51

51
I lay on my back and grimaced in agony. Somebody dropped to their knees beside me, throwing her arms around me and trembling into my chest. “Colt… You came back for me…”

Our fated bond made it impossible to ignore her. My eyes opened, and all I could see was Kiara covered in blood, haloed by the moonlight. She looked more beautiful than ever. In spite of her exhaustion, the dust and blood, and grime, her messy cropped hair, her bruises—she was still the most perfect creature I had ever seen. I mustered a smile for her, reaching out to touch her cheek while her hands clutched my shirt. I pulled her close enough to brush my nose against hers, and then with stunning relief, I stole her lips in a long kiss.

Kiara leaned into me, her gratitude outshining all the pain we both felt. By the time we severed the kiss to breathe, she was half laughing and half crying, sprawled atop my chest. “I can’t believe we’re both still alive. You’re here. You survived… Colt… We made it.”

I laboriously sat up and cradled her in my arms, burying my nose in the crook of her neck. In my periphery, I watched the rubble piled up at the entrance of the mine, but nothing moved. Nothing could have outlived that explosion. “I told you I was going to protect you,” I mumbled, closing my eyes and sinking into the warmth of my fated mate’s embrace. “I’m so sorry I let you get hurt… but my father, he’s dead now. He’s not going to hurt you or anyone ever again. And if you let me, I’ll protect you for the rest of my life from monsters like him. I promise, Kiara.”

Kiara sniffled and melted into my arms, nodding. “I know you will. I trust you, Colt. You saved my life. I’m so happy you’re alive.”

I could barely believe I was. For all I knew, this could be the dream of my fleeting consciousness. It could be the last thing I thought about before the rocks crushed me to death. But I had a feeling that this was very real. The intensity of love and joy in my core told me it was.

I didn’t remember much of the rest of that night. Kiara and I were loaded into a van and driven back to Everett’s house, where our wounds were tended, and we were left to rest, sharing the bed in one of his guest bedrooms. I didn’t wake up again until the morning, stirring to the weight of Kiara’s arm across my chest.

Blinking the sleep out of my eyes, I turned my head and watched her. Sunlight glistened in her short silver hair streaked with brown. Her back gently rose and fell with quiet breaths as she remained asleep. I didn’t want to disturb her, so for another hour, I just lay with her and watched her, marveling at how fortunate I was to share this moment with her. We were both alive. Even though my body ached and her body was broken, and both of us had suffered such immense loss, we were here together. My father was dead, and most likely, Lothair was too. Their reign of terror had ended. We could finally rest.

A small, sharp inhalation was the precursor of Kiara waking up. She scrunched her face in response to awakening to her underlying pains, then peeled her eyes open, focusing on me. I waited patiently for her to register the scene, smiling. She smiled back at me, and once again, I was stricken by her beauty.

“Good morning,” I said softly. I’d never been able to say that to somebody like this—the moment they woke up. “How are you feeling?”

Kiara’s smile faltered, but before saying anything, she craned her neck and kissed my cheek. “I feel like I got run over by a truck,” she replied, laughing quietly.

I laughed with her. “Me too.”

“Hmm. I wonder why.”

We would likely be sharing these pains for a while. I didn’t want to press her for healing magic, knowing that she had already been weakened by everything she went through. It was alright. We had all the time in the world to recover now. “I’m so happy I got to wake up next to you,” I admitted.

Kiara’s fingers idly trailed along my jawline. “I’m happy this didn’t end any other way.”

“I could lay here forever with you.”

Her smile returned, a gleam in her violet eyes expressing sincere joy that I had never witnessed before. She wore it well. I wanted her to have that gleam in her eyes for the rest of her life. “Let’s pretend to be asleep for the next few hours, so nobody bothers us,” suggested Kiara.

“I can do that.” Honestly, I didn’t want to talk to anybody else.

We lay together, wrapped up in each other’s arms for long, peaceful minutes, sharing tender kisses and touches. Her fingertips explored under my shirt and stroked my chest hair or traced my hips. I pulled her on top of me, and though we both still ached, the pain was dulled when we were pressed together like this. For those sweet moments, we forgot about everything we had lost in the last couple of days and took refuge in our closeness.

I still thought that I must be in a dream. Kiara’s kisses were too good to be true.

Then she laughed under her breath, saying, “Colt, I’ve decided. I want to be your mate,” and I pinched myself, expecting to wake up.

But I didn’t. I was very much awake and alive underneath Kiara.

“Mark me,” she whispered.

I felt delirious. We braced our teeth against one another’s necks and began a ritual of our own. Our bodies were prepared to be eternally entwined. They had already been so powerfully connected that the marking ritual didn’t leave us feeling any different.

Only now… I had no doubt that Kiara would be mine forever.