Page 270 of Immune

“Hmm,” I sigh, approving that answer.

“How’s yours?” she asks.

“Full of you.”

She lifts her head and gives me a look.

I wince. “Too much?”

“You think?”

“Only with my knot right now,” I answer without really thinking about it.

Her mouth twitches, and I kiss the corner of it. Then her cheek. Then the edge of the bite, careful and proud in a way that doesn’t feel like ownership. Not on her. Not with her. Becausethe mark isn’t a collar. It’s a door we both opened and stepped through together.

Dakota settles against me again, still locked around my knot, hair spilling over my chest, and her heart slowing down against mine. After a whole minute, she says, “I laughed.”

“That, you did.”

“During sex.”

“A historic event, if you ask me,” I tease. “Get it in the papers. Tiny Terror Discovers Joy.”

She snorts, and then grows quiet. Through the bond, I feel the little edge of shame try to build, so I kiss her hairline before it can grow spikes.

“You sounded very happy,” I point out.

She doesn’t reply at first, then her fingers curl against my chest. “I was.”

The words are tiny, but they’re there, so I close my eyes and hold her close.

Outside the room, Haven Ridge keeps beating the drum of its rules and locked doors and glossed threats.

Inside, Dakota’s scent is all warm and soft against my skin.

Wild honey and rain.

Not buried.

Not panicked.

Not disguised.

And when she laughs again, softer this time, she doesn't hate herself for it.

THIRTY-NINE

DAKOTA

The first problem with bonding is that Ewan is exceptionally loud in my chest.

Not loud like talking, thank God. If I had to hear that man’s actual thoughts, I would willingly walk into the nearest infected nest and let nature reclaim me.

It’s more like feeling him. All warm and bright and full of life. A thread tucked under my ribs, humming with smoke and clove and something that keeps trying to be joy even when the world is very clearly fighting against that concept.

It should scare me. I mean, it probably will later, when my brain finally puts her pants back on and starts acting all superior and shit.

Right now, though, I’m too tired.