“Promise.”
My magic stirs beneath my fur, and without conscious thought, I extend it outward, creating a protective barrier around this tree. Nothing will disturb us. Nothing will get past my shield.
We stay for hours. She ruffles my hair, and I toy with her braid. We talk about nothing and everything. She tells me about a book she read once, a love story that ended badly. I tell her about the first time I saw her in this lifetime, how my instincts recognized her before my mind did.
A few other people pass through the garden—an elderly man tending to some of the flowers, a couple of children chasing each other through the wildflowers before their mother calls them back—but nobody pays us any attention. We’re just another couple enjoying the day.
The sun moves across the sky, casting dappled shadows through the leaves above us. I close my eyes, listening to Daciana’s heartbeat, feeling her fingers trace patterns on my scalp. This is the most peaceful I can remember being. Not just in this lifetime—in any lifetime.
“Kieran?” she says softly.
“Mm?”
“Are you falling asleep?”
“Maybe.” I crack one eye open to look up at her. “Is that okay?”
She smiles, and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. “Yeah. It’s okay.”
So, I let myself drift. I let the tension drain from my body. I let the constant vigilance, the endless planning, the weight of centuries fall away.
Here, under this tree, with Daciana’s hands in my hair and wildflowers blooming around us, I’m not an alpha. I’m not a reincarnated warrior with the weight of past lives on my shoulders.
I’m just Kieran. And that’s enough.
When Daciana’s fingers trace the shell of my ear, I shiver slightly.
“I love you,” she whispers.
My eyes flutter open. She’s looking down at me with such tenderness that my throat tightens.
“I know you doubt it sometimes,” she continues. “Wonder if I’m saying it because of the dreams, because of who you were before. But Kieran, I love you. This you. The one who can’t keep his hands off me. The one who uses stealth spells to sneak me out of the palace. The one who buys me candied fruit and flower crowns.” She leans down, pressing her forehead to mine. “The one who only wants boring, peaceful days with me.”
Something breaks open in my chest. Something raw and real and entirely wonderful.
“Say it again,” I whisper.
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you, Kieran.”
I lift my chin to kiss her deeply and desperately.
“I love you, too,” I say, the words feeling both foreign and perfectly natural. “Gods, Daciana. I love you so much, it terrifies me.”
She smiles against my lips. “Good. We can be terrified together.”
“Together,” I agree.
And here, in this human garden under an ancient oak with strangers passing by, I finally let myself believe that this is real. That she is mine. That maybe, just maybe, we can have those boring, peaceful days I’ve dreamed of.
Not today. Probably not for a long time.
But someday.
And until then, I’ll take every moment like this one—stolen time where we’re just us, where the world can’t touch us, where love is simple and uncomplicated and wholly our own.
