second stride finishes landing, breakfast forgotten on the table behi

oesn't raise his voice. He doesn't need to. The words land like stones dropped into still water, and Caela

not what

es finally leave Caelan's and fin

tion of a man recalculating every plan he's made in the last three weeks. Riven doesn't move at all, but I fee

ys again, quieter this time,

waver from mine. "Tell me you don'

slow burn I've felt every time he's passed within a hundred feet of me since the crowning. This is

ree strides and catches m

him something to say it. His hands are steady on my arms even though nothing else about him is stea

ooking

tending you do

ng and coming home in the same breath, the fire in my chest finally meeting the thing it's been reaching for since the moment it ignited. I grab the front of his

k, my voice comes out u

ough every word tastes like a lie on the way out. "Y

nough for me to see the man underneath the Alpha for half

us and aimed as much at himself as at me. "After I destroyed you to save you? After I handed you to

what you want. You made y

el like he's holding onto something he's terrified of losing. "Do you understand what would have happened if I'd claim

ve been given has holes in it big enough to fall through. "No one's told me anything. I just kno

sits behind his teeth, he swallows

n wh

is something he still knows how to do, and when Caelan moves to stand beside me again, Aurelian'

omething," i

don't need any

es, just barely, the closest thing to warmth he's shown since he c

like the crest I've seen stitched into every banner in the territory, his crest, his mark, resting like it's waiting for permission to touch my skin. Last, folded with mor

you know

like a confession he didn't intend to make out loud, and for a second the Alpha's composure slip

n though my hand has already drifted

in his voice now, just something tired and honest u

e anyone can say another word, and the fortress feels

t sleep doesn't come, not with my whole chest still humming from the kiss, not with three other bonds pulsing

eads back toward the compound, back toward him, and I feel his absence the same way I felt his presen

hut, quiet, the argument we didn't finish still hanging unresolved between us. Riven'

s living inside one chest th

r my hand, and admit the truth I've been avoiding

re I want to be f