Chapter 9

Lucas’s POV

After Ethan’s brief period of consciousness, he sank into an even deeper coma.

The medical team concluded that another response was unlikely anytime soon. Mrs. Vance threw herself into preparing the pairing ceremony, even laying out candidate dates for Maya to choose from.

Maya was driven into a corner.

That evening she came upstairs on her own and knocked on my door.

Only one floor lamp was lit in the suite. I leaned back on the sofa and watched her. She closed the door and didn’t retreat. Piece by piece she stripped off her clothes until she knelt naked in front of me, lifted her head, and spoke in a voice that was quiet but steady:

“Mark me. Completely. Leave only your scent on me. Then… let me keep being his woman until he truly wakes, or until he never does.”

I stared at her for a long time.

Then I stood, lifted her from the floor, and laid her on the bed. This time I entered her slowly, deeply, without any of the usual roughness—only heavy, controlled thrusts that filled her completely. While I moved inside her I bit down over the old mark on the back of her neck, breaking the skin again and forcing a full, permanent claim into her. When the knot began to swell I didn’t hold back. It locked us together at the limit, pinning her beneath me as my scent flooded the entire room and turned it into our territory alone.

Maya’s breath stuttered, eyes glassy.

“Lucas… you’re so thick… the knot is stretching me so much—”

Her body shook through it, walls clenching and fluttering helplessly around the thick swell, soft broken moans spilling out with every pulse.

“So full… I can feel every inch of you… don’t pull out yet—”

Afterward I held her, chin resting on top of her head, voice low and calm:

“You’re mine now, good girl. From this day on, every tear you shed at his bedside is for me.”

Three months later.

Ethan still hadn’t woken.

Mrs. Vance presided over a simple temporary pairing ceremony. Maya officially moved into the main house as the future Beta’s partner. Everyone believed it was loyalty. Only I knew that every night, once the house fell silent, I would slip into Ethan’s room, take Maya from the chair beside his bed, and bring her back to the Alpha suite—marking her again and again until the cold snow and pine scent completely covered her.

Sometimes I knotted her and stayed buried all night, holding her until dawn.

Sometimes I pressed her against the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the medical wing below, fucking her in slow, deep strokes while I spoke against her ear:

“He’s sleeping down there, good girl, and you’re up here taking my cock. Squeeze tight. Don’t let a single drop of my cum leak out.”

Maya would nod, voice soft and shaky with honest need:

“I’m holding it… all of it… you’re so deep I can barely think…”

Her body no longer fought.

After being marked again and again, it had learned complete surrender. The bite on the back of her neck scabbed over only to be broken open once more—an unhideable brand.

One early morning.

Maya sat by Ethan’s bed as usual, fingers laced with his cold hand. I came downstairs, steps steady and unhurried. I paused for a second outside the medical wing, then pushed the door open.

She didn’t look up.

She only tightened her grip on Ethan’s fingers and whispered a sentence meant only for herself—yet I heard every word clearly:

“I’m sorry, Ethan. I can’t go back anymore.”

The machines kept their steady rhythm.

And on the back of her neck, my mark glowed faintly warm in the morning light—carrying my scent, my claim, and nothing else.