EMBER’S POV
Something aches, sweet and enormous, behind my ribs.
I push up onto my elbow to look at him. He’s wrecked and gorgeous in the low light, his hair a disaster from my hands, faint marks I put on his throat, his eyes soft and open in a way the Lycan King never lets them be for anyone.
And I understand, all at once, what I actually gave him tonight — not a punishment, not even really a game. I gave the most powerful man on the continent the one thing no one else ever offers him.
“Then I’ll take the reins whenever you need me to,” I say quietly. I lay my palm flat over his heart. “Any time it gets too heavy. You don’t have to carry all of it alone anymore, Knox. That’s what I’m for now. That’s what this is for.” I feel his heartbeat kick under my hand. “You can put it down with
