Page 21 of The Stalker (Ashburne Chronicles #2)

Mine, Forever

Griffin

The forest feels different without him.

For the first time tonight, the voice is gone. The sharp, driving snarl that pushed me, haunted me, hunted through me is no more than a memory. Only silence now stretches in its place. But silence doesn’t mean absence.

Because when I breathe, I still feel him. Not beside me. Not above me. Inside me. Like a brand carved into my bones, Thomas is there. And he always will be.

Bianka shifts in my arms, her body wrecked, trembling, her skin marked by my hands, my mouth, and my teeth. She turns just enough to look at me, eyes shining with tears and moonlight.

I brace myself for the hate, for the terror, for the words that will rip me apart. But none come.

Instead, her lips tremble, her voice a broken whisper. “You didn’t let me run.”

I drag a thumb across her swollen mouth, wiping away her tears. “I couldn’t. You were never meant to run.”

Her chest heaves, her eyes locking on mine, wide and wet. “And now I don’t want to.”

It should sound like a curse. But it doesn’t. It sounds like a promise, like surrender, like forever. My chest burns, words clawing up from the dark place I’ve buried them for years. “I’ve loved you since we were teenagers, Bianka. Since before I even knew what love was. I tried to give you space, tried to stay away. But Thomas...” I swallow hard, the name a bitter ash on my tongue. “Thomas just gave me the push I needed. The push I was too weak to take myself.”

She studies me, eyes flickering with the war I know rages inside her. Shame. Fear. Hunger. All the things that live inside me too. And then her fingers rise, trembling, brushing against my jaw.

“I loved you too,” she whispers. “I was just too afraid. Of the scars. Of you. Of myself.” Her lips quiver. “But you didn’t stop. You didn’t let me hide. And now...” Her breath breaks, her tears spilling. “Now I don’t want you to.”

Something inside me shatters.

I crush my mouth to hers, not gentle, not sweet, but desperate and consuming, sealing us the only way I know how. She gasps into me, then melts, her hands tangling in my hair, her lips opening under mine.

I taste her tears, her surrender, her want. I taste forever.

When I pull back, she’s panting, her lips swollen, her eyes wide. “Griffin...”

“You’re mine,” I rasp, my forehead pressed to hers, my body still trembling with the force of it. “Mine to keep. Mine to break. Mine to love.”

Her eyes flutter shut, her breath hitching. “Yours. Always.”

“Yours,” a faint whisper curls in the back of my skull, softer now, satisfied, like he is still there even though I know he isn’t. And I don’t push it away. Because he was right. We were meant to be. And now she is bound to me.

Forever.

I gather her into my arms, lifting her from the dirt, carrying her back through the woods. Her head rests against my chest, her breath warm and steady. For the first time in years, the hollow inside me is full.

There’s no more running.

No more hiding.

She’s mine.

And I’m hers.

And this is our ever after.

Dark. Twisted. Unbreakable.

The End