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“I’m not going to bite you,” he said quickly. “I’d never⁠—”

He said it like biting me, like mating with me, would be the worst possible outcome. A line he’d never cross. Something so unthinkable, so horrifying, that he had to assure me it wasn’t even on the table.

I gave a short nod. Shrugged. Aimed for breezy and landed somewhere around brittle. “Right. Of course.”

He didn’t catch it. Or maybe he did but didn’t know what to do with it. Either way, his eyes were soft and sorry, and it only made the ache worse. I wasn’t angry, exactly. I didn’t want to throw things or raise my voice. But I was unraveling.

He’d made me feel like I belonged. And now? Now I wasn’t sure if I’d just been convenient. If all this was just damage control. Or guilt. Or some warped sense of responsibility. I wasn’t special. I was useful. A means to a political end.

And the worst part, the part that made my throat ache and my chest burn, was that I’d fallen for him.

I wanted him. And he clearly didn’t want me. Not the same way.

Roman ran a hand through his hair, pacing a little now. “I think I might have a way to get out of it.”

My heart stuttered. “Out of it?”

He looked up at me, hope flickering behind his eyes like he was offering me a lifeline. “Yeah. Out of the ceremony. I think if I go to Lucien and explain⁠—”

“Is that what you want?” I asked, lifting my chin. “To get out of this?”

Roman didn’t hesitate.

“Of course,” he said. “This was never the plan. I’m so sorry it spiraled out of control like this.”

His words were calm and sincere. But they landed like a blade in the softest part of me. A clean cut. A clean truth.

He didn’t want this. He didn’t want me. He was just trying to clean up a mess.

My heart dropped into my stomach. My lungs squeezed tight. Of course, he wanted out. Why wouldn’t he? I was human. I wasn’t part of his world. I didn’t glow under moonlight or have some supernatural spark. I wasn’t sleek or mysterious or powerful. I was just… me.

Messy. Unmagical. The kind of girl who panicked in Whole Foods and cried when the spinach went bad.

I forced myself to nod, keeping my expression neutral. “Okay. I’m all ears. What’s your plan?”

He lit up a little and launched into something about staged conflict, a pack-friendly excuse, and maybe Lucien could be persuaded to pick a different couple to highlight.

I didn’t hear most of it. His words distorted. All I could hear was my own voice, inside my head, on loop:

You were right not to trust this.

You let him in, and this is what happens.

Pull it together, Maggie. Don’t let him see you break.

I stared at him as he spoke, as he gestured, trying to fix it all. Trying to make the chaos neat.

But the truth was already too loud.

He wasn’t choosing me.

And I’d been stupid enough to think he might.

25

ROMAN

I sat on the edge of the couch, elbows on my knees, rubbing the back of my neck. My skin felt too small for my body. Like my body didn’t know how to hold all of me inside it right now.