Disclaimer: I don’t own them, Jim does

 

 

72 Hours

 

Alec’s POV

 

 

72 Hours ago she changed everyone’s lives.

 

I’m laying here watching her sleep; a rarity for her I know, because unlike me she doesn’t have the luxury of oblivion that sleep can sometimes bring. I’m watching her trying to figure out why she looks so different. Although I figure three days of non-stop, mind-blowing sex, will make even the most uptight and tense person smile. But I don’t think that’s the reason she seems to have changed.

 

72 Hours ago she changed my life.

 

Change. That’s what has been the cornerstone of our relationship, our friendship, our whatever-the-hell we’ve been to each other; since before we even met.  She changed my life for the first time, the night she and the others, my twin included escaped from Manticore.

She changed it again the day she returned and blew up the D.N.A lab; and I changed hers the night I walked into her cell. She changed my life yet again when she named me; giving me back a piece of myself that I hadn’t even realised that I’d been missing.

 

72 Hours ago I watched as she ripped a man’s still beating heart from his chest; smashed it under her boot and walked away without a backward glance.

 

I gently pull her closer, tighter against my body; seeking the warmth and shelter from her that I have craved for months; and for which she has denied me until now.  Nuzzling my face in her hair, I take in her scent. That undeniably unique mix of aroma’s that have tantalised my mind, since the first time I met her.  That sweet heady scent that I’ve never been able to describe, but which even as a child back at Manticore; before I’d even ever heard of X5-452, of Max; would drift into my unconscious mind and somehow soothe my heart. Making it possible to dream a dreamless sleep, where I could forget all the atrocities that I’d committed on Manticore's behalf during the day.

 

72 Hours ago I watched as a rosy flush blossomed on her face; and the heady aroma of her pheromones invaded my senses.

 

Gently I kiss the curve of her neck and watch as a small smile curves her full lips, as she instinctively moves herself closer into my embrace.  With difficulty I try and suppress the smirk that I can feel tugging at the corners of my lips. If someone had told me five days ago that I would be laying here, wrapped around her small lithe body like this; I would have laughed in their face and asked them what they’d been smoking.

 

72 Hours ago she walked towards me, looked me square in the eyes; leaned up and whispered in my ear the three words that I never thought I would ever hear her say.

 

I look at this small bundle of hell-cat that I hold in my arms; and marvel at how this diminutive woman, has the power to rule my life, and doesn’t even realise it. How when she smiles, I smile. When she laughs, I laugh. How when she’s pain and hurting, all I want to do is gather her into my arms and hold her until the pain has gone away.

I once told Logan that he was whipped, but if that’s true; then I’m just as whipped just as much of a slave. A slave to my heart and to her’s.

 

72 Hours ago Max went into heat.

 

I can feel her warm breath caressing my skin; and I find myself running the our last few hour’s together through my mind. Smiling at the memories of her thrashing beneath me, squeezing me; making me shudder into my release as she screams my name in pleasure…  Pleasure that I gave her; that she’s given me in return. I close my eyes at the images and smile.

 

72 Hours ago I watched as she finally accepted herself, accepted me, accepted us.

 

I can feel her fingertips tracing the shape of my face; their gentle touch as she brushes them across my lips.  I suppress a shudder as she slowly, soothingly strokes her small hand along my arm. Her touch is gentle, reverent as though she isn’t even aware that she’s doing it.

I keep my eyes closed, not wanting to disturb her from whatever thoughts are running through her mind; not wanting to move past this single peaceful moment in our otherwise tumultuous lives.

She shifts in my arms, as I feel her learning towards me, her hair brushes my chest just as her lips softly graze my ear; and she repeats those three little words that have given me so much joy, and happiness.  So much contentment. 

 

“I choose you”, she whispers, as she nips at my earlobe. Quickly I turn us over so that she’s lying beneath me as I gaze down upon her face.

 

72 Hours ago I felt a burst of happiness wash over me, and fill my heart; taking the place of all the fear and loneliness that until that moment had resided there.

 

She smiles up at me, with her heart there for me to see in her eyes. I silently watch as she reaches her hand up to caress my cheek and brush a lock of my hair behind my ear. 

 

“I choose you”, she says again. “I choose you, Alec. I choose you”.

 

Leaning down to capture her lips, I find suddenly find myself not caring that were in the middle of a war. That were barricaded behind wire fences, or that were being hunted into extinction like animals. Because in this moment I finally feel free.

 

9 Months ago she changed my world when she set me free, when she set all of us free.

 

72 Hours ago, she unlocked the cage that had surrounded my heart.

 

72 Hours ago she chose me as her mate.