DEREK
The bond between us didn’t just hum now—it roared.
It flooded my veins with golden heat, a tidal pull that stripped everything else away until there was only her.
Elena.
Every breath I dragged into my chest tasted like her. Every beat of my heart thundered with her name. It was unbearable and exquisite all at once—like trying to stare straight into the sun.
The strength of it slammed into me without warning, no gentleness to it, no steady build. It was all at once, a storm breaking open inside my ribs.
It felt exactly like the first time.
Exactly like the day I found her.
The memory gripped me hard enough to steal my breath, and I let it pull me under.
***
I’d been patrolling the roguelands alone that day. No backup. No orders.
Just the endless stretch of broken forest un
