I frown. “Key?”
“Don’t you get it?” she presses, stepping closer, searching my face like the answers might be written there. “My wolf. My gifts. My memories of this place, ofyou, of why she took me away in the first place. All of it was locked up, but being near you? It’s…cracking the cage she made. My memories are coming back in pieces. My wolf feels closer. Like she’s tangible, and not just a fragment of my imagination. And my charmer powers, they’re there, even if I don’t fully understand them. I even managed to reach out for you when we were under attack?—”
“That was your power?”
Her brows pull. “What did you think it was?”
I hesitate, feeling heat creep up my neck. “Our bond?”
She looks away at that, her throat working, but she doesn’t pull back. Her fingers flex on my jawline. “Maybe it was part of it. Maybe that’s why I could reach you from so far away. I don’t know. What Idoknow is everything changed after I came back here and saw you again. Like my mom said—you’re the key.”
I don’t want her to just have fragments of herself. I want her to be whole. In every aspect of her life.
“How do we make sure you get it all back?” I ask, my instinctual need to heal her making my question come out rougher than I mean it to.
She hesitates, the corners of her mouth tightening. “A bond that isn’t broken?” She voices it like a question, but we both know it’s not one.
I swallow hard, and for what feels like the hundredth time, I recite my oath, “I’ll fix this, Noa. I’ll fixus.You just have to let me.”
And that’s the hard truth of it. I can bleed for this bond, for her, for everything we lost, but it means nothing unless she chooses it too. She has to want me—the man who ruined her—to be the one to put her back together again.
Her hand still captured in mine, I draw her palm along my jaw. Slow, deliberate. The warmth of her skin burns a trail that my wolf acknowledges with a low, restless hum. Her scent clings to me and mine catches on her skin in return. It’s a wordless promise between us.
I lower her hand, keep it between us like a tether I can’t cut loose.
Caught by the uptick in wind, a stray strand of her hair slips forward, brushing her cheek, and I catch it. Twist it once, twice, feeling the soft strands glide across my knuckle before I tuck it gently behind her ear.My touch lingers at her temple before tracing the edge of her cheek and the slope of her jaw.
She doesn’t retreat.
The air between us changes, thickens with everything unsaid until I’m positive I may choke on it.
Her breath hitches and mine falters to match it. My fingertips continue their journey and glide down the side of her throat, brushing the delicate skin over her pulse. It thunders wild and fast beneath my touch, and I swear I can feel my own heart syncing with it.
She looks up at me then, eyes wide and shining with something like surrender.
And that’s all it takes.
The last of my restraint unspools and lands at her feet in offering.
When I dip my head to hers, it isn’t primal hunger that drives me. It’s raw need—pure and terrifying in its simplicity. Her breath catches, hesitation still lingering in her bright gaze, and just when my heart constricts with fear that she’s going to pull away, she lifts on her toes and meets me halfway.
Noa’s lips touching mine is the sweetest victory, and it’s even sweeter on my tongue.
My sweet Noa.
The kiss starts careful, testing and trembling, but it builds fast as need edges out any uncertainty. Every long night spent outside her door, every ache for her I’ve swallowed down, pours out of me. Noa tastes like something I’ve been waiting my whole damn life to earn.
Because I have.
Whether I knew it or not.
Her fingers twist in my shirt, yanking me closer like she’s terrified I might leave her.Never going to happen, sweet one. That small, desperate sound she makes, it fucking ruins me. A cross between a whimper and a whine. My wolf surges beneath my skin to answer its call.
My hands slide to her hips, grip tightening as I pull her flush against me. But it’s not close enough. It never feels close enough. Especially with our intense height difference, but that’s a problem easily solved. Hooking my palms under her thighs, I lift her like she’s weightless and her legs lock around my waist with a gasp that turns into a sigh against my lips.I find the curve of her ass, squeezing once, grounding myself in the feel of her body.
She shivers, my tongue sliding against hers, the noises she makes now nothing short of pleading. They go straight to my cock, and I know if I don’t stop soon, I won’t be able to.
“Fuck, baby,” I groan roughly, catching her bottom lip between my teeth. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
