Chapter 137

Amelia

When I woke, the room felt quieter than it had in days. Not physically, but something deeper. The air still smelled of sweat and sex and wolf, but the urgency had softened. My body ached in the best way, limbs heavy, lips swollen, skin marked from teeth and hands and heat, but my mind felt clearer than it had since the first spike.

Richard stirred when I shifted. His lashes were thick against his cheek, his breathing slow. Even asleep, he kept a hand on my stomach, fingers curled possessively like he didn’t trust the world not to pull me away.

I rolled toward him, pressing a kiss to his collarbone. He blinked awake with a soft grunt, looking at me like he wasn’t sure if I was real or a dream still tugging at him.

"Hi," I whispered.

He smiled slowly. "Hey."

I pushed my leg between his, kissed his shoulder again, slower this time. My body wasn’t done. Not really. But the edge had changed. It was slow now. Melting. Like we had time.

I reached down, sliding my hand over him until he hardened beneath my palm. He groaned and rolled onto his back, and I climbed over him, lips brushing his jaw.

"Still insatiable," he said, voice rough.

"I think it’s finally tapering," I murmured, guiding him to my entrance. "But I want to feel it end. With you."

This time, I didn’t ride him the same way. I braced my hands on his chest and rocked slowly, adjusting my hips, taking him deeper each time until his head fell back and his mouth parted.

"God, Amelia," he rasped. "You’re so tight. Still so fucking wet."

I leaned over him, kissed the corner of his mouth, and whispered, "I want you to feel me for days."

He groaned and thrust up into me, hitting something inside that made me gasp.

The bond pulled between us. And this time, it didn't just hum. It opened.

Images hit me in flashes, not thoughts or memories, but something older and more raw. A wooden swing under summer light. Jenny as a toddler, grinning through a missing tooth. A night when he bled out in a trench, clutching a silver medallion that belonged to his sister. Loneliness like stone. Loyalty like armor.

I gasped. He felt me stiffen, and his hands steadied me. His brow furrowed, but he didn’t push me away.

Then it flipped.

He gasped. I knew he was seeing me.

The cracked tile of the children’s home. The ache of being chosen and unchosen again. My mother’s face the last day I saw her. Cold. My own arms wrapped around my knees the first time I bled and thought it meant I was dying. Hunger. Hiding. Hope.

We didn’t speak. I braced my knees wider and bounced harder, chasing something I didn’t have words for. He matched my rhythm with sharp, upward thrusts, his hands gripping my waist tight.

“Amelia,” he warned, voice frayed.

“Don’t stop,” I moaned. “I’m so close. Just like that.”

He thrust harder, faster, and I broke apart with a loud, helpless cry. I felt him pulsing inside me as I clenched down, shaking through my orgasm while he groaned my name into my throat.

I stayed straddled across his hips, trembling and breathless.

“I saw you,” I whispered.

He kissed the top of my head. “I know.”

We lay tangled together for a long time after. When we finally pulled apart, I fetched water and fruit. We ate in the nest, legs crossed, both of us naked and unashamed.

“My thighs hate you,” I said.

He chuckled. “That bad?”

“You’ve ruined me. I don’t know how I’ll walk.”

He reached over and kissed the inside of my knee. “I’ll carry you.”

After eating, we curled back together. The tension inside me had ebbed, but not completely. The edge still thrummed beneath my skin.

“I thought heat was supposed to end when the Alpha’s rut faded,” I said quietly.

Richard’s hand paused on my back. “It usually does.”

I lifted my head. “But it hasn’t. Not really.”

He nodded. “It’s easing. But your body’s holding onto it.”

“Is that bad?”

His eyes searched mine. “No. Just intense. Unusual. But you’ve always been a little unusual.”

“I like how it feels,” I admitted. “It’s not just sex. It’s like I'm finally awake, not just my wolf.”

“I know,” he said. “I can feel it. She’s strong.”

We napped again. When I woke, I reached for him and he was already there, half-hard and smiling lazily.

This time, I didn’t climb on top. He rolled me beneath him, kissing me slow and deep. His hands cradled my thighs as he slid in with one long, slow thrust that made us both gasp.

“Tell me what you need,” he murmured, forehead against mine.

“Just you,” I breathed. “Don’t stop. Please.”

He moved slow, deep, dragging it out. My legs wrapped around his waist, my hands buried in his hair. His lips brushed mine between kisses, and when I came again, it was quieter, just a soft moan into his mouth, my whole body shivering.

I thought that was it. That we’d fall asleep like that, skin to skin. But his hand slipped down between us, fingers brushing my clit, slow and deliberate.

My hips bucked. “Richard,” I gasped.

“I want to feel you again,” he said. “Want to watch you come like this.”

He rolled us, lifting just one of my legs over his shoulder and thrusting deeper. The angle hit something different. I cried out, arching off the mattress.

“That’s it,” he growled. “Take it. Let me feel all of it.”

I was close again, too close. It rushed me like a wave. I clawed at his back, moaning openly, eyes fluttering.

“I need you to fill me,” I whispered, frantic. “Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”

“Not stopping,” he promised. “Give in to it. Let me hear you.”

I shattered with a scream, body trembling violently beneath him. He slowed only slightly, groaning my name, chasing his own release.

He came with a growl, biting down on my shoulder hard enough to leave a mark. Filling me to the brim. We both went still, panting, forehead to forehead.

When I could finally breathe again, I realized I was crying. Just a little. Just from how overwhelming it all felt.

“I didn’t know I could feel like this,” I whispered.

“I know,” he said, kissing me. “Me neither.”

We didn’t even clean up. We stayed there, tangled, skin to skin.

Richard brushed my hair back. “What was that you were humming?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It just... matched something. The bell sound. The one from the mindlink.”

His face shifted slightly. Like a puzzle piece had clicked into place.

I didn’t ask. The look on his face said enough, and some part of me already knew the answer. Whatever had clicked into place for him, it wasn’t something he was ready to explain.

Later, while I cleaned up, he stepped into the far corner of the room and touched two fingers to his temple. The moment he did, I felt it, a soft echo in the back of my mind, like a sound carried through water. Not words exactly, but intention. I knew now, I really could hear fragments of mindlinks. Even without meaning to, I was starting to tap in.

Send me the bell log reports.

I want every instance noted in the last two months. Start from the tower. Expand outward.

Outside the sealed wing, a low-ranking guard stood alone on rotation. He’d been posted near the southern corridor for five hours and hadn’t seen anything until now.

Just past the tree line, near the old bell tower, something shifted.

The guard straightened, hand brushing his weapon. He scanned the area again. Nothing.

But something had been there. Watching.

Waiting.