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Steph hummed and wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me close. “You know,” he murmured, “I’d never taken a bath in here until you came into my life.”

“That’s sad,” I said. “Baths are the easiest luxury.”

“I was never really a man of luxury.”

“Well, maybe you can add in a little bit here and there.” I lifted his hand out of the water and kissed his knuckles. “For me.”

He kissed my neck. “Just for you.”

We rested in comfortable silence for a moment, and I savored the warmth of Steph’s body against mine in the hot water around us.

“How’d today go?” I asked. “You were gone a long time.”

“A lot of logistical stuff to deal with. We had a full clan meeting at the clubhouse. I chose a handful of guys to come with me to the challenge as witnesses.”

“Just witnesses?” I asked.

“And backup,” he said. “For a challenge, it should just be me and Sean, but…”

“He’s not guaranteed to follow the rules,” I said.

“Right. He might try to ambush me, then say he won the challenge fair and square.”

“That seems dumb.”

Steph snorted. “It would be, but I wouldn’t put anything past him at this point.”

I folded my hands over his forearms and gently massaged his tense muscles. “What about Blakely and Forrest? Are they involved?”

“We’ve had eyes on Blakely. She’s barely left her apartment,” Steph said. “Forrest resigned and skipped town in a hurry. Tank followed him all the way to the state border.”

“So, he’s gone for good?”

“Should be,” Steph said. “Plus, we said we’d make sure he didn’t work as a cop again.”

“Can you actually do that?” I asked.

Steph laughed. “It’s kind of a pain in the ass to keep eyes on him for that long, but worth it. We’ll find a reliable contact wherever he settles.”

I nodded, and the anxiety that had been living in my chest these past weeks loosened. Steph made it seem so easy. Even when things seemed out of control, he always had a plan. He was always thinking a few steps ahead.

Sure, that was the same quality that kept him from claiming me, but it was a good quality, nonetheless.

“So, we only have one problem left,” I murmured, running my hands up and down his arms. “Sean.”

His arms tightened around me. “Yeah.”

“How are you doing? Really.” We hadn’t really talked about his brother, not in depth, at least. Not about how this loss really affected him.

Steph sighed and nuzzled his face into the curve of my neck like a big, affectionate puppy.

I leaned back against him, head tipped to the side to give him more skin to kiss.

I’d figured out these kinds of gestures soothed him.

It was a shifter thing. I waited in comfortable silence as he gathered his thoughts.

“It’s strange,” Steph said after a long moment.

“I’ve accepted it, somehow. He’s no longer my brother, because he never really was.

The man I thought I knew never existed. There’s nothing to return to.

Nothing corrupted. Who he is now is who he always was.

He’s a threat. He’s an enemy. Nothing more than that. ”

“I’m sorry,” I murmured.

“In a way, I’m relieved. I’m glad I know it was all a lie. It hurts, but it makes ending this easier. I don’t have to carry the memory of a lie.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s easy.” I turned my head enough to capture his lips. I tried to pour as much love and comfort as I could into the touch. I couldn’t take his pain away, but I could try to carry some of it for him.

“It isn’t,” Steph admitted. “It won’t be. But it’s worth it. Because it means we’ll get to be together.”

“And you’ll get to claim me,” I whispered against his lips.

Steph growled and bared his teeth into the kiss. It was an almost animalistic gesture, like he couldn’t control himself. I loved it when he got so overwhelmed with passion the dragon started to slip out.

“I will.” His erection hardened against my lower back, and he slid his hands down my body. “I was so pissed at Striker today.”

“Pissed?”

“That he got to claim his mate before I did.”

A little zip of heat went down my spine. I loved it when he got possessive like this—like he could barely control himself. I wondered what it would be like when he claimed me. If I’d feel his dragon’s possessiveness in my own body.

“I’m jealous of Cassidy. She could tell. I couldn’t even ask her what it feels like. I don’t want to know. Not until I experience it myself.”

“Fuck.” Steph slid his hand to my inner thigh and gripped hard, so close to where I suddenly needed his touch. “You can’t talk like that, Harley.”

I drew my lips teasingly over his jaw. “Why not?”

“Because I’m having a hard enough time controlling myself as it is.

” He returned my teasing kisses, then kissed his way down my neck, pressing his teeth to the skin there.

It felt different from the other times he’d touched me there, and my entire body reacted.

It was like a bolt of electricity shot through me, from the crown of my head and racing down to my toes, making me press back against his erection.

Desperate for his touch, I rocked my hips forward then back against him.

It was like the longer I went without being claimed, the more my body wanted it.

Not just my heart. It was a physical need burning inside of me. I needed to be his.

“I need you, Steph,” I begged.

He caught my chin and turned my head so our gazes locked. His eyes burned gold. “Harley,” he growled in a voice that was more dragon than human, “I don’t know if I can be gentle tonight.”

Heat simmered low in my belly. “Then don’t be.”