Celia fell asleep with her head resting on Lucas’s chest, her breathing slow and steady. He didn’t want to close his eyes. It felt too good to be real, that they were here. Mated, bonded, and marked. She was everything he had ever wanted since he was old enough to understand what love meant.
His thoughts drifted to the night long ago when he’d fallen outside her window in the rain and mud, cold, scared, and alone. It hadn’t been chance that led him to her. It had been fate.
This was where he was always meant to be. Here. With Celia.
He didn’t know how long he lay there, listening to the rhythm of her breathing and the faint hum of crickets outside. Maybe he had drifted off, because the next thing he knew, Landon’s voice was calling his name.
Lucas blinked awake and shifted slightly, sp
