ALARIC POV
Seeing her here, safe and powerful and choosing to stay, choosing to fight, choosing to tear this place apart instead of running from it like probably anyone else would have … it felt right in a way I couldn’t explain, like something that had been out of place for too long had finally snapped back where it belonged. It felt f*****g inevitable.
Like this was exactly where she was always meant to stand. Next to me.
And when our eyes locked—
Goddess.
The look she gave me wasn’t relief, wasn’t fear, wasn’t hesitation.
It was recognition.
Like she saw me in the middle of all this blood and chaos and still knew exactly what I was to her. She wasn't horrified like she'd been in the woods. She was acknowledging, no, she was accepting, the man and the monster in me.
And f**k, tha
