Page 28 of Claws for Celebration
"Far enough that the thought of you leaving Hollow Oak makes my chest feel like someone's squeezing my heart in a vise. Far enough that protecting you has become more important than any duty or responsibility I've ever accepted."
The raw honesty in his voice made her breath catch. "That's either the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me, or the most terrifying."
"Can't it be both?"
"Everything about tonight has been both." Moira found herself moving closer until they were sharing breath in the silver-washed garden. "Magic, shape-shifting, discovering that my entire understanding of reality was incomplete. And this, whatever this is between us."
"What do you think this is?"
"Something that defies rational explanation," she admitted. "Something that feels inevitable and impossible at the same time. Something that makes me want to throw caution to the wind and see what happens when I stop being careful."
"And what if what happens is complicated? What if choosing this, choosing us, means your life becomes something you never planned or expected?"
"Then I guess I'll learn to adapt." Moira's smile felt braver than she felt, but the truth was she'd already adapted to more impossible things tonight than she'd thought humanly possible. "Besides, my carefully planned life was apparently built on incomplete information anyway. Maybe it's time to try building something new."
Lucien's thumb traced across her lower lip, the gentle touch sending heat spreading through her entire body. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure that I've never felt more myself than I do right now, standing here with you. I'm sure that whatever we recognized in each other was real. And I'm sure that if I don't kiss you in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life."
"Then don't regret it," he said, his voice heavy with the same desire that was making her pulse race.
When his lips met hers, the world shifted on its axis. The kiss tasted like promises and midnight and the wild freedom of accepting something that defied every rational thought she'd ever had.
His hands tangled in her hair while hers fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer as if she could somehow merge their bodiesthrough sheer determination. The kiss deepened with desperate hunger, weeks of careful restraint and growing attraction finally given permission to burn.
Magic sparked around them in golden threads, her unconscious power responding to the emotional intensity with visible manifestations of light and warmth. But Moira barely noticed the supernatural fireworks, too lost in the sensation of Lucien's mouth moving against hers with reverent passion.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, she felt fundamentally changed in ways that went beyond magical awakening or supernatural revelation.
"That was," she started, then lost her words entirely.
"Magic," Lucien finished, resting his forehead against hers while they both struggled to regain equilibrium.
"Literally," she laughed, gesturing weakly at the golden light still shimmering around them. "I think I just accidentally created some kind of romantic light show."
"I think you just created something much more significant than that," he said softly, his green eyes holding depths she was only beginning to explore.
Standing in the moonlit garden with magic dancing around them and the taste of possibility still burning on her lips, Moira realized she'd found something she hadn't even known she'd been searching for. Not just romantic connection, but recognition. The bone-deep certainty that this person, this impossible, wonderful man who could become a panther and had spent weeks patiently guiding her toward truth, was meant to be part of her story.
Whatever came next, whatever challenges or complications lay ahead, she wanted to face them with him. The academic who'd built her life on careful research and measured decisions was ready to take the biggest leap of faith imaginable.
She was ready to trust in magic, in destiny, and in the wild certainty that sometimes the most important discoveries couldn't be found in books or genealogies, but in the space between one heartbeat and the next when two people recognized each other across impossible circumstances and chose to build something extraordinary together.
17
LUCIEN
The kiss had shattered every careful barrier Lucien had constructed around his feelings for Moira.
When she’d pulled back, lips kiss-swollen, her milky brown eyes dark with desire behind wire-rimmed glasses that had gone slightly askew, he felt his panther roar to life.
Mine, the beast whispered with fierce satisfaction. Our mate. Claim her.
"Moira," he breathed, brushing his lips over hers, again and again, drinking in the taste of her like a starving man. His hands framed her face, thumbs caressing the curve of her cheeks, golden magic flickering and spinning around them like stardust. “Are you sure about this? Once we cross this line…”
“There’s no going back,” she finished, her voice soft but sure. Her hands trembled as they fisted in the fabric of his shirt, but her eyes held unwavering heat. “I know. I can feel it too—whatever this is between us. It’s like my magic recognizes you.”
“It does.” He was barely holding on to his restraint, his body taut as a bowstring. The mate bond pulsed in his blood, wild and alive. “There’s something between us that goes deeper than ordinary attraction.”
