Chapter 7

Orion sat up, watching his mate struggle to survive. He had been dozing, his forehead resting on her shoulder, when against the odds, her breathing changed, becoming deeper and losing the rattling sound he had heard all night. He was awake instantly and put his ear to her chest. Her heart was beating stronger, as well. Slowly, color began to return to Lara"s cheeks. Orion"s shoulders sagged with relief, but he didn"t dare move. He didn't want to disturb her. She needed peace and quiet in which to get stronger. He would give that to her. He knew the battle wasn"t over, but they had a chance now, a precious chance to survive.

The storm raged outside, but within the walls of Aurora Station, a fragile sense of hope flickered. Orion watched over Lara, his heart swelling with a fierce protectiveness. She was his mate, his destiny, and he would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

As the night began to give way to dawn, the howling wind seemed to lessen in severity, whispering secrets of the past and promises for the future. Orion"s gaze never wavered from Lara"s face, his mind filled with mixed images of her buried in the snow, of the life they would have now that she had survived and the unbreakable bond that had led him to her. In the heart of the storm, amidst the relentless cold and the fierce winds of the Arctic, their fates had become intertwined. And as dawn broke over the horizon, painting the sky with hues of gold and pink, Orion knew that no matter what challenges lay ahead, they would face them together.

LARA

Lara woke to find Orion sitting in a chair next to the bed, his head resting against its back, sound asleep. He looked exhausted. She extricated herself from the bed and went into the bath, turning on the luxurious shower. She indulged herself with the feel of the steamy water pelting down from the rainfall shower and various body sprays. It felt like heaven.

When she emerged, she began to dry herself off, wincing as she ran the towel over her throat. Fearful of what she was sure she was about to find, she wiped the steam off the mirror and stared at her reflection, her fingers tracing the angry wound left by an alpha male wolf's claiming bite—in this case an alpha male dire wolf. The claiming bite. Her heart raced as she tried to comprehend the implications. She"d heard stories, but nothing could have prepared her for the reality of it. The sonofabitch had bitten her.

A growl echoed from the other room. She spun around to see Orion standing in the doorway, his eyes blazing with a mix of anger and possessiveness. His muscular frame filled the space, and the raw power emanating from him made the air crackle between them. He didn't have on a shirt—god, he was gorgeous. He had broad shoulders, sculpted pecs, and washboard abs. His chest wasn't devoid of hair but had a nice amount that narrowed at the bottom to make a pleasure trail to the bulging cock behind his fly.

"What did you do to me?" she hissed.

Orion took a step forward, his expression darkening. "I did what was necessary. I claimed you to save your life. I protected you after that foolish stunt you pulled."

"Protected me? Foolish stunt?" Lara"s voice rose, her hands clenching into fists, and then it hit her… "Oh god, the samples…"

"The samples are fine. I was able to get a message to Trudi who talked to some other researchers and told me how to store them."

"Well, that's good at least, but it didn't give you the right to claim me."

"Didn't it? You're my fated mate, and you were dying."

"Says you. You claimed me without my consent, without even talking to me about it."

"Lara, you're my fated mate. You were unconscious. There was no time to discuss it like reasonable humans. Besides which, at the time, only one of us was human."

"And now I'm not," she snarled.

"You don"t understand," Orion growled, his eyes narrowing. "I couldn"t—no scratch that, let's be honest with each other—I wouldn't let you die."

"You took away my choice! You bound me to you without even asking me," she growled, kind of liking how it sounded coming from her. "You had no right."

Orion"s jaw tightened, and he took another step towards her. "I had every right. I wasn't about to risk losing you. You're mine. I might point out your argument would hold more water if you hadn't disobeyed me and gone out on your own after the damn plant."

"I am not yours! You don't just get to make unilateral decisions for me." Lara"s anger flared, and as he closed in on her, she pushed him away with all her strength. "No. You do not get to come in here, pawing at me and making me want you so much I'll forgive you anything just to get you inside me again." She stopped, her eyes widening in shock. Had she really just said that?

The smirk on his face said she had. "I never paw."

Lara shrieked, picked up his shaving mug and threw it at his head, almost hitting him. Orion staggered back but quickly regained his footing. His eyes flashed with a dangerous light, and he moved with lightning speed, pinning her against the wall.

Lara"s breath hitched as she felt the heat of his body pressing against hers, the magnetic pull between them undeniable. She struggled against him, but his grip was unyielding.

"Let me go," she demanded, her voice wavering.

"Never," he whispered fiercely, his lips inches from hers. "You"re mine, Lara. And I"ll prove it to you."

Before she could protest, Orion"s lips crashed down on hers with a ferocity that took her breath away. She tried to resist, but the intense connection between them was overpowering. Her body betrayed her, responding to his touch with a need she couldn"t deny. The kiss deepened as his tongue tangled with hers. A wave of desire surged through her, erasing all thoughts of anger and betrayal. Orion"s hands roamed over her body possessively, igniting a wildfire that raged through her system.

Orion swept her up in his arms and carried her back to the bed, quickly discarding his own clothes until he was as naked as she was, her body arching towards him as if drawn by an invisible force. Orion"s eyes blazed with a primal hunger as he positioned himself above her.

"You"re mine," he repeated, his voice a low growl.

Lara tried to push him away, but her inner she-wolf was making her first appearance and wanted to be joined with her mate. She howled in the deep recesses of Lara's mind as heat rolled off her body in waves. She could feel her slick as it eked out onto her thighs, her pussy throbbing in anticipation—not just of his cock claiming her wet heat as surely as he had claimed her with his bite, but of the knot she could feel at the root of his cock. She knew there would be no stopping his breaching of her with it. She had overheard a number of she-wolves describing the experience, and there were any number of romance books that described it in detail. She reminded herself she was furious with him, and he had no more right to knot and tie her to him than he had turning her without her consent. But she couldn't seem to retain the anger she felt she should have.

"Orion, no," she moaned with little to no conviction.

"Lara, yes," he growled, the sound reverberating not only within her body, but within her soul. So, she'd been out of it long enough for the bonding link to have formed.

Orion parted her thighs, settling himself between them before he slammed into her, stopping just short of breaching her with the knot. She felt herself come undone as she raked his back with her nails, all primal instinct and red-hot desire. She was pinned beneath him, and god help her, she reveled in it. Lara buried her face in his neck, filling her nose with his rich, musky scent.

With both of her wrists in one of his huge hands, he pulled her arms over her head, holding them tight. Orion took advantage of her immobility to press his nose into the crook of her neck and inhaled. After he filled his lungs with her scent, he growled again, then left a trail of wet, open-mouthed kisses across her skin, drowning her in his own musk. She could feel her sex swelling and softening, readying her body for his complete possession.

He pulled out, dragging the length of his cock down her crease. Still pinning her to the bed, ensuring she knew who was dominant and who was not, he guided his hard staff with the other hand. The hot, velvet skin of his crown teased at her lips, making her cry out when he didn't press in. Instead, he used himself to smear her slick over more of her skin, his chest rumbling with a pleased purr at the sight.

Lara bucked her hips up, begging for something more—not exactly sure what, but pretty sure it was the hard knot where his cock joined his body. Orion held her still. He was immovable, and she could do nothing more than to lie there and take whatever he chose to give her. She tried to find some sense of calm and control by soothing herself with how he surrounded her: his scent, his touch, his body, all of it like a powerful, sensual cage holding her tight.

When he finally thrust up into her, she moaned. His cock was thick and long, but her body opened up to him greedily, needing to be filled. Her inner muscles clenched around his shaft, attempting to pull him deeper, clutching at a knot that seemed just beyond her reach.

She could feel the anger fall away as acceptance and surrender filled her, making her feel whole for the first time in her life. There was no time to adjust to his size as he began to thrust into her, but she didn't care. It was pure, unadulterated bliss. She needed it. His knot bumped against her entrance as he continued to drive her to the brink of ecstasy. Orion pounded into her, going a little deeper with each thrust. The room blurred around her as her body seemed to dissolve into a wave of heat and pleasure as she felt her soul fly free when she climaxed beneath him.

He rode her through the first orgasm and drove her toward the next before she could even catch her breath. His thrusts became faster, harder, deeper until she cried out a second time and felt him drive deep powerfully, forcing the knot past her entrance until he stopped, allowing her body to accommodate this new and all-encompassing feeling as the knot became even more engorged, sealing her to him. He began to rock within her—slowly and gently at first and then more vigorously and quickly. Lara's body tensed, her inner walls bearing down around him and holding him tight as he pulsed inside her. The splash of his hot seed filled her exactly where her heat-soaked body needed it, setting off a chain reaction of pleasure and rightness through every cell in her body that made her cling to him.

Her body continued to work on instinct as she lay there, tied to her mate. Her pussy spasmed, milking his knot for every drop of cum that she could drain from it. There was something peaceful in the wake of the almost violent breaching that was accentuated by his groans and rumbling noises as he traced the curve of her neck with his tongue.

Clasping her to him, Orion rolled to his back so that she was lying prone on top of his body. Lara could feel the heat and desperation lessen, but not fade. For now, the satiation that she felt was not better than being knotted, but far more intimate.

As the aftershocks of their union abated, Lara"s mind cleared, and the reality of their situation settled in. She looked down at Orion, her emotions a tumultuous mix of anger, bliss and a kind of reluctant acceptance of the undeniable connection they shared.

"You may have claimed me, Orion," she whispered, her voice trembling. "But this isn"t over. We have a lot to figure out."

A week later, Lara sat hunched over her computer, the flickering screen casting a pale glow across her tired features. Outside, the storm had returned, thunder rumbling ominously as lightning sliced across the sky. She'd been working tirelessly on her research for a cure for DFTD, but now, as she stared at the corrupted files, despair clawed at her chest.

She hit a few more keys, trying in vain to open the damaged documents. "No, no, no," she whispered, her voice cracking. The storm must have caused a surge that corrupted her data, and the backup she thought she had set up had somehow failed.

"Months of work," she muttered, her eyes brimming with tears. "All gone."

A knock on the door broke through her desolation, and she looked up to see Orion standing there, his broad shoulders blocking the doorway. His expression softened when he saw her distress.

"Lara, what"s wrong?" he asked, crossing the room in a few quick strides.

"My data," she choked out. "The storm—it corrupted my files. Everything I"ve been working on for DFTD... it"s all gone."

"But the Resistance's main frame has it…"

"Only the research I'd done before I came up here. I haven't been able to transmit anything back. I thought I had it backed up, but those files are damaged as well. And you said the plant didn't survive."

He nodded as he knelt beside her, his hand gently resting on her shoulder. "It will most likely be back next year, but I don't think the year's bloom survived the storm. Here, let me see."

Lara hesitated for a moment, then nodded, allowing him to take over the computer. Orion"s technical skills were formidable, a surprising contrast to his otherwise primal nature. He started typing rapidly, his eyes scanning the screen with an intensity that gave her a glimmer of hope.

"I"ve seen this before," he said after a moment. "It's bad, but not necessarily hopeless. I can try to recover the files, but it'll take some time."

Lara watched him work, her anxiety easing slightly as he delved deeper into the system. He spoke in low, reassuring tones, explaining his process and what he was trying to achieve.

"Here," he said, pointing at a section of the screen. "This looks like a partial recovery. It"s not everything, but it"s something."

Lara leaned in closer, hope igniting in her chest. "Really? Can you get more?"

"I"ll need to use some specialized software," he replied. "But I think we can salvage a good portion of it. Just give me a bit more time."

Minutes turned into hours as Orion painstakingly worked to recover the data. Lara alternated between watching him and pacing the room, her emotions a confused mix of hope and fear. Finally, he sat back, a satisfied look on his face.

"I managed to recover about ninety percent of your data," he said, turning the screen towards her. "It's not perfect, but I think I got most of your critical information."

Lara's eyes scanned the files, relief flooding through her as she saw the familiar structure of her research. "Oh my god you did it," she breathed. "You saved my work."

He smiled, a rare softness in his eyes. "You're not alone in this, Lara. We're a team."

Overwhelmed with gratitude, Lara threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "Thank you," she whispered against his chest. "I don't know what I would've done without you."

Orion held her close, his voice a soothing rumble. "Well, for one thing, you would have died."

She punched him in the side, and he winced, laughing at her. "That is so not funny."

"Dire wolf humor. You'll get used to it. Seriously, sweetheart, I'll always be here to help, no matter what."

As they stood there, wrapped in each other"s embrace, the storm outside began to calm, the thunder fading into the distance. There had been a time the future for the Tasmanian Devils had looked as bleak as the landscape, but now she felt there wasn't anything that she and Orion couldn't do together.

"We should back this up properly now," Orion suggested, pulling back slightly to look at her.

Lara nodded, a smile breaking through the remnants of her earlier despair. "Yes, and maybe you could show me how to prevent this from happening again?"

"Of course," he replied, his eyes twinkling. "Consider it done."

She continued to watch him out of the corner of her eye as they worked together. She had been surprised at how easy it had been to allow him to help her. It was not something she'd ever been comfortable with and living among creatures that in many ways were superior to humans hadn't helped. They'd never made her feel inadequate; she had done that all on her own. But now, with Orion by her side, she felt like there was very little in this world she couldn't accomplish, including finding if not a cure, then at least making significant strides in the fight against DFTD.