kind of life you thought only existed in books.”
I smiled, soft and a little overwhelmed. “That sounds lovely. But the place I want to be most is right here. In your arms.”
His mouth curved in somethinglike wonder.
“Then,” he said, careful and hopeful all at once, “would you choose to be my mate?”
I brushed my thumb along his jaw, feeling the quiet strength there. “I already chose.”
And he held me like it was the best answer he had ever heard.
The words were barely out of my mouth when something inside me shifted.
Sudden and certain, like a door clicking into place that I had not even realized was waiting to be closed.
Arthur felt it too. His hand tightened at my back. His eyes widened, just a little.
“Oh,” he whispered.
A deep, steady warmth spread through me. It was like being anchored after a lifetime of drifting. I could feel him in a way that had nothing to do with skin. A quiet thread, bright and sure, tying us together.
Stunned, I laughed softly. “I think… something just happened.”
He smiled, slow and full, like he was seeing something beautiful he had always hoped for but never dared to expect.
“Yes,” he said. “The bond.”
I pressed my forehead to his, feeling that new connection hum between us. Not trapping. Not taking. Just choosing.
