He groaned and staggered toward our room, pushing it closed with his backside and then ripping at my clothes, tearing off my shirt and shoving down my jeans and panties.

“Now,” he said, stilling for a moment, his eyes dazed and soaked with feeling and passion. His presence inside my chest was more comforting now than it had ever been.

This felt right. What was happening felt right.

“I love you, Austin,” I said, and tears came to my eyes. “I trust you. I cherish you. My heart is safe in your hands. The other Ivy House heirs chose men who wanted to be more powerful. Men who wanted their woman to stoop lower so that they could stand taller. But you’ve always tried to build me up. Even when I don’t feel I need it, you put me above yourself. I’m lucky to have you. I’ve always been lucky to have you. I love you.”

He pulled me to him with a hand at the back of my neck, his kiss hard and insistent. When he let up, I had to catch my breath.

“I love you too,” he said. “It’s been a long road for me, finding you. Finding my mate. But it was worth it, because I appreciate you so much more. I appreciate what you mean to my life. You’re the light in my darkness. You’re my hope in a bleak world. You’re the reason I strive to reach my true potential. You make me a better man, Jacinta Ironheart. With you in my life, there is nothing holding me back.”

A tear slipped down my cheek, and I ran my thumb across his stubble. “Mate.”

“Your beast has chosen. Shall we…consummate the pairing?”

“Is that how it goes?”

“I honestly have no idea. That’s not something I ever wanted to ask my brother.”

I laughed as he walked me back to the bed, and then that thing down deep—my gargoyle—growled for him. I craved him like I hadn’t craved anyone ever in my life.

“Austin—”

I didn’t need to say anything more. He settled between my legs and found my center, entering me slowly but quickly speeding up. I clutched his back, swiveling my hips up to meet him. Our bodies clashed together again and again, the bed rocking beneath us. Our fevered breathing filling the room. Magic flowered and rolled around us, vibrated between us, sank down deep.

I groaned, pushed higher. Striving harder. Filled over and over, not able to get enough but almost too much. Too hard. Too good. Too—

I cried out with the release, shaking beneath him. He quaked above me, digging his face into my neck, nipping me softly.

“Why didn’t you fight earlier?” he asked as he slowly plunged into me, starting up again. “Why didn’t you do any magic?”

“I realized who he was, and since I can only really do defensive spells or kill shots without my hands—nothing with finesse—I figured I’d wait for you. He wasn’t planning to kill me. I knew you’d reach me before anything happened.”

He swore softly and rammed into me, making me squeak in surprise and then moan in utter delight.

“There is a deep and primal…satisfaction in hearing that your mate knew you’d come for her. That she had no fear because she believed in your abilities. It’s…” He drew back and rammed into me again. “This is damned bad timing for the bond to click into place.” I groaned, tightening around him. “Focus is going to be hard to come by.”

“Hmm.” My eyes fluttered shut, my body on fire, his ministrations sending me to the next level.

He chuckled darkly and worked faster. I held on for dear life.

“My mate,” he said softly, and I shattered.

This time around, I knew I was doing it right. I loved myself, and I loved him, and I loved us together. We were two individuals who were more together than the sum of our parts. It was the kind of love I’d always wanted. He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was perfect for me.

The journey leading here had been long, but I’d learned so much from it, and from the mistakes I’d made along the way. I’d found myself. And now I could share myself with another, and delight in him sharing himself with me.

Mr. Tom felt goosebumps as a pulse of power lightly concussed the air. Nathanial shifted in his seat. Ulric uncrossed his left ankle from his knee and shifted to the opposite configuration, right over left. Jasper paced in the back by the kitchen. Edgar sat in the corner, doggedly working on the latest monstrosity of a doily.

“Why are ye all so jumpy?” Niamh asked, flicking through a magazine on the couch. “Ye got fleas?”

“The female gargoyle has found her mate,” Mr. Tom said, turning a page in the book he was looking at but not necessarily reading. Those pulses from the miss were messing with his focus. “Would’ve been nice if she’d chosen an alpha gargoyle, or even looked around a little more before settling on someone, but alas, we’ll take what we can get.”

“Why is that making yis so jumpy?” Niamh stopped flicking pages. “Ye knew she was going to settle on him. It’s the best thing she could’ve done, really. Ivy House agrees that he’s the best bet for her protection, or didn’t ye notice that he was given the number one spot?” She turned a page. “Ye can see the number one spot, can’t ye? From all the way over at number nine?”

“Big words from someone who keeps sliding down in the order of importance,” he replied.

“Don’t ye worry.” She flicked a page, not looking down at it. “Ye’ll act as a doorstop.”

“What’s happening doesn’t really translate to modern times,” Ulric said, clasping his fingers.

Kace walked out of the archway leading to the rooms. Everyone else was holed up in their little cells, taking a break after their impromptu battle and the flash burning party that had followed it. Cyra had tried to make the massacre look like an accident, only her pyrotechnics had made it look like arson. They’d decided to give up and flee, especially since they weren’t sure they’d found all the pieces of Chambers after Broken Sue was done with him. It hadn’t been a pretty scene.

“You all talking about them mating?” Kace asked, heading straight for the fridge. The shifters all ate like they had holes in their stomachs. “This isn’t a great place to do it—not that they had much choice.”

“This is the perfect place to do it,” Nathanial said as another pulse of power made them all squirm again.

“When ye explained all this a month ago, it seemed pretty simple.” Niamh closed her magazine. “Like a shifter mating.”

“On the surface, yes, it is like a shifter mating.” Ulric nodded. “But there are some fundamental differences that I, myself, didn’t realize until it started happening.”

“Like what, then?” Niamh asked.

“She’s sending out pulses of power every so often. Calling us to her. Or sending us to the skies. Or urging us to join with our brethren and unite around her. Every ten minutes, it seems like, I’m getting a different directive, more and more intense, probably because I’m not doing any of it.”

“I don’t think she understands what she’s doing,” Nathanial said, “but she’s bringing her cairn together. She’s organizing her protection while she delights in her mating dance, which is more or less like a shifter, only much more violent.”

“She’s like a praying mantis?” Kace asked as Edgar sighed in satisfaction. He held the lopsided doily up to examine it.

“Not so much sexually violent,” Ulric said, “though I’d bet there would be a bit of that.”

“The shaking of the walls and light fixtures proves that, I should think,” Niamh said dryly. “That bit wasn’t the basajaun.”

The basajaun had called upon the mountain earlier to claim its vengeance, whatever that meant. It was a mountain, for heaven’s sake. What could it possibly do, besides collapse and kill them all?

Turned out, it could shake and roll and drop a few pebbles. Basically, theatrics. Mr. Tom hadn’t understood the point, other than to freak out their captors, and the basajaun could have just roared to achieve that much. Mages these days seemed a very fragile sort. Quite different from the ones he’d battled back before flushable toilets.

It was probably for the best, since mages currently dominated the magical world and kept bothering Ivy House and the miss. All the better if they were cowards.

“The violence portion was why she waited so long for him to prove himself,” Ulric said. “Gargoyles have always been on the front lines. They are strong and sure and powerful, and she must be their alpha. Which means she must be capable of handling violence. And, if necessary, thwarting it. Her beast wanted proof that her mate would do the same.”

“You don’t think an alpha shifter knows about being on the front lines and handling and thwarting violence?” Kace laughed and shook his head. “No gargoyle is going up against Austin Steele and winning, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Well, clearly one gargoyle is, ye donkey.” Niamh went back to her magazine. “She’s in there right now, going up against him. Surely enjoying herself while she does.”

“I wondered if she was hesitating because she worried about repeating the pattern of the past heirs,” Edgar said, standing and backing farther into the corner. It was very creepy in an endearing sort of way.

“I wondered that meself,” Niamh murmured. “Did she give him that protector’s magic yet? Do we know?”

“He couldn’t harness her magic.” Ulric leaned forward again as another pulse of magic moved through the air. “He’s not a mage.”

“He couldn’t harness the bulk of her magic, but the protector’s magic can be used by anyone, including someone non-magical,” Edgar said from his corner, still analyzing his handiwork. “The magic will customize to the recipient.”

“I wonder what that will look like with a shifter,” Ulric said, frowning.

“But he does get that protector’s magic, doesn’t he?” Mr. Tom asked.