For a long moment, neither of them moved. She rested her forehead on his chest, desperately trying to catch her breath, desperately hoping the ritual hadn't worked. But the air still hummed, her skin still tingled, and he was still so very hard inside her.
After a while, he lifted her chin, his lips seeking hers, his kiss a lingering taste of passion.
"What the moon has joined, let no wolf break." He brushed sweaty strands of hair from her forehead, then kissed her again. Sweetly. Gently. But it wasn't his kiss that sent goose bumps fleeing across her skin. It was the caring in his dark eyes. The gentle, almost loving smile touching his lips. "May the moon bless this union and grant us life."
Energy seemed to flow through every pore of her being. For one moment, it felt as if the moon itself was blessing her. Blessing them. She fought the sting of more tears and closed her eyes. Thankfully, the moon couldn't bless this union with life. Not when Duncan had been given the fertility control injection.
"By the moon's divine light, let us now celebrate this union." Though the words were the last in the ritual, they were also what she wanted. All she wanted.
All they did, through the remainder of the long night. By the end of which she truly knew what it felt like to be loved by a man like Duncan.
But did she dare believe it?
* * * *
A distant ringing stirred Duncan from slumber, but it was a sound that stopped almost the minute he woke. He swore softly and looked around. The morning's light peeked past the bedroom curtains, indicating dawn had come and gone. He hadn't meant to sleep so long. Hadn't meant to love Neva so long. Hadn't meant to do a lot of things. But he regretted none of them.
Especially not binding Neva to him heart and soul.
He smiled and splayed his fingers across her belly, pressing her close against him. She was his, and there was nothing on this Earth that could separate them now.
While it was supposed to have been nothing more than pretense, the minute he'd said the first words of the ritual and felt the stirrings of magic in the air, he'd known what was happening. And there was no way in hell he'd been about to stop — or let her stop. Neva was his, and the ceremony ensured that, from this point on, she could no more turn to another wolf than he could. It wasn't playing fair, wasn't giving her the choice, but in all honesty, he didn't care. He'd spent more than half his life looking for his soul mate, and now that he'd found her, he wasn't about to let her go. Wasn't about to sit back and watch her walk into the arms of what her family might consider a "more suitable" mate.
Because he very much suspected that was what she might do. Family was everything to a wolf, to Neva more than most, and this break with her parents was killing her. And while he was responsible for that, he had no intention of walking away to mend the rift. And the ceremony had given him the time he needed to convince Neva and her parents, that his intentions and his feelings were both honest and true.
The ringing started again, soft but insistent. It seemed to be coming from downstairs ... his cell phone, he realized. It was still in the pants he'd discarded in the living room. Neva stirred, and he brushed a kiss across her shoulder.
"Sleep," he said, using the power of the moon binding to make it an order. She'd probably fry his brains when she woke and realized he was still using that hold on her, but right now, he didn't care. She needed the rest.
She murmured something that sounded suspiciously like a curse, then drifted back to sleep. He kissed her again, this time on her cheek, then climbed out of bed and padded downstairs, finding his pants and pulling out the phone. "Hello?"
"There's been a fire at the hospital."
His father's voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, and Duncan's gut began to churn. "René?"
"Is missing. Kane was found unconscious but alive in one of the stairwells. Looks like he'd been trying to stop the kidnappers."
"He's okay?"
"Nothing more than a bruised ego, and a mighty bump on the back of the head."
"I gather it was Betise and Iyona?"
"Yes. Apparently Betise let him chase her into the stairwell, where Iyona jumped him."
Duncan took a deep breath and released it slowly. "What about Savannah and the other patients?" Neva would want to know her sister was okay, even though she would surely have known if something bad had happened. The link between the two of them was strong.
"They're fine. The fire was in the basement, used merely as a distraction."
"You're heading up a hunting party?"
"Tye's on his way to join me and Kane. Savannah's given permission for us to be included in the official party."
Probably because she knew they'd form a hunting party of their own if she didn't. "Do you intend to join them?"
"Yes. If only because if I find those two alone, I might be tempted to kill them. The Sinclair name has taken enough of a beating these past few weeks. We don't need to add murder to our crimes."
Duncan glanced around for his sweater. "I'll be there in five minutes."