“I will.”
“I know.”
His mouth almost smiled.
“I choose the man who ate my Nonna’s soup and called it amazing.”
His fingers tightened.
“I choose the wolf who protected me badly and is now learning to love me better.”
A sound came out of him.
My heart turned over.
“And I choose you, Caelin. Not because I am doomed. Not because of sparks. Not because the bond wants me to.” I rose on my toes, close enough that my lips brushed his when I spoke. “Because I do.”
His restraint cracked.
I felt it before I saw it.
A shudder through his body.
A low vibration beneath my palms.
His eyes burned brighter, green bleeding toward wolf, and something inside me, something reckless and female and entirely awake, smiled.
Fuck.
That was hot.
I should have stepped back.
I did not.
Instead, I lea
