Page 72 of Omega Hunted

“I wish you’d known him,” Cassian said, so quietly I almost missed it.

“I think…” I smiled against his neck. “I think I’m getting to know part of him through you.” He made a questioning sound, and I expanded. “I’ve never met anyone who can talk about another person the way you talk about Raff.” I lifted my head enough to meet his gaze. “Every time you remember him, it’s like he walks into the room for a little while.” I should tell him what I was feeling, right? I reached up and brushed my fingertips to the rough stubble along his jaw. “I think…” My thumb traced the line of his cheek. “I think the man who’s holding me exists because Raff loved him.”

Cassian closed his eyes. “I miss him every day.”

“I know.”

“I always will.”

“I know that too.”

“But he’d want me to be there for you when you need me.”

I rested my forehead against his again, tears still warm on my face. He’d given me the worst part of himself, the grief he’d carried alone for three years, and all I wanted was to stay close. To give him something back when there were no words big enough for what he’d lost. His breathing steadied against mine, his hand still holding mine, and neither of us moved away. I didn’t know if I was comforting him anymore or if he was comforting me. Maybe it didn’t matter.

I tilted my head, and the kiss came as naturally as breathing.

I smiled up at him, and our mouths found each other with a familiarity that startled me. It wasn’t urgent or desperate. It was simply the next thing that happened, as inevitable as his hand finding the small of my back whenever I stood or mine reaching for the warmth of his wolf during the night. I was addicted to his touch and his taste, and my cat purred.

I sighed into the kiss, and Cassian cradled the back of my neck, his thumb brushing through my hair while mine rested on the center of his chest. His heartbeat was slow beneath my palm, solid and reassuring, and before I realized what I was doing, my own breathing had matched his.

Then something shifted.

It wasn’t the kiss.

It wasn’t Cassian.

Warmth bloomed somewhere deep inside me, low beneath my ribs, spreading outwards in slow waves until every tight, frightened part of me seemed to loosen all at once. My cat lifted his head as though he’d heard someone call his name from far away. I pulled back first, my breath catching.

“What? Cassian…”

He reared back. “What is it? Is it the baby? Is it time?”

I frowned, pressing a hand against my chest. “I don’t…” I shook my head, frustrated by the lack of words. “Something just…”

The sensation lingered, impossible to describe. It wasn’t pain. It wasn’t desire. It wasn’t even emotion exactly. It felt as though something inside me had stretched awake after sleeping for a very long time. “I can’t explain it.”

Cassian had gone still, his eyes bright with emotion, his hand hovering over his heart.

“Try.”

“It felt…” I closed my eyes for a second, searching for the feeling before it slipped away. “Warm. Safe.” I laughed awkwardly. “That sounds ridiculous.”

“It doesn’t.”

“It was like somebody reached inside me and my cat recognized them.”

For the first time since I’d met him, genuine surprise crossed Cassian’s face.

“My wolf’s been doing that for a while now,” he admitted.

I blinked.

“What?”

“He settles whenever you’re close.” His voice had gone thoughtful, almost distracted. “He knows when you’re frightened before you speak. Sometimes he’ll wake me before you have a nightmare. I thought…” He hesitated. “I thought it was because you’re pregnant. Because you’re vulnerable.”

“And now?”