When Eve woke, it took several minutes for the fog of sleep to lift. She was in Lazarus’s bed, in his room at the compound.
Warm.
Safe.
Home.
She lay cocooned by a mountain of pillows. The big room felt cozy with the lights dimmed. She tried to sit up, but could barely move her arms with the duvet pulled up high and tucked around her securely.
It took a moment for the confusion to clear and her memories to come flooding back. She struggled to get free of the covers again, and pain shot through her shoulder.
Lazarus?
The familiar scent of her mate surrounded her, enveloped her in warmth, and the panic subsided. He was safe.
The door cracked open and his wide shoulders filled the narrow space. With his feet bare and wearing only a pair of black jeans that sat low on his hips, she took the opportunity to search the hard planes of his bare chest, looking for any sign of injury. All that remained of the vicious wounds he’d received from the demon attack were fading pink marks, now barely visible on his smooth skin.
He carried a tray laden with food, and when he glanced up, he offered her a wide smile. “You’re awake.” He sat on the bed beside her. “You’ve been asleep so long I was getting worried. How are you feeling? Are you hungry?”
All she wanted to do was touch him, convince herself that he was unhurt, that he was really here with her, that this wasn’t just some beautiful dream. “I think so.”
“I wasn’t sure what you’d feel like. So, I, ah”—he glanced down at the overflowing tray—“yeah, I got some of everything.” He seemed unsure of himself, nervous.
“A drink would be good to start with.” She gave in and rested a hand on his thigh. The heat and hard muscle beneath her palm reassured her like nothing else could.
He handed her a glass of juice and studied her face, searching her gaze for what she didn’t know, but his uncertainty shone through. Her chest squeezed.
She lifted her hand to her throat. The weight of the gold disk she’d worn around her neck for weeks was noticeable in its absence. “The amulet?”
“Chaos found it where Tobias…where he had you…chained.” His voice had grown deeper, rougher.
“What will happen to Tobias?” she asked.
“We can’t feel him anymore. For the first time in centuries.” His jaw bunched. “Diemos wouldn’t have been happy with his failure.” His eyes met hers.
“You think he’s dead?”
Lazarus nodded.
Even after everything, it still hurt him. “I’m sorry.”
He squeezed her hand still resting on his thigh and cleared his throat. His eyes searched hers. “When…when I first came for you, the idea of making you mine, shit, it scared the fuck out of me. I didn’t want it, what you represented, what it meant for both of us.” The muscle in his jaw bunched. “I didn’t feel worthy of you.”
Eve shook her head. “Laz—”
“I never planned to stay once I’d made you mine. I was going to leave, Eve.”
Her pulse stuttered, raced faster. “You were?” she whispered.
Pain distorted his features. “I don’t deserve you, Eve. And truthfully, I never will. I should give you back the amulet. I should leave. Let you find someone worthy of you.” His voice was nothing but a broken growl.
She shook her head, unable to speak. She wanted to tell him she couldn’t live without him, but her throat constricted, choking off her words.
He leaned forward and stopped her distress with a hard kiss, claiming and possessive. Finally, he pulled back. “But I can’t. I won’t. I’m too selfish. I want you to be mine, Eve. My mate. Will you?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yes. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here with you.”
He released a rough breath. “Really? You will?”
“Yes. I want that more than anything.”
He cupped her face in his large hands. “I’m never letting you out of my sight, not ever again.” He ran his knuckles down the uninjured side of her face. “When I saw you…Tobias’s hands on you, bleeding…” His voice broke.
She reached up and grabbed his fingers, threading them with hers. “I’m all right now.”
The pain remained, and seeing Tobias like that had to have hurt him greatly. She wanted to ease his pain and she wanted…she just wanted him. She untucked the covers and pulled them back.
Lazarus frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Climb in with me.”
“Eve…”
She shook her head, stopping whatever protest he was going to make. “I don’t want to wait, Lazarus. Please, make me yours.”
His nostrils flared and the green of his eyes flickered dark then light. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been so sure about anything in my whole life.”
He stood abruptly, his hands dropping to the front of his jeans and he quickly undid them and shoved them off.
Eve sucked in a breath at the sight of him standing there naked. “You’re so beautiful.”
He climbed in beside her, that big body shaking with need. “And you take my goddamn breath way, female.”
Lazarus stared into Eve’s eyes. His mate. His. He could barely believe this was happening. That he could feel this happy. That he could trust another being so fully. She held his heart and soul in her hands. This female, so beautiful inside and out, gave his existence meaning. She gave him a reason to keep fighting.
No, he never believed he deserved this, not after losing Scarlet and Tobias, but turning his back on her now was an impossibility. Leaving her was not something he could even contemplate.
One of her arms, the one not injured, curled around his neck and her fingers threaded in his hair at his nape. “I love you, Lazarus.”
His heart squeezed and burst into a rapid-fire beat at her softly spoken words. He trembled harder. “And I love you.”
He gently pressed his lips to hers and kissed her slow and deep. He was already hard and aching for her, his body demanding he take her, but he had to be gentle. Not easy with the way her thighs had spread wider, hugging his hips, her bare pussy hot and slick against his cock.
He groaned. “You’re ready for me now, aren’t you, sweetheart?”
Her hips lifted and she rubbed herself against him. “Yes. Now, Lazarus. Please.”
A growl crawled up his throat, his demon twisting and snarling, as desperate for the connection as Lazarus was. “I’m gonna take this slow, okay? You’re still recovering.” He pressed the head of his cock to her opening. “Ready?” he choked out.
She bit her lip and nodded.
Lazarus kissed her then lifted to his elbows, needing to see her face when he slid home. He pressed forward, and they both moaned as he filled her. He made love to her then, both of them shaking from the beauty of it, the desperate need for one another, a need that would never wane or falter. The kind of love and connection flowing between them he’d never even dared to dream about.
It was hard, but he kept the pace slow, thrusting deep.
Oh fuck. There it was. He could see it. The thread that would bind them.
Eve gasped and her entire body bowed as a surge of power moved through her, turning her entire body into a live wire. He knew because he felt it, too. What looked like a full-body orgasm hit her and she cried out, trembling uncontrollably.
Lazarus watched in awe, clenching his fists, gripping the sheet as the link intensified.
He reached for it and grabbed on. His hips snapped forward, staying deep inside Eve. And like a tree sending out tender new roots, the connection thickened and grew, burying deep. Something wrenched deep inside him, the exquisite pleasure drawing out their bliss.
She was his, now and forever. Nothing but death could ever rip them apart, and he’d spend eternity making sure that never happened. He felt it in his heart and soul, and he embraced the euphoric sensation with open arms.
Eve was his mate.
They lay there for the longest time, just holding each other.
Finally, he lifted his head and stared into her glistening blue eyes. “Thank you.”
She touched his face, her thumb brushing over his whiskered jaw. “You don’t need to thank me.”
“You don’t realize what you’ve done, sweetheart. I’ve fought an internal battle for centuries.” He grinned. “I don’t…I don’t need to fight it anymore. My demon is finally leashed,” he whispered then swallowed hard. “Because of you, because you gave yourself to me.”
She smiled so wide his stomach clenched.
“I’d fight it again, no matter how many centuries it took, as long as I knew you were waiting for me at the other end,” he choked out.
Her eyes grew brighter. “We make a pretty good team, huh?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, we do,” he said.
She looked over his shoulder and he knew the moment she spotted it. The large bookshelf full of books, her mother’s books, worn and well-read, and precious to her. Her gaze moved around the room, spotting other bits and pieces scattered about, little things. Her things.
She blinked up at him. “You got my books?”
“This is your home now. I want you to be happy here.”
She looked around, flabbergasted. “How did you get them here so fast?”
Christ, she was cute. “Wing power, baby. Fastest way to fly.” He chuckled at the way her eyes grew wider.
“Really? You did that…for me?” she said, voice raspy with emotion.
Lazarus brushed back a strand hair from her face. “I’d do anything for you. Anything.”
A tear streaked down her face and he brushed that away as well.
“Though, in this instance, I can’t take all the credit. I sent the others as well, got them to collect as much as they could carry. I’ll have the bigger stuff shipped.”
More tears slid down her cheeks. “This is…you have no idea how much this means to me.”
“I did it for purely selfish reasons. I want you to love it here. I want you to feel at home, to never regret—”
She pressed a finger to his lips, stopping him mid-sentence. “I can live without my things, Lazarus. At the end of the day, it’s all just stuff. God, because of you, I’ve finally found my home, the place I belong. A place I know I will always be loved and cherished. I don’t want to live without you. I can’t. I love you,” she said simply.
Something tickled his cheek and when he swiped at it, his fingers came away wet. This female, what she did to him. “I’m yours, Eve, now and forever.” His face darkened with hunger before he bent forward and kissed her again. “God, I love you so much,” he whispered against her lips.
It was her turn to wipe his tears away, and then she wrapped her arms around him.
Lazarus buried his face against her neck, breathing in his female.
His mate.
She smelled like home.