Page 60 of Shifting Hearts

FOURTEEN

Marked

Emilia

T here are three choices. Run, fight, or bind myself to him in blood and bone.

And for the first time in years, I don’t want to run.

Not because I’m not scared… I am. But because when Lucian looks at me, like I’m his, like nothing else matters…

I finally believe I might be more than just the magic they hate.

I might be enough.

He doesn’t ask me again, he waits. Leaning against the cabin door like a storm held barely in check. I can feel the bond humming between us, alive and warm, wanting.

I walk toward him slowly, heart in my throat.

“I want the mark.”

His jaw tightens. “You don’t have to?—”

“I want it,” I cut in. “Not because I’m scared. Not because of them. Because of you.”

He studies me, eyes burning gold in the firelight. “I need you to understand something,” he says, voice low. “This isn’t just a ceremony. This is permanent. You take my mark, you take me. Forever.”

“I know.”

His hands lift and brush a strand of hair from my cheek. “No more hiding?”

“No more hiding.”

“No more pretending either of us don’t feel it?”

I lean up, lips brushing his. “No more pretending.”

We strip each other slowly this time, reverent instead of rushed.

There’s something sacred in the air now, like the moon itself is holding its breath.

Lucian lays me down on the bed, kissing a trail down my chest, my stomach, my thighs.

Worshipping. His licks at my pussy with little growls as I writhe on the mattress, feeling the pleasure only he can bring.

My orgasm crests and crashes over me, a scream ripping from deep inside my chest as I feel immeasurable pleasure and my vision goes white.

When I look back at him, breathing heavily, there’s a knife in his hand. It’s a ceremonial blade. Black obsidian with gold and ruby inlaid in the handles, carved with pack sigils older than either of us.

He meets my gaze, and I nod. He cuts his palm first, the blood welling brightly in the moons light. Then he cuts my shoulder, just beneath the collarbone. The mark is meant to be permanent.

His blood touches mine and the bond erupts. It burns through me like wildfire. Not pain but power. His power and mine. Twining, twisting, claiming, and binding. My back arches off the mattress as heat floods my body, bones crack, and my skin itches, all of my senses snap into overdrive.

I can feel everything. His heartbeat. His breath. His need. And when his thick cock slides into me again, the bond snaps even tighter around both of us. We move together, one rhythm, one breath, one soul split into two bodies.

He bites me, hard, where the blood mark lives. And I bite him back. The final step to locking our bond together, forever. He fucks me harder with a growl that comes from the wolf inside him. My own wolf responds in kind.

When we come, it’s not just release. It’s fusion and it’s surrender. It’s a vow burned into our bones and into our souls. Lucian collapses beside me, panting.

I crawl onto his chest, pressing my lips to the new mark on his chest, my mark. We’re sweaty, bloody, and bruised. But we’re finally whole.

“You’re mine now,” I whisper.

“I always was,” he replies. “I was just too stupid to see it.”

We lie there long after the moon has risen to its peak, the night air cool through the broken window. I trace the edge of the mark on my skin, still tender, still glowing faintly.

“I don’t feel human anymore,” I murmur.

Lucian laughs softly. “Good.”

“But I’m not full wolf either.”

“You’re you and that’s enough.”

I glance up at him. “Do you think they’ll come for me?”

His face darkens.

“They won’t get the chance.”