zie

from the dining room had been a trembling, unsteady journey. I'd stood in the bathroom for what felt like an hour, stari

e pain and regret in his eyes. His word

been fighting, building walls, treating him as the enemy. I never considered

the mate bond I'd read about, a purely physiological pull I couldn't resist. But was it only that? When he had raged at

do you really want? I asked myself. Do you want to continue this endless,

eart. A sober, clear decis

ere he'd be. There was a terrace on the top floor o

as shirtless, and the moonlight silvered the powerful muscles of his back, crisscrossed with the

Surprise flickered in his eyes,

ce was cold, still laced with sham

is gaze without flinching. "Gannon,

ng foreign and shocking on my own ton

ody rigid with disbeli

I've surrendered, and it doesn't mean I love you. It means... I accept that our situation is

sion, Gannon. Do

searching my soul. After a long, silent moment, the ice

long to hear you s

back toward the bedroom. His movements were urgent, yet underneath the d

streamed through the window, illuminatin

ie," he commanded

as he lowered

y. I could feel our spirits tangling, merging. His emotions poured into me through the nascent bond-his desperate lo

gh my neck. Gannon's teeth sank into the juncture betwee

riumphant roar, not in

new it wasn't

of wholeness I had never known, as if a missing piece of my soul had fina

ess faded, I heard him whisper, his

," he said. "But I'

mind, but I was too exhaust