Page 21

His lips mapped the slope of her neck, down the line of her clavicle, trailing lower until her breath caught and her body arched, inviting him to taste. Her skin glowed faintly where he kissed her, like the bond was tattooing its memory into the fabric of the world.

“Griff,” she breathed, running her fingers through his dark hair. “I want you.”

“You have me,” he growled, voice low and rough. “Every inch, every breath, every fucking heartbeat.”

He kissed his way down her torso, dragging his mouth over the soft curve of her breast, the swell of her stomach, until he reached the apex of her thighs. He spread her open slowly, his bear purring under his skin at the sight of her—wet, flushed, utterly ready for him.

“Gods, you’re perfect,” he muttered, kissing her inner thigh. “I could spend the rest of my life right here.”

“Then stop talking and?—”

He flattened his tongue against her pussy in one long, slow lick, cutting her off with a cry that made his cock throb in answer.

She tasted like heat and magic and the kind of surrender that could only come from trust. He licked her again, then again, groaning into her folds as she bucked beneath him.

“Griff—Griff, fuck—” she whimpered, hands twisting in the sheets.

He wrapped his arms around her thighs and devoured her, tongue swirling around her clit before plunging into her cunt with a hunger that bordered on holy.

Every sound she made, every twitch and tremble, fed something wild and protective in him.

He needed her to fall apart. Needed to hear her scream his name.

When she shattered for the first time, it was with a sob of his name and a blinding flash of golden light that danced across the ceiling, the bond responding to her pleasure with sparks of magic that hummed against his skin.

“Don’t you dare stop,” she gasped, panting. “I want more.”

He crawled up her body and kissed her hard, letting her taste herself on his tongue.

“You’re going to get more,” he promised, guiding her hands to the waistband of his pants. “I want you to unwrap me, Mara. I want you to take your time.”

She obeyed with a grin that was equal parts wicked and radiant. She unfastened his pants slowly, deliberately, her fingertips brushing his skin in ways that made him curse under his breath. When his cock sprang free, thick and flushed and already leaking, she let out a breathless laugh.

“That’s mine,” she said, wrapping her hand around him.

“All yours,” he groaned, thrusting into her fist with a helpless roll of his hips. “Use me. Claim me.”

She stroked him slow, firm, twisting her wrist just enough to make his eyes roll back.

When he couldn’t take it anymore, he grabbed her hand, pinned it to the bed, and aligned himself at her entrance. He paused, forehead pressed to hers.

“You ready?”

She smiled, tearful and fierce. “I’ve been ready since the moment I met you.”

Griff pushed in slow, thick head breaching her tight, slick heat. They both moaned—hers high and breathless, his low and guttural. Inch by inch, he slid into her, until he was fully seated, their bodies joined in every way that mattered.

“Holy shit,” he panted, holding still, her pussy clenching around him like a velvet vice. “You feel… gods, you feel like you were made for me.”

Her legs wrapped around his waist, locking him deeper. “Then fuck me like I am.”

He didn’t hold back after that.

Griff set a slow, powerful rhythm, hips rolling into hers with smooth precision, each thrust designed to make her feel him everywhere. Her pussy gripped him like she never wanted him to leave, like her body was learning his rhythm the way her heart already had.

He kissed her as he moved—her mouth, her neck, the underside of her jaw, murmuring between each kiss.

“You’re mine.”

“My mate.”

“My love.”

“My home.”

She cried out with every stroke, her nails dragging down his back, leaving marks that made him growl in satisfaction. The bond between them flared brighter, magic pulsing with every thrust, their souls twining tighter.

When her second climax hit, it was raw and violent, a full-body quake that made her sob his name and clamp down around his cock like she was trying to pull him even deeper. He rode it out, whispering how beautiful she was, how good, how his.

Then he flipped them, holding her to his chest as he sat back on his knees, letting her ride him now. She gasped at the angle, at the sudden depth, at the way he filled her to the hilt and then some.

“Fuck—Griff?—”

“Take what you need, sweetheart,” he rasped, hands on her hips, guiding her as she bounced on his cock. “This is all for you.”

Her hands braced on his shoulders, her body moving with grace and abandon. She met his eyes as she rode him, and it broke something open inside him—how much he loved her, how much he’d risked and lost and still ended up here, whole, wanted, chosen.

When he felt himself teetering on the edge, he thrust up into her once, twice—and then spilled inside her with a roar, burying his face in her neck as he came so hard it made his vision go white.

They collapsed together, bodies shaking, magic still humming through the air like it had a heartbeat of its own.

Their breathing slowed. The bond settled. The world quieted around them.

“I love you,” Griff whispered against her skin, the words not just a vow but a completion. “I love you, and Tilly, and the life we’ve built together.”

“I love you too,” Mara whispered back, voice raw and full of wonder. “And I love what we just made. What we’ll keep making. This life.”

The next morning brought the peaceful routine of married life: shared coffee and comfortable silence, planning for the day's responsibilities, and the quiet satisfaction of waking up beside someone who chose to love you despite knowing all your flaws and fears.

Tilly returned from her sleepover with Aerin and Leo full of stories about their research projects and questions about magical theory that would have challenged graduate students.

But it was her simple declaration of "You both look really happy" that made the completion of their family bond feel truly real.

Over the following weeks, Mistwhisper Falls settled into its new normal with the Cooper-Voss family as one of its anchor points.

Ruth continued her work identifying supernatural corruption while slowly healing from her decades of internal warfare.

Nico traveled between communities, sharing the genealogical knowledge that helped other supernatural settlements understand their heritage and prepare for potential threats.

And Aerin and Leo's research revealed that their success in transforming rather than destroying the ancient entity had indeed attracted attention from other cosmic forces.

But these new threats found a supernatural world that was better prepared, more connected, and more committed to choosing redemption over revenge.

"Let them come," Tilly said one evening as they sat together in their living room, her homework spread across the coffee table while her parents worked on their own projects.

"Let them try to prove that being mean is better than being nice.

We'll show them what we showed the lonely lady.

We'll show them that families who choose to love each other are stronger than anything that tries to hurt them. "

Griff and Mara exchanged glances over their daughter's head, both amazed and slightly concerned by her fearless confidence in the face of cosmic-level threats.

But they'd learned to trust Tilly's instincts, just as they'd learned to trust each other and the community that had supported them through every crisis.

Whatever came next, they would face it together. As a family bonded by choice rather than fate, as a community united by love rather than fear, and as people who had proven that connection was stronger than isolation, healing more powerful than destruction, and hope more enduring than despair.

The foundation had been laid for whatever challenges the future might bring.

And in the growing darkness where new threats might already be gathering, their love shone steady and strong, a beacon for everyone who believed that tomorrow could be better than yesterday if they were brave enough to build it together.