She pulls me toward her by my collar. Her mouth finds mine, and whatever restraint I've maintained for months dissolves like it was never there.
I push her against the wall, hands buried in her hair, tilting her head back to deepen the kiss. She tastes like coffee and something sweeter, and my wolf howls—mate, mate, mate.
"Bedroom," she breathes against my mouth. "Unless you want it against this wall."
"I'm considering it."
"Bed, Lysander. I want you! Take me, please… I’m begging you, take me right now!"
I lift her. Her legs wrap around my waist, mouth working along my jaw with bites that send electricity down my spine. The bedroom door catches and I kick it open, lowering her onto sheets that smell like her and will smell like both of us by morning.
"Off," she yanks my shirt from my shoulders. "All of it, right now."
I strip while she watches from the pillows. When I reach for her sweater, she lifts her arms. Underneath—black lace that was definitely not chosen for contract negotiations.
"You planned this."
"I wore matching underwear, which means I hoped," she pulls me down. "There's a difference."
I unhook her bra, cup her breast, and she arches into my palm with a sound that makes my wolf surge. My mouth closes over her nipple, tongue circling until she's gasping.
"God, don't stop—Lysander—"
I work down her body, peeling away the lace while she writhes beneath me. When my mouth finds her center, her back bows off the mattress.
"Fuck—yes, right there—don't you dare move—"
I bring her to the edge with my tongue, hold her there, then push her over with two fingers curving inside her. She comes with a cry that fills the dark room, body clenching in waves I feel through the bond.
Before the aftershocks fade, I'm over her, forehead pressed to hers. "Are you sure about this?"
"If you ask me that again, I will murder you in your sleep," she reaches between us, wraps her hand around my cock, and guides me to her entrance. "I want you. All of you—the man, the wolf, whatever."
I push into her in one slow, deep stroke, and the mate bond detonates. Every cell igniting with recognition so profound it nearly stops my heart. My wolf roars, claiming her from the inside.
"Oh God—" Her nails rake down my back. "You feel—this feels like—"
"I know," I start to move. "I feel it too. Everything."
We build together—steady, then faster, harder, her legs locked around my hips. She matches me stroke for stroke, sounds escalating from gasps to moans she doesn't try to muffle.
"Harder—yes… Yes! Like that—Lysander, more! More please! I'm going to—"
She shatters around me with devastating force, and I follow her over with a groan that's more animal than human. The mate bond floods golden and absolute between us, and her heartbeat synchronizes with mine.
It seems to last forever, and I don’t mind it to be so. We collapse into tangled sheets, breathless and sweat-slicked, her head on my chest, my hand tracing the curve of her spine.
"That was—" she starts.
"Yeah..."
"Your wolf. I felt him during. Something warm and protective and very possessive, like another presence in the room," she lifts her head from my chest. "Is that the mate bond you described?"
"That's exactly what it is. It shouldn't be possible with a human, but nothing about us follows the rules."
"Good. I've always hated rules," she settles against me with a sigh that carries four days of tension finally releasing. "I could get used to this particular impossibility."
I let myself believe this might actually work. The impossible bond, the human woman, the hunter's daughter who doesn't yet know the full truth of her bloodline—all of it resolving into something I get to keep.
My phone shatters everything from the nightstand: a call. The screen reads Thalia, and my stomach drops because Thalia doesn't call unless the world is ending.
"Lysander," her voice barely controls panic. "I need you to come home. Right now, tonight."
"What's going on?"
"The pack's under coordinated attack. At least three locations hit simultaneously, military precision. They know our patrol routes, safe houses, security codes. Someone's feeding them everything."
"How bad is it?"
"Magnus's house is burning. The Alpha residence is on fire, Lys, and we can't get close enough to contain it. And Kieran—" her voice cracks. "He's been hit with some kind of chemical compound. He can't shift, Lysander! He can't access his wolf at all."
Caroline sits up in bed, reading my face, the sheet pooling at her waist. She mouths: What happened?
"I'm coming. I'll drive through the night."
I hang up and look at Caroline—flushed and beautiful in sheets, marks from my mouth on her neck, the mate bond still humming warm between us.
"My family's in trouble. The pack in Seattle is under attack, and they need me there immediately." I take her hand. "I'm asking you to come with me. I understand that it means stepping into my world completely, and there’s still a lot I haven’t explained to you yet—"
"How fast can you pack?"
"Caroline, listen to me. This isn't a family visit. It's a war zone, with hunters using military weapons, so I—"
"Then you'll need someone who can think clearly while everyone else is running on adrenaline and instinct." She's already out of bed, reaching for her clothes with the focused efficiency of a woman who argues cases for a living.
"I’ll pack a bag and then drive the first shift while you brief me on what the hell is actually happening in Seattle."
"You're sure about this?"
"Lysander, I just slept with a werewolf. Walking into a pack war is maybe the third strangest thing that's happened to me this week," she zips her jeans and meets my eyes. "I'm not letting you do this alone."
My wolf settles with fierce satisfaction as I watch her pull on her sweater: determined, unafraid, already strategizing. This woman who shouldn't exist in my world just volunteered to walk straight into it.
We're on the road within an hour, headlights cutting through Colorado darkness toward a city I haven't called home in months. Seattle and war waiting at the other end.