But gods, she wanted him.
Wanted his steady presence and terrible jokes. Wanted the way he looked at her like she hung the moon. Wanted his hands on her skin and his voice in her ear and his lion tangled with hers. Wanted partnership and passion and everything she'd been too scared to reach for.
She'd been a coward. Hiding behind independence because vulnerability felt like weakness.
But watching him this past week, seeing how he stepped back when she needed space and stepped forward when she needed support, never pushing but always present, she understood what real strength looked like.
It looked like choosing love even when it scared you, like trust built on respect instead of dominance. It looked like Dante.
Her heart hammered against her ribs as she let the full feeling sink in. Tonight. She'd tell him tonight. No more deflecting, no more hiding behind banter and defensive walls. She'd be brave enough to say the words that terrified her more than any physical battle ever could.
I love you. I choose you. I want you.
Always had, if she was honest. From the moment they'd met as young lions testing boundaries and finding connection. She'd loved him then, loved him when he left, loved him through every year of absence and every moment since his return.
The difference now was that she understood what that love meant. Not surrender. Not submission. But partnership freely chosen between equals who saw each other clearly and chose to stand together anyway.
The back door opened, and her heart leapt before she turned.
Dante held two cups of coffee from the Griddle and Grind, steam rising in the cold air.
"Figured you might want company." He stepped inside, kicking the door shut behind him. "And caffeine."
"How did you know I was here?"
"Saw you walking back from the woods. You had that look." He crossed to the bar, setting down both cups. "The one that means you've been making decisions and plotting revolutions."
"Met with Varric." She accepted the coffee he offered, their fingers brushing in a way that sent sparks up her arm. "He's backing my reforms. After the Solstice, we're restructuring the Cross line officially."
Something fierce and proud flashed across his face. "That's my girl."
The possessive endearment should have bothered her.
"Dante." His name came out softer than intended.
"Maeve." He mirrored her tone, his slight smile knowing but patient.
She opened her mouth to say it, to lay her heart bare right here in the afternoon light with the taste of coffee on her tongue and hope fluttering wild in her chest.
But the front door rattled with someone's knock, and the moment fractured.
"Maeve? You in there?" Emmett's voice carried through the wood. "Is Dante with you? Need to go over patrol schedules before tonight."
Dante's expression flickered with something that might have been disappointment before smoothing into easy acceptance. "Duty calls."
"Tonight." The word burst out before she could stop it. "After closing. Can you stay?"
His eyes darkened with heat. "Wild lions couldn't drag me away."
"Good." She forced herself to move toward the door, to handle what needed handling even though every instinctscreamed to ignore everything else and finish what she'd started. "That's good."
As she let Emmett in and dove into logistics, she felt Dante's gaze on her like a physical touch. Patient. Steady. Waiting.
Tonight, she'd stop being a coward.
The lioness would claim her lion.
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