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"Do what?"

"Laugh. You're going to kill me."

"It would be a hell of a way to go."

I smile against her hair. The room smells like sex and sweat and us.

Outside, a dog barks somewhere in the neighborhood, and I have the absurd urge to bark back.

The knot shrinks gradually. The pressure eases, her walls relaxing around us. But neither of us make any move to separate. Her legs are still wrapped around me, her arms looped over my shoulders, and I’m still buried inside her, softening but present.

"I love you," she says quietly. "In case the mating bite didn't make that clear."

"It was pretty clear."

"Good.

I lift my head and look at her. Bite mark on her neck, flushed and swollen and thoroughly claimed. I brush my thumb over it gently.

"Does it hurt?"

"No. It feels like..." She pauses, searching. "Like you. Like warmth."

I kiss the mark. She shivers.

The knot finally releases enough that I can ease out of her. She makes a small sound at the loss, a whimper that goes straight to my gut. I pull her against my side, tugging the comforter over us both. Her head finds the stop between my shoulder and my chest like it’s been carved there just for her."I can still feel you," she murmurs. "In my head. It's like... background noise. Warm background noise."

"That's the bond. It settles over time. Or so I'm told."

"So you've never done this before?"

"No. Fated mates are pretty rare."

"Good." She presses a kiss to my chest, right over my heart. "I don't share well."

"Neither does my wolf."

"Good boy."

I snort. "You're going to be insufferable now."

"Absolutely."

Her fingers trace idle patterns on my stomach, following the lines of ink. I watch her through half-closed eyes, the bond humming between us. Her contentment bleeds into mine, her drowsiness pulling down my eyelids."Hey, Gage?"

"Hmm."

"When the knot thing happened, you made this face."

"What face?"

"Like you were trying to do long division while being electrocuted."

I bark a laugh. "That's not what that was."

"Sure looked like it."

"You bit my neck. I was having a religious experience."