The mating mark came on a night Aria had not planned for, in the quiet after a long day, when Kael's lips found the curve of her shoulder and neither of them spoke about what they both knew was about to happen.
She had been his mate by bond since the Blackwood. She had been his wife in every way that mattered for months. But the mark was different, the old kind of claiming that ran deeper than vows, the kind that could not be undone by any rejection, any distance, any other Alpha's regret.
"Are you certain," Kael murmured against her skin, the way he always asked, every single time, because he had learned long ago that asking mattered more than any bond ever could.
"I have never been more certain of anything," Aria said.
His teeth found the place where her shoulder met her neck, gentle
