“You don’t get to hide anymore,” he interrupted, not with fury, but with command. “You don’t get to suffer in silence, living as someone you’re not, alone in a borrowed life. He was taken from me. And I didn’t even know what I was missing until the moment I saw him… until the bond hit me like lightning in the chest.”
Her breath trembled.
He stepped closer again, gently now, his voice softening though the fire beneath it remained. “I didn’t get to protect you when I should have. I wasn’t there when they locked you away, when they broke you piece by piece. I wasn’t there when you escaped, when you gave birth, when you named him. But I’m here now. And I won’t walk away. Not from you. Not from him.”
“Kaius…” Her eyes shimmered again, but this time it was from shock, disbelief, and something
