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I chuckled and leaned my head against his shoulder, exhaustion wearing on me.

“Get some sleep. I’ll make sure the others know everything’s fine,” he said.

I closed my eyes, figuring that sounded like a damn good idea. At least, until one of the things Ihadlearned about mythology stuck out. “Wait, did you really fuck a horse?”

He snickered. “Technically, it was the other way around. Go to sleep, Little Crow.” A warm press of his lips to my temple helped erase the last bit of frustration hit me, the worry, and sleep took me.

I hadn’t expected this to end with me waking up a god—who now wanted me dead—but it didn’t shock me as much as it should have. Did that show how fucking weird my life was?

I’d fucked around, I’d found out.

I’d started to build what was actually a happy life, had people to protect, to watch out for, to care about, and if anything threatened that?

I might have just been a crow, but I’d take on anything—even a god—to protect what I’d found.

* * * *

Galen

It was good to think clearly again, but I wished I couldn’t recall everything that had happened while I’d lost my mind. It was strange to come that close to my other side, to see that part of myself that I always kept such tight control on.

I’d been helpless against its wants, its reactions, all of it.

We’d gotten back the night before, and Knot had come to tell me—and the others—that Grey was sleeping at home. I’d touched base with all the Weres I could, only to find all those who had gone feral had returned to their old selves.

I understood the cost, perhaps better than most. If there was a being who spawned all the Spirits inside the Weres, that was not a benevolent spirit. And because of us—because of me—it had been awoken and unleashed.

“You look better.” Grey’s voice unknotted all the tension inside of me.

“What did I tell you about breaking into a Were’s house?” The words left me automatically, the familiar back and forth helping me feel at ease, as though things were okay between us.

“That you find it impossibly charming?”

I turned to find her smiling, standing just past the porch in my backyard. She’d probably hopped the fence, but with her, who knew for sure?

It took me back to just how much she meant to me. I’d held off before, held back the instincts that made me want to bind her to me, to make her my mate. Even after I’d nearly lost her twice, I’d resisted it all.

This time was different. I’d come face to face with my own demons, with the beast inside me, and I’d watched Grey risk it all to save me.

“I really do,” I said. “So I’m going to give you one more chance, Grey. If you don’t want this, if you don’t want to be my mate, you need to leave. I can’t pretend like I can keep things like this, not anymore.” I gripped the edges of my chair, using that to keep myself in place, to not reach out and grab her as I wanted. I closed my eyes, because I wasn’t sure I could let her go if I had to watch her walk away.

The waiting nearly broke me, my senses straining for any sign of what she would choose, fully expecting her to walk away. Why wouldn’t she? I didn’t think I had anything to give her, not really.

The unexpected gift of her warmth struck me harder than anything else when she crawled into my lap, when she pressed her lips to mine. I immediately let go of the armrests and wrapped my arms around her, clinging her to me, letting my beast go just a little, letting myself grasp her so she couldn’t escape me.

“You’re sure?” I asked, unable to believe my good fortune.

“I mean, I don’t know what it requires, so if there’s anything weird, we’ll see.”

“Too late,” I said and kissed her deeper, slipping my tongue past her lips, tasting her, letting it soak into me, to ease those parts of me that had craved her so badly for so many years. I pulled back to stare at her, needing to see her reaction. “You’re mine. Next full moon, we make it official.”

“You keep focusing on what I want, but you’ve seen the messes I’ve gotten myself into. You sure you want to have that disaster as a mate?” I heard the question in her voice, the uncertainty, the fear. It reminded me that she hadn’t rejected me so far because she didn’t care for me, because she didn’t even love me, but because she truly didn’t think anyone could love her.

It broke my heart that even this far into knowing me, she still didn’t realize the truth.

I slid my hand to the nape of her neck so she looked into my eyes. “You are a mess, Grey, but there is nowhere I want to be more than right next to you in whatever disaster you find yourself in. That’s exactly where I belong.”

She took her lip between her teeth, her eyes bright as she stared back at me. I could see the way she struggled to accept that, to believe it.

Which was fine by me. I pulled her in for another kiss.

I’d spend the rest of my life proving to her that she was the only choice for me.

I’d told her once that thinking someone’s life had some grand purpose was pointless, but I’d been lying back then. The truth was that the more time I spent with her, the more I knew the truth. My whole reason for life was loving this girl, and that sort of certainty was good for me.

It sounded like a damn good way to spend a life to me.

She might be able to escape anything, but that wouldn’t include me, because Grey was my mate.