Second of the Winterset Coven by T. S. Joyce

keep it safe for always,” she promised.
    Garret smiled slightly and brushed her hair off one shoulder, then cupped her neck, right over the leather strap. “We didn’t give rings.” He lifted his dark gaze to hers. “Do you understand?”
    The blood drained from Dawn’s face as shock settled in, leaving her skin feeling prickly. Wide-eyed, she looked down at the metal talisman on her palm. This wasn’t just an old necklace. It was one he’d kept for hundreds of years for this moment, to gift it to her. It was a declaration bigger than any promise ring, or any words he could say.
    “I’m yours,” she whispered.
    “And I’m yours,” he murmured. “My body is for your protection, my heart is for you to hold, my nights are yours, and my days, too. You can have whatever parts of me you want.”
    “All of you,” she said on a breath. “I want all of you.”
    His smile stretched a little wider, and he nodded once. “Then all of me belongs to you. This will be my final lifetime, Dawn. I’ve waited for you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean I’ll enjoy every moment of your mortal life with you, and when you are a hundred and don’t wake up anymore, Aric will end my life. Whatever afterlife there is, I’ll be ready for it with you.”
    “Garret,” she whispered, her vision blurring with the burning tears that filled her eyes. She didn’t like when he talked about this, but he sounded so confident, so sure. He had thought this through and was giving up what he could for her—his immortality. Perhaps it wasn’t as big a deal to him because he hadn’t wanted it in the first place, but this was a big sacrifice. He’d lived so long, and now he was anchoring himself to one remaining lifetime. She imagined such a short amount of time passed in the blink of an eye to a vampire.
    It was the greatest gift anyone could’ve ever offered her.
    Dawn slid her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. She stared at the picture of them on the desk and shook her head at how lucky she’d gotten. She’d known he was a huge element meant to be in her life, but she hadn’t realized anything could feel this deep and this right. Garret was everything.
    She eased back and kissed him hard, tight lipped and impassioned because she couldn’t believe how incredible he was. How incredible this building bond was that she could feel growing inside of her.
    She loved him. She loved him with every fiber of her being, and part of her was terrified of taking a leap like this. But then there was a part of her that had been opening up since the day she’d met him, and that part had started out just a dark smudge deep inside of her, but had grown brighter and more vibrant with everything she learned about Garret. And now it was maybe the biggest part of her. Maybe it was hope. Maybe Garret was the realization that she wasn’t alone on this earth anymore and would always be there for her. Perhaps it was the bond Sadey had talked about having with Aric. Or maybe she’d been broken somewhere along the way as the men in her life had left her one by one. Maybe Garret had been the cure to make her whole again. Maybe this humming, warm sensation was him putting her together again, piece by flawed piece until she made sense again.
    Or maybe it was happiness.
    “Shhh, don’t cry,” he murmured against her lips as he rubbed her back gently.
    Caring man. He was Geir the Destroyer to Asmund, but to her, he was Garret the Gentle.
    Mine. This man is mine to protect always. Her nights would be spent bathing in joy, and her days would be spent sleeping and protecting the vampire she adored.
    Dawn didn’t use his knee to lean on like she always did for feedings. This one would be different. It would be bigger. It would weld their souls to each other. Dawn straddled his hips and parted her lips, dipped her tongue shallowly into his mouth. Garret’s grasp went tight on her back, and he dragged her against his erection with a feral sound in