Page 107 of Shifters Reckoning

And our bond was open.

God, the bond was open. My brain kept snagging on him being fully in my head again. It nearly undid me even more than being with Logan in our bedroom. I had lived behind a wall of my own making, feeling him only as a warmth on the far side of it.

Tonight, I’d finally shared the cost, and he’d handed me back a refusal to accept it. It mirrored my refusal of the cost. Our connection could finally flow freely again.

I felt him the way I used to. All of him. The exhaustion. The iron. The soul-fire gone quiet under his ribs. And under all of it, running steady as a pilot light, the reality that had never once wavered in the whole disaster of our lives.

He loved me past the edge of sense.

And, shit, he was horny for every part of me. Though he was trying not to show it.

A grin twisted my face. Damn, I want all your inches. So sexy. I pushed the thought toward him, relishing the ability to communicate directly with him. Have you met my mate? He’s the sexiest beast on two legs.

He tripped on the edge of an area rug. What?

You’re sexy as fuck.

You are.

Believe I’ll take my right as your fated mate. Now.

Emma… We don’t have time. We have to prepare.

I’m not taking no for an answer, Logan. Prepare thyself.

His laughter echoed in my head, and I went to find him.

He was crouched at the hearth in the dining room in nothing but a pair of gray sweats slung low, feeding the new flames. The firelight moved over the muscles of his back.

“I thought you were making drinks,” I said.

“You’re cold. I can feel it through the bond.”

“I was hoping you’d warm me up.”

He lifted his head, and his shoulders went still. Through the bond, I felt him register my determined intention, the change in me, the decision I’d made, the way I’d set the multimorph down at the threshold like a coat I was sick of wearing.

Emma. Not a question.

“Don’t,” I commanded. “Don’t ask me if I’m okay, and don’t tell me I should be resting or training, and do not, Logan Blackwood, say one single word about the dome.” I stopped beside him at the hearth, hooked my hand under his arm, and tugged.

He didn’t budge. “What are you doing?”

“I have been the multimorph since September. I’m off the clock. For one night only, I’m nobody’s savior, nobody’s weapon, and nobody’s prophecy. Except yours.” I wagged my eyebrows. “If you’ll have me.”

He slowly rose out of the crouch, unfolding to his full height. The expression on his face made my heart pound. He didn’t wear his smug alpha mask. He wasn’t the war-planner. Just a man looking at the one he’d spent months afraid of losing.

“If I’ll have you,” he repeated, low, and the sound dropped between my legs and lit a fire. “Woman, I have been dying to have you.”

“Then quit poking the fire and come poke me.” I winked at him.

He barked a laugh and bounded across the room. When he reached me, he cupped my face in both his hands.

He brought his mouth down on mine and devoured me.

I gripped the waistband of those gray sweats and dragged him against me, and his growl rolled straight down the open bond and blazed inside me.

There she is, he sent, and his desire exploded across the link. A wildfire burst through, blazing over my skin. There’s my Emma.