Page 70 of Claimed By The Tracker

We moved together with the exact synchronization that came from the bond, from weeks of learning each other's bodies, from the wolf and the woman finally working in concert instead of at odds. My back against the guest room wall. His hands gripping my hips. My legs wrapped around his waist. His teeth at my shoulder where his mark was still fresh.

"Look at me," he said.

I opened my eyes. His were gold and wild and entirely present.

"I love you," he said. The words came out ragged. Honest. Unguarded in a way I'd never heard from him before. "I love you and I'm going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never have to be afraid again. You're mine. My mate. My woman. My heart."

"I love you too," I gasped. "I chose you. I'm still choosing you."

The bond between us flared bright gold, matching the magic at my palms, and I felt the exact moment we shifted from two separate people into something more fundamental. Two halves of a whole. Two wolves recognizing each other across the bond as complete.

He thrust deeper and I felt the wave building. Felt the magic ready to discharge. Felt the bond singing with the intensity of a completed marking.

"Come for me," he said against my throat. "Let everyone know who you belong to."

The orgasm hit like lightning. My magic discharged gold across both our bodies. My walls clenched around him and I felt him follow seconds behind, his release a flood of heat and sensation that sent another wave through me immediately after.

We collapsed against the wall together, his body holding mine up, his arms locked around me, his breathing as ragged as my own. The mark on my shoulder was throbbing with a pleasant burn. My magic was quiet and satisfied, coiled tight against his skin like it had finally come home.

"We need to let the farmhouse know," I said finally. "The mark⁠⁠—"

"Everyone's going to smell it," Jace said. There was satisfaction in his voice. Pure wolf satisfaction. "They're going to know exactly what happened. They're going to know you're mine."

"And you're mine," I said. "Don't forget that part."

He pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were still gold but his human half was coming back online. Satisfaction and love in equal measure.

"I could never forget that," he said. "I'm always going to be yours, Lena Rowe. That's not negotiable."

Chapter 25

What Comes After

LENA

Delaney's ruling came through seventy-one hours later.

The language was identical to mine: CHARTER VIOLATION REVIEW FINAL RULING: DELANEY ROWE POSSESSES AUTONOMOUS EMPLOYMENT AUTHORITY. ACQUISITION CLAUSE VOIDED. BLOODLINE CONTRACT DECLARED NULL. SUBJECT AUTHORIZED FULL LEGAL REMEDY FOR SUPPRESSION OF AUTONOMY.

Two daughters. Two rulings. Two carefully built pieces of Gabriel Rowe's control dismantled in public. In front of the Council. With precedent set for any other documentation he might have filed on any other family member.

We were in the farmhouse kitchen when Gideon delivered it. I watched the moment it landed on Delaney the same way I'd felt it land on me. The moment her shoulders dropped a half inch. Like she'd been carrying weight she didn't realize was there until it was suddenly removed.

"It's done," she said.

"It is," Tara confirmed.

Jace was beside me. His hand resting on my shoulder—not possessive anymore, just present. The marking still fresh at my shoulder, still visible to everyone in the room, still a permanent claim that I wore without fear or hesitation. Through the bond I felt his satisfaction. His wolf's quiet approval at the outcome.

"What happens now?" Delaney asked.

Roan set down his coffee, favoring the hand that still didn't quite behave, and nobody in the room so much as glanced at it anymore—it had stopped being news, just become part of the shape of him. "Now we let Gabriel figure out that his leverage is gone. All of it. Now we make it clear to the Council that the precedent you two just established is going to be enforced. Now you and Lena get to decide what happens next without anyone else's permission."

"Easier said," Delaney murmured.

"Most true things are," Roan said. "Doesn't make them less true."

Gideon didn't look up from his screen, but his voice carried its own kind of certainty. "I've already flagged the precedent for the full family registry. If Gabriel or anyone acting on his behalf tries to file anything similar against another Rowe, it triggers an automatic review. He doesn't get a third try at this."