hapter 69
** Paige’s POV **
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When it’s done, and thest shudder runs through us, he doesn’t let go. He stays buried deep,
wrapped around me like he’s terrified I’ll disappear if he loosens his hold. His lips are still on my neck, gently kissing the spot he imed. Each kiss feels a vow that no force in this world
will ever tear us apart again.
Tearse before I can stop them, rolling down my cheeks as emotion overwhelms me. I
feel it all through now. His deep love and adoration for me, but also the pain of everything he
carried when I wasn’t here. The loneliness that gnawed at him. The ache in his chest with
every sunrise I wasn’t beside him. The endless longing, and the strength it took him to stay
away from me.
I feel something else too… relief and peace of finally being whole, of finally having what he thought he’d lost forever. It breaks me.
He pulls back then, just enough to see me. His lips and chin are smeared with the faintest
trace of red, but it’s his eyes that undo mepletely. They’re wild but also tender and full of
hope, like he’s finally found his way home.
“Rye,” I choke out, unable to find the words for him.
“I thought I’d lost you<i>.</i><i>” </i>He admits, his voice raw and unsteady. “Every day, every night. I knew I’d never breathe easy again. I tried to be strong, to keep moving, but I was just… empty. Some days I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep without dreaming of you. Sometimes I thought if I let
myself close my eyes, I’d wake up and you’d be gone forever. I wanted to give up more times than I can admit. The only thing that stopped me was knowing that if I did, I’d never hold you like this again.”
I reach for him, cupping his face with shaking hands. “You don’t have to be strong anymore,” I whisper, my voice trembling as I brush my thumbs over the streak of red on his chin. “I’m here. I’m not leaving. You’ll never face that kind of darkness again.”
He presses his forehead to mine, his breath shaky. “You saved me,” he chokes out. “Even
when <i>you </i>weren’t here, even when I couldn’t feel you, I survived because of you. I had to believe that we would find each other again one day. Now that I finally have you, I’m never letting go.”
My tears mix with his as I kiss him slowly, pouring everything I can’t say into it.
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<Chapter 69
“You’re mine now, forever,” he vows.
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“And you’re mine,” I whisper back, feeling the truth of it thrumming through the bond that now
links us, soul to soul.
Afterward, I lie curled against him, my cheek resting over his heart, and thentern light glowing softly. His hand strokes through my hair.
“Do you know what this means to me?” I whisper into the quiet.
“Tell me.”
I lift my head to meet his gaze, my voice thick. “For so long, I thought that night was just a
mistake. Something I shouldn’t have let happen, because of how it ended. But now… now I
feel like it was always meant to be. That it brought me Jax, and Jax brought me back to you.”
Emotion flickers through the bond, raw and unguarded. He cups my face, his thumb stroking
over my cheek. “I don’t deserve you. But I’ll spend every day proving I can be the man you and
Jax need.”
I smile at him. “You already are.’
He kisses me gently, then pulls me tighter against him. I melt into him, listening to the steady
beat of his heart beneath my ear. For a long moment, we just breathe together, and the bond
hums like a quiet song between us, strong, unbreakable, and alive.
The heaviness that I had felt from him moments ago eases, reced by something softer. A
glow. I feel it radiating from him, seeping through the bond until I’m wrapped in more than just his arms, I’m wrapped in his joy.
“Are <i>you </i>smiling?” I mumble into his chest, my lips brushing over his skin.
He huffs out augh. “Maybe.”
I tilt my head up <i>to </i>look at him, my own lips tugging into a smile to match his. “That sounded like a yes.”
His grin shes then, boyish and devastating all at once, and I swear my heart stumbles in my chest. “What can I say? I finally got my girl back. You can’t expect me not to smile.”
Iugh softly, and the bond hums with his amusement sparking through me.
He nudges his nose into my hair, his voice gentler now. “I didn’t think I’d get this with you again. Not just the bond, but youughing with me. Us lying here like the world can’t touch us.
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< Chapter 69
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“Maybe it can’t this time,” I whisper, my throat thick but my heart lighter than it’s been in
years.
“Maybe,” he says, smiling again.
I shift closer, curling my leg over his, unwilling to give even an inch of space back to the world outside this moment. He strokes my hair, and for a while, neither of us says anything. We don’t need to. But then I catch the faint smile on his mouth again, that mischievous glint sparking in his eyes, and I narrow mine at him. “What now? What’s that look <i>for</i>?”
He shrugs, all mock innocence. “Nothing.”
“Liar,” I murmur, propping my chin on his chest. “You’re smiling like you got away with
something.”
His grin widens. “Maybe I did.”
I swat at him yfully, and he catches my wrist easily, tugging me up for another kiss. This one’s softer, yful, until I’mughing against his lips.
When he pulls back, he smirks. “You should know I’m not letting you out of this bed for at
least a week. I’ve got years to make up for.”
Iugh loudly this time, shaking my head. “Years? Rye, you’d better pace yourself.”
He growls low in his throat, though the bond hums with amusement. “Don’t tempt me,
sweetheart.”
I roll my eyes and flop back onto the pillows, deliberately being dramatic. “Great. Guess I’ll have to send for rations if you n on keeping me hostage here.”
He chuckles, rolling onto his side to cage me in. “Rations, huh? You think I can’t take care of you myself? I can hunt rabbits and cook them for you.”
I bite back a grin, feigning seriousness. “Yuck. Poor little bunnies. Besides, you know I have three other mates that wille to rescue me?”
“I will fight them,” he says seriously.
“You couldn’t fight all three<i>,</i>” Iugh.
He gasps in mock offense, clutching at his chest. “That’s low, Paige. Real low.”
<Chapter 69
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For the first time, I see the simrities between him and Callen, not in looks, they’re identical, but in their personalities. I think now that Ryder is letting go of the pain he’s carried his whole
life, I’m finally seeing the real him peeking through.
“You’re also forgetting we have a child to look after; there’s no way he’s letting you keep me here,” I say, raising my brows at him.
“You’re right,” he nods. “I can fight off your mates, but not him. He’s a force to be reckoned
with.”
“He always has been, even before he was born.”
Ryder sits up then, pulling me against him. “Will you tell me now? I want to know everything, from the moment you found out you were pregnant, to his birth, first steps, first words. I want
to know it all.”
I search his eyes, seeing his desperation, and nod. “On one condition: you go back out there
and bring in thest of the wine,” I say, motioning to the tent door.
He doesn’t hesitate, scrambling out of the bed and running outpletely naked, returning a momentter with the wine bottle, two sses and a triumphant grin.
He sets the sses down with a bow, like a warrior returning from a hunt and presenting me with his bounty, and I can’t help butugh at the sight of him naked, smug, andpletely
unashamed.
“Impressive,” I tease as I take the bottle from him.
“Damn right.” He crawls back onto the bed, settling beside me with a boyish grin that makes
my heart squeeze. “You set the terms, and I delivered. Now you have to tell me everything.”
I pour the wine carefully, handing him a ss before lifting mine. “To second chances,” I
whisper.
His smile softens, and he clinks his ss against mine. “To forever.”
The bond hums between us as we drink, and I know I’ll remember this moment for the rest of
my life, especially the way his eyes don’t leave me, watching me like I’m the only thing he’s
ever needed.
I curl against him again with my ss bnced in my hand, and begin. “I still remember the day I found out like it was yesterday. I thought my heart was going to stop right there in my
parents‘ bathroom as the test shed with a positive result. I was terrified, Rye, and I felt so
< Chapter 69
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alone. I thought my parents would lose their minds, and they kind of did, but the second we all heard his heartbeat at my first midwife appointment…” My throat tightens, and I pause, swallowing hard. “We all fell instantly in love, and I felt like I wasn’t alone anymore. Like he’d
been sent to keep me going.”
Ryder’s hand finds mine, squeezing gently. His eyes are wet, though he doesn’t look away.
I smile through the ache in my chest thates from him. “His first kick nearly knocked me
over. He was so strong even then, just like you. And when he was born…” I shake my head, the memory flooding me with warmth. “He had the loudest cry. I swear the whole ward knew
Jaxon had arrived, but when they put him on my chest, he went quiet. He just stared up at me with those big blue eyes. It was like knew me, Rye. He knew I was his mum.”
A tear slides down Ryder’s cheek, and he doesn’t bother wiping it away. “Goddess, Paige,” he whispers, his voice breaking. “I should have been there.”
I reach up to wipe his cheek. “You’re here now. You’ll hear the rest of his story, every detail. You’ll be part of the rest of it too.”
He leans into my touch, kissing my palm, his voice low. “I’ll never stop being grateful for him and for you. For this chance to make it right.”
His arms wrap around me again, and I believe him. I believe in us. The future no longer feels uncertain. It feels exciting, just waiting for us to write it together.
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