Page 86 of Omega Hunted

The thought still startled me with its simplicity.

A yawn escaped before I could stop it, leaving my eyes watering. I swayed as my balance shifted, and before I could catch myself, Cassian was already there. One hand settled at my waist while the other steadied my shoulder.

“Easy,” he murmured, smiling.

“I’m fine.”

“You nearly fell over.”

“I yawned.”

“You nearly yawned yourself unconscious.”

I laughed, letting him guide me towards one of the kitchen chairs. “You’re impossible.”

“So, I’ve been told.” His hand lingered for another moment, his thumb brushing my side. “Come and sit down before Brec adds ‘don’t let Soren fall over’ to my growing list of instructions.”

I smiled and let myself be guided, enjoying the easy familiarity that had quietly become part of our everyday lives. Instead of steering me towards the chair beside him, Cassian sat down and, with a questioning glance that gave me every opportunity to pull away, rested his hands on my hips.

“Come here.”

There wasn’t an order in his voice, only an invitation.

I let him draw me onto his lap until I was straddling him. My legs settled either side of his, my hands finding his shoulders as I laughed.

“Comfortable?”

“Very,” I admitted.

His smile reached his eyes, softening the lines grief had carved there over the years. I could still see his love for Raff sometimes, not because Cassian compared us, but because that kind of connection left its mark on people. It didn’t diminish what was growing between us. Somehow it made it more precious.

We stayed like that for a long moment. The house was silent apart from the faint ticking of the clock and Asha was sleeping upstairs. The mountain had become our whole world, and in that kitchen it felt as though nothing existed beyond the windows.

I lifted a hand to his face, my fingertips tracing the roughness of his jaw before he leaned into the touch with a sigh that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him.

“What?” I whispered.

He shook his head. “I’m getting used to this.”

“Me too.”

“I don’t want it to stop.”

My heart tightened.

I bent to kiss him, slowly at first, savoring the familiar warmth of his mouth against mine. There was no urgency anymore, no fear that one of us would retreat or regret it. We knew each other now. We knew the pauses, the smiles that interrupted kisses, the laughter when our noses bumped, the way neither of us seemed able to walk away first.

When we finally drew apart, I rested my forehead to his, smiling.

“Three more nights,” I murmured.

“Until you can take your fur.”

I nodded, but instead of excitement, there was a knot of apprehension sitting in my chest. “I’m scared of it.”

Cassian frowned. “When was the last time you shifted?”

I looked down at our hands where they rested together, my fingers absent-mindedly tracing the lines across his knuckles.