"I guess I'd better make it official and ask her," Kade said, smiling as he stroked Alex's cheek. He drew her gaze to his. "What do you think, Alex? Any chance I can convince you to come back with me to Boston?"
Her soft brown eyes gleamed. "I've never been to New England. I think I'd like to see it." Kade's grin burst across his face. "I'll show you the whole damn world if you'll let me." They kissed, interrupted a moment later by Kir's slightly awkward clearing of his throat. Alex was blushing furiously. Kade felt no embarrassment for his affection, meeting his father's amused look with an unapologetic quirk of his brows.
Kir smiled, then strode to the door, Kade and Alex walking at his side. When they paused at the threshold, Kade held out his hand, but his father didn't take it. Instead, he pulled Kade into a firm embrace.
"I know that you have made a family in Boston with the Order," he said as he drew back to meet Kade's eyes. "I'm glad for you. But you have a family here, as well. You and your beautiful Alexandra both have family here."
"May I hug you, too?" Alex asked, turning her warmth on Kade's gruff father. Kir's mouth curved into a rare smile. "I would be honored if you did." As Alex embraced him, the elder male glanced at Kade, his gaze filled with too many emotions for Kade to name. Pride, forgiveness, regret, hope ... years of emotions that went unspoken between father and son. Maybe now they would have the chance to repair the things that had been buried under so many secrets, so many useless fears.
And then there was Alexandra.
Kade looked at the female he loved--his female, his mate. His heart overflowed with all the things he wanted to say to her, things he wanted to share with her ... promises he intended to give her now, in the hope that he would have the rest of his life with her to make good on them.
Kade wrapped his arm around Alex's shoulders as they stood together and watched his father stroll across the moonlit snow toward the main house. When he was gone, Kade turned to Alex and swept her up into his arms.
She gasped as her feet left the ground, then laughed as he pivoted around and started walking with her toward his bedroom. "Put me down! You're hardly recovered from your burns, Kade. You really shouldn't be doing this."
"Oh, yes, I should," he replied, gazing into her eyes with a hunger he wouldn't have been able to mask even if he'd tried.
They made love together, at first a tempestuous, fevered joining, both of them lost to the swell of their emotions and to the urgent demands of their desire for each other. Kade ravished her body, made her climax so many times she finally gave up trying to keep count.
Alex's senses were filled with him, her body thrumming as she came down from the crest of another wave of pleasure, nestled in the protective shelter of Kade's arms.
She loved him so deeply she ached with her devotion. And in the afterglow of their passion, she knew that he loved her, too.
His touch was tender as he stroked the sensitive skin of her neck, his fingers skating like velvet beneath her ear. "I haven't done right by you," he murmured quietly. "When I drank from you that first night at your house in Harmony. It should have been your choice, Alex. I took that from you. I should have told you what it meant before I bonded myself to you. I should have had honor enough to earn the right, not steal it the way I did."
"It doesn't matter to me," she murmured. "All that matters is that we are together now. I want you forever, Kade. I want ..." The words trailed off, not out of fear or uncertainty, but out of the depth of her longing. She turned her head to look at him. "All I want is you, to be bonded to you as your mate."
"And all I want is to make you happy, and to know that you are safe and protected."
"I am. There's nowhere I could be happier--or more secure--than here in your arms." She caressed his handsome face, seeing the torment that still lingered in his expression. The measure of self-doubt that hadn't quite faded from his eyes, and might never fully disappear. "Together we are strong, Kade. Stronger than the wildness inside you. You heard what your father said: Love is the greatest strength. Nothing is more powerful than that."
"You really believe that?"
"More than anything," she replied. "But the question is, do you?" He stared at her for a long moment, his silver eyes searching. "So long as I have you beside me, I can believe that anything is possible. I love you, Alexandra. You are everything to me." He brought her closer and kissed her--the most tender, reverent kiss she had ever known. Alex melted into him, her body responding in a fluid rush of warmth that pooled in her core. She tipped her head back as his mouth traveled down the line of her jaw, to the side of her throat.
Kade reared his head back on a growl. He stared at her, his eyes blazing with amber sparks, his fangs glowing white. Already he was panting with need, fierce with hunger for her. He scowled, dark emotions tossing in the depths of his silver eyes. "Forever?"
"Forever, Kade." She let her fingers drift over his sensual mouth, where the points of his fangs glinted behind his parted lips. "Bind me to you now. I want to taste you. I want to have forever with you." On a deep growl, his gaze locked on hers, he brought his wrist up to his mouth. He parted his lips, then sank his fangs into the flesh and muscle. Blood dripped from the punctures and down his chin. Tentative, he held his arm out to her.
Alex took him in her hands and brought his wrist to her lips.
The first taste of him was a shock. She didn't know what she'd expected, but none of her imaginings had prepared her for the reality of drinking from Kade. His blood was a sweetness that rolled over her tongue, a stunning wildness that stole her breath. She drank in the scent of his skin and the earthy spice of his blood as she drew from his open vein.
his blood as she drew from his open vein.
Power surged through her like lightning.
Kade groaned with pleasure and she drank more, greedy now, desire pulsing through every nerve ending and making all of her senses come vividly to life. Heat roared deep inside her, and she whimpered as the first wave of orgasm rose up on her and swept her away.
Kade's growl was purely male, purely triumphant.
Alex was still riding the crest of rapture as he licked the wound at his wrist, then spread her body, opening her thighs to the searing heat of his hungry gaze.
"You are mine now, Alex. God help you, you are mine forever now."
"Then show me," she whispered, her voice roughened from pleasure. She swept her tongue along her lips, savoring every last taste of him on her mouth. She tipped her head to the side, presenting her throat to him. "Show me that I will always belong to you, Kade."