"How are you doing that?" I asked.
"Doing what?"
"Making me calm. Making me feel... controlled," I said.
She pulled back to look at me. "It's what bonded pairs can do. When they're truly matched. I can settle you, just like you can protect me."
"I didn't know," I admitted.
"Because you've been too busy hating yourself to notice," she said gently.
I pulled her closer, careful, so careful. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't," she said with more confidence than I felt.
"How do you know?"
"Because you're not him, Knox. You're not your father," she said firmly.
"I have his temper. His violence," I pointed out.
"You have his strength. There's a difference," she corrected. "He used his to destroy. You use yours to protect."
"I destroyed your career protecting you," I reminded her.
"Maybe. Or maybe you freed me from a life where I had to hide what I am," she suggested.
I stared at her, this woman who should hate me. Who should run. Who instead stood here comforting the monster who'd claimed her.
"I'll do better," I vowed. "I'll learn control. I'll be better than him."
"I know," she said simply.
"The bond... it's getting stronger. I can feel you even when you're not near. Your emotions, your needs," I confessed.
"I feel it too," she admitted.
"Does that scare you?" I asked.
"Everything about you scares me," she said honestly. "But not in the way you think."
"What do you mean?"
"You scare me because you make me feel things I've spent my whole life avoiding. You make me want things I thought I'd never want," she explained.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Like being claimed. Like belonging to someone. Like... being yours," she whispered.
The admission hung between us, heavy with truth.
"I'll earn it," I promised. "Every day, I'll earn the right to call you mine."
"Knox..." she started.
"I know I've fucked up. I know I've cost you everything. But Harper, I swear on whatever's left of my soul, I'll spend the rest of my life making it right," I vowed.
She kissed me then, soft and sweet. When she pulled back, her eyes were sad but accepting.
