I return the favor, sliding my hands down his body, opening his zipper as I free him and take him into my mouth, savoring the way his breath catches and his muscles lock under my touch. My tongue swirls around him, lips tightening as I work him deeper with deliberate care, drawing raw curses from his throat as his control unravels. The taste of his arousal mixes with the guttural sound in his chest, his hips twitching despite his effort to hold back.
Just as I sense the tremor that warns he is about to come undone, his hands clamp around my arms, lifting me effortlessly away from him. With a rough sound, he tosses me onto the mattress, eyes blazing as he looms over me.
The bed dips under me a breath before he follows, his weight pressing me into the mattress, pinning me with a dominance that steals thought. Heat radiates from his skin as he strips the last barrier away, and then he drives into me, deep and relentless, filling me in a way that makes me cry out. My hands clutch his shoulders, nails digging as he takes me with a rhythm that feels both ruthless and reverent. Every thrust brands me, every kiss is a command and a promise all at once, dragging me closer to the edge with a hunger that feels impossible to deny.
We move in a fevered rhythm, bodies sliding together in a frenzy that feels both reckless and inevitable. Sweat runs between us, every brush of skin sparking deeper hunger. He lowers his face to my throat, the scrape of his teeth a tantalizing threat, hovering on the edge of surrender yet never giving in. My body tightens around him, drawing a guttural groan fromhis chest that shakes through me, and still he reins himself in, holding back the final mark even as we break apart together in raw, consuming pleasure.
Afterward, we collapse in a tangle of limbs, my cheek resting on the hard rise and fall of his chest. His skin is slick against mine, heat still radiating as the storm of our bodies slowly ebbs. The silence between us isn’t empty; it thrums with unsaid words and unspoken promises, a low current that feels as intimate as the act itself.
I whisper, “I’m scared.”
His hand smooths over my hair, grounding. “Of what?”
“Of losing myself. Of disappearing into this new... thing I didn’t choose.” My throat tightens. “What if I’m not me anymore?”
He presses a kiss into my hair. “You’re still you. Fierce, stubborn, impossible. And I’m terrified too—terrified of failing you.”
I lift my head, searching his face. Vulnerability lies open in his eyes, unguarded for once, and the sight cuts through me. My chest tightens with something that feels larger than fear, raw and consuming.
We stay entwined, heat slowly fading from our skin, breaths syncing in an unsteady rhythm. The weight of our satisfaction anchors us, yet beneath it our thoughts still race. His thumb drags along the edge of my jaw in a slow stroke that makes my pulse stutter, and I realize with a jolt that despite everything—danger, secrets, desire—this man, this Ranger, is the only thing keeping me from unraveling.
I tease lightly, needing the banter to ground me. “So what now, Ranger? You going to lock me in a box again?”
His lips twitch at that, the tension softening for a heartbeat. “You make it sound like I could keep you anywhere you don’t want to be.”
I roll my eyes, tapping my finger against his chest. “Please. You couldn’t keep me out of trouble for a single night if you tried. Admit it—I’m unmanageable.”
His mouth curves, this time with something darker behind it. “Unmanageable, yes. Untouchable? Not a chance.” He leans down, brushing his lips over mine again, softer, almost reverent. The contrast makes my breath hitch.
We drift into a quieter pause, this one warmer, as though the storm between us has burned itself out for now. My eyelids grow heavy, his heartbeat steady beneath my cheek, when the sharp buzz of my phone cuts through the hush from the nightstand. Kari’s name flares across the screen. I hesitate, loath to fracture the fragile peace wrapping around us, but the insistent vibration refuses to be ignored. With a reluctant breath, I reach over and swipe it open.
The message is short, but the words punch harder than any bullet:
Donor who funds the vendor secured a favor from state trooper commander. Commander’s nephew tied to island crew.
I meet Gage’s eyes, breath catching. His jaw sets, muscles taut as if bracing for impact. Calculation flickers behind his gaze, but it is laced with a fury that makes my stomach twist. This isn’t just corruption—it cuts close, too close. A betrayal woven into the fabric of people meant to protect us. It’s personal. And it feels like it’s pressing in from right outside these walls.
CHAPTER 16
GAGE
Kari’s message still burns in my head, the revelation twisting tighter around my chest with every breath. Corruption at the state level, ties to the island, and now the nephew connection—it feels like we’re standing on the edge of a pit with no bottom. I can feel the tension in my jaw as I replay it, and even though I kept Sadie in my arms through the night, my mind never stopped mapping the next move before the sun rose. Her warmth lingered against me, but strategy kept me awake. I cannot afford distraction, even when every instinct pulls me back toward her.
Rush calls the team into the den—our war room—and the weight in his voice makes every Ranger sit straighter. The map on the table glows under the overhead lights, dotted with pins and notes scrawled in thick marker. The smell of burnt coffee hangs in the air, familiar and grounding.
Sadie hovers in the doorway, her hand on the frame as if testing whether she belongs inside. I tilt my head, inviting but not insisting. She stays planted, back just far enough to make her defiance deliberate. The set of her shoulders says she refuses to be dismissed, and that stubborn fire in her eyes sharpens my focus until it feels like a taut wire pulling me in two directions—discipline on one side, the urge to cross the room and claim her attention on the other.
Rush lays it out clean and sharp: two fronts. One, expose the donor and the political link before it can bury us deeper. Two, flip the trooper’s nephew. He's the weak point in the chain. If we can break him, we unravel the operation. He speaks with the calm authority of a man used to walking through fire. The rest of us take our cues from him.
Sadie’s eyes narrow, calculation flickering in their depths. I can almost see her thoughts moving faster than most civilians could manage in a room like this, already stringing connections together. She’s weighing what this revelation means for her family's foundation and reputation, as well as her own role in a web she never asked to enter. The intensity of her focus makes it clear she isn’t content to sit on the sidelines. I can tell she’s already plotting her way in deeper.
When the meeting breaks, I linger. Rush waits me out until the room clears. The silence is taut, the tension pressing against my chest. Finally, I admit what I’ve fought to hold in: Sadie isn’t just my assignment. She’s my mate. Saying it aloud feels redundant. Rush and the others have already guessed, every one of them having found their own fated mate, but the admission lands heavily all the same.
Rush studies me, face carved from stone, then says only, “You don't have a choice. you have to lead like a Ranger, not a jealous mate. If you don't, you could easily lose both.”
The words bite deep. I swallow them down, nodding once. Orders first, instincts later. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. My wolf snarls in the back of my mind, reminding me that instincts are what have kept me alive this long. Still, Rush’s warning echoes louder than the animal inside me.
Dalton and Deacon take the sweep of the ranch’s systems. Hours later, they haul in a stripped piece of conduit, wiresspliced with precision. A passive relay, hidden on the irrigation control line. We were leaking data and granting them access to our systems every time we ran the sprinklers. The thought of Sadie unknowingly living under that kind of watch makes me straighten, every muscle coiled and ready to strike.
