Page 86 of Knot the Last Chapter

And then he moves.

It starts slow—gentle thrusts, testing, building—but the way I respond… the way my heat claws closer to the surface… it drives him faster. Harder. Every sound I make is swallowed by his mouth, every desperate need met with the weight of his body.

By the time his knot begins to swell, I’m begging for it, my legs locked around his waist, my voice reduced to pleas and praise.

He knots me with a growl that echoes through both of us, his hands cradling my face as if to remind me: you are safe. You are mine.

And I am.

As we lock together, trembling and breathless, I realize I’ve never felt more whole.

Chapter fifty

Tyler

She’s soft against me, her breath a warm rhythm where her nose tucks beneath my jaw. My arm is looped around her waist, cradling her so she’s pressed flush to my side. One leg is hooked over mine, a tangle of warmth and skin and silken tension still humming from the storm we just weathered—both literal and otherwise.

My knot is still inside her, the pulse of it slowing gradually as her body clings to me. It’s not uncomfortable—if anything, the feeling of being so completely connected is grounding. Anchoring. It’s primal, yes, but not savage.

It’s reverent.

I’ve knotted before. I’ve had partners. But never like this. Never with an omega who looked at me like I was both the spark and the fire. Never one who came apart under my hands with such unflinching trust. And never one who curled into me after, like she’d always belonged here.

Lila shifts slightly, nestling closer. Her hair brushes my neck, and I inhale slowly.

She smells like warm amber and honey, like the sharp tang of heat and the soft lull of something gentler, something specifically, achingly her. It settles in my chest like home.

Her fingers curl slightly where they rest against my ribs, like she’s still tethered to me in her sleep. The weight of her thigh across mine, the press of her breasts to my side—gods, it’s enough to make me ache, and not just physically.

There’s something deep and vulnerable opening inside me, and it’s terrifying. Because I’m not just caught by my body’s reaction to her.

I’m caught by her.

By the way she looked up at me when she asked to be touched. By the way she trembled and still held eye contact. By her bravery, her sweetness, her need. Her fire.

And now?

Now she’s here, breathing evenly against my skin, her heat-slicked body molded to mine like she was made for this exact moment.

I brush her hair back gently, not wanting to wake her but needing to touch her just the same.

A small sound escapes her lips. Not quite a word, not quite a sigh. My name, maybe. Or just a breath of comfort. I want to stay like this forever.

The rain outside has softened to a gentle rhythm, pattering against the roof and windows in a lullaby cadence. Somewhere downstairs, I imagine one of my brothers has stirred—Rhys, probably, checking window seals. Corwyn may have returned to the library, buried in a book to distract himself from how Lila's scent lingers in every room now.

She hums faintly again, not quite awake but not fully asleep. Her cheek nuzzles into my shoulder.

I smile.

“Lila?” I ask softly, not expecting a response.

“Mmm?”

“I’ve been meaning to confess something to you.”

She doesn’t lift her head, but I feel her body tense slightly in curiosity. “Now?”

I grin. “Well, you can’t exactly escape.”

---