CHAPTER 399: ALPHA’S FOREVER

Kieran:

For a heartbeat, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

Her words echoed through every corner of me - "I, Evaline Greystone, accept you, Rogue Alpha Kieran Thorne, as my mate."

I had imagined this moment countless times in the quiet of my mind. Dreamed of it on sleepless nights when I would watch her from my side of bed, knowing I still had no right to touch her the way my brothers did. I had told myself that if it ever came, I would be calm, gentle, controlled. But the truth was, nothing could have prepared me for the storm her words unleashed inside me.

Before I even realized it, I had pulled her close and crashed my lips against hers.

It wasn’t a soft kiss. It wasn’t tentative or uncertain like the ones I had been dreaming about. Instead, it was desperate - an explosion of everything I had buried deep under restraint for far too long. Months of longing. Months of jealousy. Endless nights of holding myself back while my brothers loved her freely.

And now... she was mine too.

Her lips were warm, softer than any dream I’d had. She tasted faintly of something achingly sweet that I couldn’t name but knew I would never forget. Her hands came up instinctively, clutching my shirt, and that single, small act undid me completely.

I deepened the kiss. My heart raced so fast it felt like the world might tear apart beneath it. Every breath I took was hers, every sound, every thought, every fragment of who I was belonged to her in that moment.

She was my mate.

My fated one.

The realization was almost too big, too bright to contain. I kissed her harder, slower, letting the words I couldn’t say bleed into every motion - the gratitude, the awe, the love that had lived quietly in my bones for far too long.

When she sighed against my lips, I felt something inside me shatter and reform in the same breath. Her touch burned through every part of me that had ever felt cold.

I didn’t even realize we had shifted until her back was against the mattress, my hand braced beside her head. She looked up at me with those eyes - the same beautiful amber eyes that haunted my dreams - wide and trembling with a mix of emotion that mirrored mine... relief, love, wonder, and something deeper that made my chest tighten.

I forced myself to stop, to pull back before I lost the fragile hold I had on my control. She was breathless, her lips slightly parted, her chest rising and falling as she tried to catch her breath.

I pressed my forehead to hers, closing my eyes, trying to steady the wild pounding in my chest. Her scent filled the air - soft, familiar, comforting. It grounded me.

"I accept you too, Evaline Greystone," I whispered, my voice barely steady. "As my fated mate. My love. My family. My everything."

The moment the words left my lips, something ignited.

It wasn’t physical, not entirely, but it was real. The bond that had been waiting quietly between us all this time roared to life, weaving through my heart, my soul, my very being. I felt it - the pulse of her emotions syncing with mine, the faint hum of her heartbeat echoing in my chest as though it belonged there.

She gasped softly, her hands tightening in my shirt. I knew she felt it too.

It was beautiful and terrifying all at once... that sense of belonging, of completeness, as though I had finally found the missing part of myself I didn’t even know was gone until this very second.

My heart stuttered. My body trembled. And then... I kissed her again.

This one was different. Slower. More deliberate. It wasn’t about desperation anymore... it was about reverence. Every brush of my lips against hers was a silent thank you - for choosing me, for trusting me, for letting me in.

Her fingers slid into my hair, and I lost myself again.

The room faded. The world outside ceased to exist. All I could feel was her - her warmth beneath my hands, her heartbeat against mine, the bond thrumming like a living thing between us.

The more I kissed her, the more I wanted. The more I tasted her, the more I knew that I could never get enough. It wasn’t just desire... it was the bond, the raw pull of fated souls recognizing one another. The hunger that came with it wasn’t purely physical, it was something deeper, primal, older than time itself.

I drew back only long enough to breathe, to look at her again. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen, her eyes glazed with a mix of emotion and wonder that nearly broke me.

"Evaline..." I murmured her name like a prayer. "You have no idea what you have done to me."

Her soft laugh was shaky but real. "Maybe I do."

I smiled - stars, I couldn’t stop smiling. The kind of smile I hadn’t worn in ages, the kind that came from something pure and consuming. I leaned down, kissing the corner of her lips, her cheek, the line of her jaw, and the pulse fluttering in her throat. She shivered beneath me, her fingers curling in the fabric of my shirt.

I knew I should stop. I knew we both needed rest after everything that had happened. But the bond was relentless, thrumming between us like a heartbeat that refused to quiet.

I wanted her close. I needed her close.

She reached up, brushing her thumb across my cheek, and the gentleness of that small gesture undid me all over again. I captured her mouth in another kiss, pouring everything I felt into it - devotion, gratitude, love, and that aching promise of forever.

Her body arched instinctively, and I caught her, holding her tight, my hand cradling the back of her head as if I could somehow shield her from the entire world.

In that moment, she wasn’t just my mate. She was home.

I kissed her until I forgot where I ended and she began, until the only thing I could feel was the pulse of her heart against mine and the invisible thread that tied our souls together.

When I finally broke the kiss, both of us were breathing hard. I rested my forehead against hers again, my thumb brushing over her lips as I tried to slow my racing heart.

I didn’t want to let go. I didn’t think I could.

And then... just barely... I felt it. A ripple through the air, faint but unmistakable. The familiar presence of my brothers returning home.

She felt it too. Her eyes flickered toward the door, then back to me, a soft, knowing smile tugging at her lips.

I sighed, half in frustration, half in amusement. "They always have the worst timing."

She laughed quietly, her fingers tracing lazy circles on my chest. "Maybe they are here to remind you that you are not allowed to keep me all to yourself."

"Too late," I murmured, pressing one last kiss to her temple. "You are already mine."

She didn’t argue. Just smiled - that radiant, beautiful smile that made everything in me go still.

And as I looked at her - my mate, my fated one, the mother of our son, the woman who had just filled a hollow part of me I hadn’t known was empty - I knew that even if the whole world fell apart outside, I would be fine.

Because she was here.

Because she was mine.

And I was hers.

Forever.