ALARIC POV
The moment the words left her mouth—
“You can come to our pack”—
My brain stilled while everything else kept spinning.
The room.
The women.
My goddamn heart.
Because that—
That wasn’t just a solution, wasn’t just Aria stepping in to fix a situation that needed fixing, wasn’t her playing leader or being the strong one everyone suddenly needed her to be.
That wasn’t even just her being herself.
Because she didn’t say my mate’s pack.
She didn’t say Greenwood.
She said our.
And that word didn’t just land—it sank deep, straight through my chest and into my bones, into the mark still burning on my neck, into something far more permanent than instinct or blood or even the bond itself.
And f**k—
That did something to me, because it felt like she had already built a future
