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He settled next to her, and she leaned against him and brushed at her wet cheeks with a sniffle. “I’m glad we’re together now. I feel like I can face anything with you by my side.”
“Me too, sweetheart.”
It felt so nice in his arms that she wanted to drift off to sleep and not think about anything but what their future held, but she knew it was good for her to talk. Stepping back into the memories of her abduction, she told Lucian about meeting Dario at the bar, then waking up in the lab, naked and strapped down.
“I told them that you weren’t my mate, but they didn’t believe me,” she said.
“Did you think I would come for you?” His voice was soft and sad.
“I hoped you would, but I didn’t really understand about your job as a hunter. I had no idea if you could get his brother free, or if my life would even be worth his. I was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life.” She was thankful for some things about her captivity – mostly that it had been only hours instead of days – but also that none of the ravens had really touched her, and none of them had followed through on their threats to mate her against her will. It would have been a hellish life to be mated to a male who had no regard for her, who thought nothing of torture and rape.
“I’m glad they’re dead, even though saying that out loud makes me feel kind of ghoulish,” Mia said.
“They were evil. I’ve seen a lot of bad shifters, but they were a deadly combination of mad scientist and general psychopath.”
“They were so bad that you were let off the hook, kind of.”
“It would’ve taken years for the hunters to prosecute Antonio, and getting to the rest of the ravens would’ve been hard. They were something of a mafia-type group, running drugs and guns and dabbling in drug manufacturing. If they’d been successful in replicating the drug they used on you, for sure it would have wound up being used for shady purposes.” Her hand rested on her stomach, and he placed his hand gently on top of it. “Do you think you’re pregnant?”
“It seems likely. In a real heat, the cycle keeps going until the female becomes pregnant or it runs out its time. Whatever they dosed me with, it felt real. And the heat went away eventually.”
“As if you were pregnant.”
“Eveny said that when she was in her heat she was able to fall asleep at one point after she and Luke were together, and knew it was because she was pregnant. I don’t feel pregnant, but if I am it’s only been a day. Traditionally, wolves can only get pregnant during the heat and no other time of the year, so the short answer is I just don’t know.”
“Do you feel okay now, though?”
“Yeah. A little tired still, but happy. You?”
“Are you kidding? I’ve got you. The world could fall apart and I wouldn’t care.”
“I hope it doesn’t, even if that is very sweet.”
They snuggled under the covers, and she found herself feeling more at peace.
“Thanks for letting me talk.”
“You can tell me anything, anytime,” he promised. “If you wake up again and you’re scared, I’ll be right here.”
Closing her eyes, she scooted closer and smiled when he pulled her firmly against him. One hand rested on her stomach, the other arm stretched out under her head. It was hard to believe how much had changed in such a short amount of time, but all she cared about was that she’d finally mated the male who’d held her heart all these years.
* * *
Mia woke to the smell of bacon and coffee, and found Lucian setting food on the coffee table in front of the couch.
“I ordered room service,” he said. “I didn’t know what you liked for breakfast, so I got a bit of everything. Do you want to eat in bed?”
“Nah,” she said, stretching fully and getting up. He handed her a robe and she put it on, tying the terrycloth belt around her waist to keep it closed. He wore only jeans, his delicious upper body on full display.
“Are you sorry about the tattoos?” she asked as she sat down and fixed a cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar.
“Kind of. I think he’d let me get regular tattoos as long as I didn’t try to magically cage him again.”
“I didn’t even know that was a thing. Would it work on shifters?”
“I think it would work on anything if it was started early enough. I kept having to get a new one every year, and sometimes the magic would start to fade away from the older ones so I’d have the outline reapplied. To be honest, I always felt like I was missing a part of myself. I never admitted that it was the berserker, because I was afraid of him.”
She arched a brow and took a sip of coffee. “It’s hard to imagine you’re afraid of anything.”
