AndCrave.
His confusion bleeds through our diminished bond. He’s hurt at feeling me pull away, at watching years of absolute loyalty suddenly… complicate. His fear of losing me to whatever the hell this is.
But I can also feel something else.
Understanding.
Because Crave, more than anyone, knows what it’s like to have your entire world shift around one person. To feel a bond form that rewrites every rule you thought was absolute.
He has Sloane.
And now…
…I have Charlotte.
I don’t know how I know her name, I just do. The same way I know she’s twenty-three, that she was turned against her will last night in an alley she should never have been walking down alone, that she’s fed on four humans since then, and hates herself for every single one.
I turn slowly, Charlotte cradled in my arms, and meet Crave’s silver gaze across the distance.
His eyes flicker from me to Charlotte, then back. I watch as calculations flash across his features, watch him process what this means for the club, for our brotherhood, for everything we’ve built.
And then, slowly, something shifts in his expression.
Not anger.
Not betrayal.
Recognition.
He knows what this is.
Knows what she is to me.
Because he felt the same thing when Sloane’s blood awakened her power, when their Heart Bind formed and rewrote the rules of what was possible between vampire and witch.
And behind me, I feel Crave watching.
Feel the bond between us settling into this new configuration—still present, still real, but no longer the only thing defining who I am.
For over two centuries, I’ve been Lucien the lycan.
Rogue the VP.
Crave’s Bloodguard.
His brother.
His shield.
My entire identity is built around protecting him.
But now…
I glance down at Charlotte in my arms,my fated mate, this impossible complication that the universe decided to drop into my life at the worst possible time.
Now I don’t know what the hell I am anymore.
And the terrifying part?
