Spike’s wide, stunned eyes searched her face in utter disbelief at what he had just heard her say. “Buffy – love – you don’t know what you’re asking…”

“Yes, I do!” she insisted, holding his gaze unflinchingly, willing him to see the truth in her eyes.

She was no ignorant child acting on some reckless impulse. She was a grown woman, and absolutely certain of what she wanted, and what she was doing. And not only that, but she was the *Slayer*. She understood exactly what he was – what power the claim would hold over them both once it was made – and she wanted it, more than anything.

“Spike,” she said softly, her hand tenderly caressing his cheek as her eyes welled with tears, an unexpected reaction to the powerful combination of emotions sweeping over and through her – contentment, relief, love – and sheer need.

“I love you. With absolutely everything in me, I *love you*.” She spoke the words clearly and slowly, in a voice of unmistakable intensity, trying to break through the wall of lies that surrounded him, telling him that this was simply more than he should dare to hope for – just too good to be true.

He looked away from her, a torment of uncertainty in his eyes. “I – I know you do, love. I love you too – so much…” His voice was thick with the depth of emotion behind his words. “But – someday – you might not feel the same way you do now, love. You might…” His words broke off, choked by a sob that rose in his throat at the very thought, and he found himself unable to continue.

But in his voice she had heard every word he could not speak; she could see the pain and insecurity in his eyes, and knew what was holding him back.

He loved her, wholeheartedly, with every part of him; there was no mistaking the complete devotion he held for her. The almost worshipful expression in his eyes told her that he was hers, and always would be – and would always *want* to be. She was his world, his light, his savior from the degradation and agony of the slavery that had been his existence for the past few years.

But she could also see the doubts that assailed him – the very real fear that, while she cared for him very much *now*, she would someday open her eyes and see that she had made a terrible mistake, that she wanted out of the utterly permanent bond she had placed between them.

She would long for the strong, confident -- *whole* -- man that she deserved, and resent the fact that she had bound herself forever to someone who was weak, vulnerable – someone who had allowed himself to become so -- *damaged*.

In his eyes, she saw his worst fear arisen to the forefront of his mind – that she would one day realize what he was already convinced of – that he did not deserve her, was nowhere near good enough for her – and she would be miserable in the claim that she seemed to want so desperately today.

As far as Buffy was concerned, nothing could have been further from the truth.

“Spike,” Buffy said in a soft, firm voice, her gentle hand tipping his face back up to meet her eyes. “Look at me.” Once his glistening blue eyes were focused on him, and she knew she had his attention, she spoke slowly and intently, with a passion that he could not deny.

“I…*love*…you. This is not a phase I’m going through. It’s not something that I’m going to get tired of or get over. It’s *never* going to change. I will always love you, Spike. I’ll never *want* anyone else.” She paused, allowing her words to sink in, taking in the dubious, doubtful expression on his face.

“Yes,” she conceded with a nod, her eyes solemn and intent on his, “I can imagine living without you – being with some Joe Normal guy in your place, and you out of my life and moving on to someone else…”

He shook his head in denial, but before he could voice the fact that he could never be with anyone else, she finished her statement, “…and it’s the most terrifying thought I can possibly imagine.”

He blinked, his lips parted in surprise, and her expression softened to a tender smile of affection at the stunned look on his face. The tears that glittered in her eyes slowly slid down her face, as she traced her fingertips lovingly over his perfect, trembling lips, her heart swelling with emotion when he leaned into her handing.

The aching uncertainty and desperate need he was feeling was nearly tangible to her – and his very uncertainty, his unfounded fear of losing her, only made her love him more fiercely.

“God, Spike, how could you think that I could *ever* want anyone but you?” she whispered in an almost awed voice of tenderness and disbelief. “After being with you – feeling the way that you love me – the way that you touch me – the way you have of making me feel like I’m the only woman in the world – at least the only one that matters to *you* -- how could I ever be satisfied with anyone else again?”

He was speechless, stunned by the honest power of the love he heard in her simple words.

“How could I ever leave you?” she whispered incredulously, shaking her head slowly as her hand slipped back behind his head to gently play through his blonde curls. “I’d always be – comparing – remembering – and wishing that I was back with you. You’re the only man I’ve ever known who’s made me feel so completely loved, and – and *cherished*, Spike. And I could try – but I know without a doubt in my mind – I could never love anyone as much as I love you.”

The simple words held the power to break down the fragile defenses of the master vampire, and he stared at her for a moment through wide eyes, full of a hope he barely dared to feel, let alone express. With a soft, shuddering little gasp, he dropped his head to her shoulder, his hands clutching at her waist as his body shook with the struggle to repress the powerful emotions that consumed him.

Relief at her words mingled with fear that her feelings would eventually fade, and all he could do was just cling to her as he tried to regain control

Her heart ached with the strength of her love for him, as she wrapped her arms around him and held him close to her, one hand still resting at the back of his head, running soothingly through his disheveled curls. “God, Spike,” she said in a hushed voice, thick and heavy with emotion. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

After a long moment, he raised his head just slightly, his eyes still closed, his lips nearly brushing her bare skin as he replied in a hoarse whisper, “You won’t – ever. I’m yours, Buffy. Completely. No matter what happens, I’ll always be yours.”

The total devotion, the abandon with which he was offering himself to her, sparked her desire for him afresh, and her hands tingled with the desire to touch him, to run over that flawless body again, reawaken his desire that was currently swallowed up in heartache, and accept the gift he offered.

How she wanted him!

But – she had to be sure that this was really what he wanted before they went too far to turn back. In the heat of their union, she knew that he would likely agree to anything she asked of him – and she was not going to use his desire for her to get what she wanted – not when there was so much at stake.

The right to choose his own future would never be taken from him again – not even by her, and not even for the sake of her love for him.

“Spike,” she whispered, her hand gently sliding under his chin, encouraging him to look up at her again. “Please – please make me yours. I want to belong to you for the rest of my life. I want you to claim me – mark me so that everyone know that I’m yours and yours only. Your *mate*. Please, Spike – please make me your mate!”

She felt him stirring within her as his desire was quickened by her words. She could see it in his eyes – there was nothing he wanted more. But the longing was mingled with uncertainty, as he still hesitated.

“Y-you’d need to claim me too,” he said in a soft voice that was almost shy, his eyes averted again for a moment. “Otherwise the claim wouldn’t be equal. I would have power over you.”

She smiled affectionately. “You already have power over me,” she remarked softly. “No one can make me feel the things you do – make me need them like I need you…”

“Buffy, love,” he interrupted her quietly, his eyes very serious. “it – it would be more than that. A one-way mating claim like that – it’s almost like – like a childe and a sire. I would have power over you, because you’d belong to me. I’d be able to control you -- and I won’t do that to you. I won’t put you in that position.”

She allowed the smile to fade from her lips, respecting the serious nature of what he was telling her. This was nothing to joke about, nothing to be taken lightly. This was a powerful, irreversible bond that they were about to enter into – an eternal bond.

“But – if I claim you too?” she made the words a question, her expression thoughtful.

“Then – we’d be true equals.” The hopeful light in his eyes made her heart soar as she realized just how badly he really did want this – every bit as much as she did. He was just too afraid to claim it as his own. “Neither of us would overpower the other, because we’d belong to *each other*.”

“Does it matter – who goes first?” she asked him softly, a sudden inspiration striking her as she took in his unusually shy, uncertain manner and realized that he was probably going to have a hard time finding the courage to actually do it.

With a soft grateful smile, as he realized, at least partially, why she was asking, Spike looked away again as he shook his head in response. “No. Once the claim is made and accepted by both parties – they’re equals. Makes no difference who did it first.”

Buffy nodded slowly, her arms tightening supportively around her vampire, not sure whether the trembling she felt against her was due to nervousness, or anticipation – or both.

“Spike,” she said quietly, pausing for a moment before asking, “Is this what you *want*?” Her tone was earnest, gentle – not pushing him for the answer that they both knew she wanted – because if he did not want it, then she didn’t, either. “For us to belong to each other? Forever?”

After a long pause, he replied in a whisper she could barely make out, his head lowered and his eyes closed against the fresh onslaught of his emotions. “Yes – God, yes, Buffy!” The desperate longing in his voice was as much confirmation to her as his words.

“Okay,” Buffy whispered simply, a reassuring smile on her lips as she drew his head up again, this time for a slow, intimate kiss.

As her tongue gently explored his mouth, her hands drew him nearer, her body instinctively resuming the sensuous dance that had halted when he had tried to claim her before. She slowly thrust upward toward him in a rhythmic, circular motion, encouraging him deeper inside her.

He gasped at the increased sensation, his head arching back to let out a low moan of pleasure and need, as she suddenly flipped them over so that she was on top, allowing her the leverage that she needed to increase their pace slightly – but *just* slightly.

This time, the focus was not exclusively on pleasure – but their pleasure had a purpose. She continued her slow rotating movements, taking him deeper inside her, as she edged him nearer and nearer to his climax.

“Buffy – God, Buffy – love you – need you…” he gasped out, his trembling hands clutching her closer.

When she knew that he was getting very close, she leaned down over him, kissing him again, thoroughly and deliberately, before shifting her lips to hover over his neck, her warm breath on the spot where his pulse would have been driving him wild with the anticipation of what was to come.

Though she did not know everything about vampire claiming rituals, Buffy knew how this was done, and was only moments away from completing her part of the claim – but there was something she needed to say first – something she knew that Spike needed to hear, whether he knew it or not.

“I love you,” she whispered near his ear, smiling in satisfaction when she felt a pleasurable shudder go through him that was due as much to her words as to her continued movement above him. “I love you, Spike. And I want you to be mine – for the rest of my life.”

She paused, and her voice took on a mesmerizing quality, despite its slight tremor of emotion as she went on, “As my mate. And a mating claim is stronger than any other claim, Spike. Anyone who’s ever claimed you – through blood or any other means – any hold they might have had on you – it’s as if…” She hesitated, choking back a sob as tears flooded from her eyes, and she struggled to continue in a voice low and thick with emotion.

“…it’s as if those former claims had never existed. As if you’d never been anyone’s but mine.”

Spike went completely still beneath her, overwhelmed by the power of her words; his heart was in his throat, stunned by the awesome truth of what she was saying. He knew it was true – knew that a mating claim overrode any other claim of dominance or any other sort. Even the sire-childe bond lost its power under the influence of a mating claim.

He knew that his former human masters would not recognize the significance of the claim – not that it would matter anymore after Buffy’s plan went into effect. But to him, the effect of her words was intensely powerful.

The eternal power of a mating claim not only meant that he always would be hers from that point forward, but it also meant that it would be as if he always *had* been hers, making any previous claims on him of no effect.

As her mate, anything that he had suffered at the hands of any other claimant would be an offense, a violation that they had had no right to commit, rather than something that was only his due, something that he deserved, simply because of what he was – as he had been told over and over during his captivity, the idea reinforced with continuous vicious violence.

The sheer beauty, the awesome power of the concept was overwhelming to him – that with this single act of love and ultimate acceptance, he could be free from the haunting pain of his past – that sense that had always followed him since the beginning of his slavery – that feeling that he was less – unworthy – not deserving of basic rights automatically granted to humanity.

*As if you’d never been anyone’s but mine…*

He felt a hard knot of grateful tears in his throat, welling up into his eyes, as a sense of longing came over him. To be free from the shame, the agony of worthlessness and pain that had accompanied the abuse he had endured in the training center, and every moment of every day since then. To be untainted by the ruthless use of his body and breaking of his spirit that had been inflicted on him – to be clean, and *whole*!

Buffy’s gentle, steadying hand behind his head was comfort and reassurance to him, as she leaned in to whisper tenderly into his ear, her voice husky with tears of her own, “I love you, Spike. No matter what – forever – I love you. And after tonight – it’ll be as if they’d never touched you. You’ll be mine, and mine alone. My mate – my equal. Strong and powerful and pure as you were before any of those false, worthless claims were ever made. I want to make you mine, Spike…”

He heard the slight note of question in her voice – giving him the opportunity to back out now, before it was too late, if he wanted to – but there was no question in his mind. He had never wanted anything so desperately in his life or unlife as he wanted this – the cleansing, passionate embrace of the Slayer’s bite, marking him as her own.

His slight nod was all the permission she needed. With an almost reverently whispered, “*Mine*,” Buffy bit down hard on Spike’s throat, hard enough to taste the cool, salty-sweet flavor of his blood as it flowed down her throat.

The vampire let out a shocked cry at the powerful wave of sensation as he felt the connection snap into place between him and the Slayer – with all that went along with it. His heart felt so – so *full* -- bursting with joy and pride and pleasure at her ultimate, eternal love and acceptance.

The knowledge that he was completely, eternally hers mingled with the physical pleasure of her bite and her body moving against his, bringing on a sweeping orgasm that engulfed him, surrounding and consuming him until he collapsed beneath her, still clinging to her, holding her tightly to him, his face pressed against her shoulder again.

All that was left was for him to accept the claim she had made – to finalize it. “Yours,” he gasped out desperately. “Yours, yours, Buffy…”

With the gentle breaking of his flesh came the more violent breaking of the chains of shame and self-loathing that had bound him for so long. Still trembling with exertion and the power of the new claim, Buffy was surprised to feel the cool moisture of his tears against her bare skin.

Alarmed, she gently pulled away from him to see his face – relieved and overwhelmed by her own emotions at the sight of the inexpressible joy inhis luminous eyes. After silently reassuring her that he was all right – so much more than all right – Spike lowered his head again and gave way to the tumult of emotions sweeping over him.

They were both wise enough to know that there would be scars remaining – but in his Slayer’s arms that morning, Spike’s healing became all but complete, as he cried out the last of his tears for his loss, for the wasted time he had spent in helplessness and shame.

Because after this – he would never be helpless again, and he knew now that he had nothing for which to be ashamed.

When he finally looked up again, there was a triumphant flame of joyous victory in his eyes. As she literally watched the old confidence and pride slipping in to fill the place of the vanished fear and doubt, Buffy felt the stirring within her still-unfulfilled center increase, as she remembered when she had last seen that look in his eyes – and reminded herself that he was indeed still a master vampire.

*Her* master vampire – and soon, she would be his as well.

A flood of fresh arousal saturated her, only intensified by the cocky smirk that rose to the vampire’s lips when he became aware of her increased desire. There was none of the old mockery or hostility in his eyes, as he suddenly flipped them over again so that she was lying on her back beneath him. Now, his eyes held only tenderness and affectionate amusement for the Slayer he had once sought to kill.

She started to return his flirtatious look – but then her eyes widened and rolled back slightly, before meeting his incredulously through a haze of pleasure as she gasped out, “A-*already?”

“Yes, love,” he replied in a low, husky voice that only strengthened her need. “All…ready…”

Indeed, he was – already all ready to go again – and conveniently still inside her from the last time. Only this time – he was the one in control, and he was going to do everything in his power to repay her for the blessed gift she had just given him.

She had returned him to himself.

As he began to slowly thrust inside her, eliciting a soft, breathless moan from the Slayer’s swollen lips, he leaned down to murmur in her ear, “Love you, Buffy – sweet, lovely Slayer – I love you…”

“Spike – love you -- *God*!” Buffy gasped, holding him to her with strength that would have bruised a mortal man.

“Gonna show you,” he told her, increasing the force of his movements just a little, pulling her with him toward the peak of her desire. “Love you so much…I’m yours, Buffy…and I’m gonna make you mine…”

The sensual promise in his low, throaty voice nearly sent her over the edge right then -- *nearly*. She was becoming desperate in her frenzied need for what she knew was soon to come.

“Yes!” she gasped. “Yes, Spike! Please! Please make me yours!”

His hands slid over her body, caressing lightly here, pressing harder there, driving her with torturous pleasure, yet denying her the satisfaction she craved.

“My Slayer,” he murmured. “My sweet, beautiful Buffy…” His mouth dropped down to cover her lips with his own, his tongue gliding over hers, tasting his own blood in her mouth.

As he drew back, caressing her throat with soft, tantalizing kisses, she gasped, “Yes – yours! I’m yours, Spike…please! Please do it!” She was torturously close, desperate for fulfillment – and still he waited, seemingly heedless of her pleas.

But he knew exactly what he was doing.

Riding the edge of sheer ecstasy, Buffy heard every soft, loving word, as her vampire whispered in her ear, “I love you, Buffy. I’ll always love you. A man would have to be a bloody fool to let a treasure like you go – and I may be many things, but a fool’s not one of them. I want you to be mine, Buffy, for as long as I live.”

The sweet words were balm to her heart, broken and rebroken by man after man who had walked into her life and then out again as it suited them, leaving her with the impression that she was not pretty enough, not intelligent or desirable enough – simply not good enough to deserve what she longed for – the undying love of a man who would never leave her.

Except, now – she had found that man, and the love that she had sought.

She recognized the subtle request for permission in his words, as he had recognized hers. Her hand clutched eagerly at the back of his head, gently pressing him down closer to her throat as she whispered, “Yes! Please, Spike, yes! *Now*!”

“You’re mine, Buffy – mine!” he growled, as he plunged his fangs into her willing, upraised throat.

And in that moment, Buffy’s orgasm overcame her, and she screamed out his name in a sweet rush of pleasurable pain. “*Spike*! Yes, oh yes, Spike -- *yours*!”

The sound of her voice, crying out those words in sheer bliss and desire that *he* had given her was enough to push him over his edge as well, and they fell over it together, locked in an embrace that would truly last forever.


A/N: Thanks so much to all of you who are reading and reviewing..so glad you have joined me through all 80-something chapters of this fic thus far! Just wanted to let you know I'm only planning on one more (which means no more than 3 -- seriously :P lol) Again thanx, and hope you enjoy the end :)