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Hermione's eyes fluttered as she slowly groaned while consciousness gradually returned.
Before she woke enough to look around at where she was, she stretched herself and sighed at the silky sensation of the sumptuous sheets slipping against her bare skin.
Intrigued by how soft her own bed had become, she dared to finally crack her amber eyes open and rid herself of her pleasant dream.
She sat up with a sudden gasp as she realized that she was not in fact, lying in her bed.
Panic began to seize her as she frantically glanced around at the decor.
The bed was cozy, soft, rich, and covered in the most luxurious green sheets with glittering duvets of black velvet, adorned by sparkling, silver stars.
The walls matched the damask decorations of the large room; heavy, gothic, ornate, and unmistakably black and green.
Hermione's cheeks heated as she realized she had found herself in a Slytherin's bed.
While she tried to understand how she had come to lie there, she raised a hand to her face, or at least, she tried.
As she glanced at her wrists, she noticed bonds of swirling, smoke-like enchantment held her in magical chains.
She scowled as she moved the sheets aside and noticed the same bonds on her ankles.
With panic rising in her heart, she narrowed her eyes and jerked her left wrist as hard as she could towards herself.
She blinked as she managed to free her left arm from its ensnarement.
Sadness filled her as she realized the sheets carried Draco's familiar scent.
Determined to lie in wait for him, Hermione slipped her wrist back into the swirling, enchanted bone that had failed to vanish.
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An hour later, she sighed to herself while she waited for Draco.
Normally entrenched in her work and addicted to productivity, she felt incomprehensibly lazy as a heavy sort of austere comfort dominated her senses.
Her mind seemed scattered and unable to focus.
Her breasts felt as heavy as her bloated belly.
The temperature in the room became unbearable as a sheen of sweat broke across his skin.
There was an emptiness somewhere deep inside her that she somehow knew no food would manage to satiate.
Her dark eyes narrowed into a scowl as she realized she absolutely hated the way the ear of the top most blanket bunched under the green, velvet duvet.
She sat up with an irritated groan and began to smooth out each piece of bedding the way she found most agreeable.
Another quarter hour passed as Hermione's amber eyes studied every fold of fabric before she moved onto the pillows.
Fluffing them into shapes suitable for her aching body became the sole purpose of her existence as she worked tirelessly at her task.
She became so engrossed in what she sought to do that she didn't even notice the pop to announce apparition before a smooth, familiar voice chuckled, "Goodness……..you're nesting, aren't you?"
Hermione instnatly abandoned her activity and looked over to see who had spoken.
Draco stood there, in front of the bed, across his massive room, in a fine, black suit that acted as a tantalizing contrast to his angular, pale features and shockingly blonde hair.
"...No." Hermione frowned defensively, "I was just getting comfortable, that's all."
"You're welcome to nest here." Draco smirked as he walked forward, "That's more or less why I've brought you, Granger."
The clicks of his polished shoes made against the floorboards sent Hermione staring at his legs.
"This will be your new home, Granger. You're mine now. If you need to nest, then nest. I'll gladly bring you whatever you require too….If you need more blankets, tell me and I'll bring them straight away." He said very seriously as he sat on the edge of the bed.
"Are you just going to hold me prisoner forever, then?" Hermione scoffed.
"Don't patronize me." He snapped, "I'm sure you've noticed-"
"-That I can break the bonds and leave?" Hermione laughed.
"...If you ultimately chose to, yes." Draco finished with a frown.
Hermione found herself mirroring his forlorn expression before she thought better of it as he cleared his throat and went on, "I'm certain you thought I was teasing……I wasn't. I'm tried, Granger, I'm tired of waiting."
Her eyes softened as Draco gazed into her face and went on, "I'm tired of waiting for you to love me the way I love you. I'm tired of keeping everything a secret from everyone. I'm tired of passing one rut after another gritting my teeth and hissing your name into the night."
By the time he finished speaking, Hermione's mouth had fallen open.
Her knees had unconsciously parted while Draco had slowly crawled onto the bed and over her, sensing the submissiveness his raw confessions had invoked.
"I don't care what the world thinks." He finished with a defiant scowl, "I don't care what your friends or family…..or mine, for that matter, think. I love you and I want you….You, Hermione, for my own."
Hermione struggled to swallow against the sudden dryness of her throat as Draco leaned down and gave her a deep kiss.
"This will never work, Draco." She whispered against his lips, "What will we tell everyone? Our parents…..our friends….The world will-"
"-I don't care what the world does." Draco hissed back as he continued their kiss, "Our lives are short, Granger. Don't waste your time on what people think, spend it on what you want instead."
"And how do you do that I want you?" She asked in a low chuckle as Draco took her into his arms.
"You know that I can smell……everything…..right?" Draco asked as his gray eyes bore into hers.
Hermione blushed as his gaze flickered down to the center of her body, at the highest point between her thighs.
She hadn't mentioned her arousal but as she saw the look on Draco's face, she gasped in mortification.
"...That's quite rude, Malfoy." She huffed.
"It is quite rude of you to tease me, yes." Draco shrugged, "I've endured it for eight long years, though, I suppose I can withstand it another few seconds."
Hermione opened her mouth to respond but Draco cut her off as he pressed his lips to hers.
He pulled away a second later and made sure to hold her gaze in his as he raised an eyebrow, "Don't look at me like that." He quipped, "This is all your fault and you know it."
"All my fault?!" She gasped, "Sorry, I don't remember agreeing to an abduction……or to bondage, for that matter."
Draco began on a roll at first, but as the more serious phrases began to emerge in his speech, he found himself grasping to spit them out, "You've known for quite some time……how I've really felt about…."
"...About me?" Hermione asked with a gentleness that neither of them expected.
As he resisted the urge to kiss her again, Draco passed a hand through his short, blonde hair and cleared his throat, "We could have given it a proper try and then I wouldn't have had to go to all this trouble. I could have taken you out for lunches and dinners……We could have-"
"-Have what?" Hermione chuckled bitterly, "Spent family holidays together? Do you honestly hear yourself?"
"They'll have no choice but to accept eventually that the two of us are together." Draco nodded, "My parents, your parents, friends….everyone."
Hermione wanted to refute him, to argue with him, to push him a little further, but Draco would have none of it.
As she opened her mouth to speak, he crushed his lips against hers in another deep kiss.
Hermione gave into his affection a bit more than he anticipated.
While she flipped back against the pillows, he struggled not to fall forward and smash himself against her, but their exchange remained smooth and controlled.
As he enjoyed the taste of his darling, he counted the days until her cycle began and he could claim her as his own.
Hermione shared a similar hope.
The knowledge that she could break the magical bonds that restrained her wrist and ankles failed to give her any desire to do so.
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Over the next week, Hermione reluctantly gave into her instincts and let her rising hormone levels help guide her urges to nest.
Draco stood hy, as supportive as any alpha could be, and watched as she attempted to make his bed into an even cozier place of respite.
She fluffed pillows, smoothed blankets, and situated each piece of bedding at least fifty times, but what touched Draco was the morning he found one of his ties in the mixture.
Draco thought the gesture to be so touching that Hermione had purposely included his belongings in her place of safe escape that he had caught her up in a ferocious kiss before he thought.
One touch led to another.
Hermione's raging hormones quickly elicited a new sheen of sweat across her skin as the couple discovered physical intimacy for the first time, cradled in Draco's sumptuous bed.
Her cries echoed off the wall as Draco ground himself down on her, but he visibly shivered at the moan that left her lips once his sharp teeth pierced her skin.
Hermione's nails raked his back as they both silently understood what had happened.
It was done.
It was over.
No more games, no more bold flirtations.
Draco Malfoy had claimed his mate.