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He looks at me. “It’s fine, Mia.”

I hold his gaze. He holds mine back and doesn’t look away, and I know he’s doing it on purpose, giving me somewhere to look that isn’t the bruising on his throat, and the move is so specifically him that something in my chest squeezes tight.

All I can think about is that moment Ramsey stood over him, ready to rip his throat out. The fear I felt. The raw, absolute knowing that I would be destroyed if I lost this man in front of me. A destruction that had nothing to do with the mate bond.

“You did the same thing for me, you know.” My voice comes out raspy.

“What?”

“This morning, you said I reached you when nothing else could. You did the same for me. Reached me when nothing else could.”

His expression softens into something more teasing. “You don’t think missing your dose of Null had something to do with that?”

I shake my head. “The Null couldn’t numb what I felt for you.”

“Which was…?” he prompts.

I glare, but he only grins like he’s really enjoying this. “I’ve made my feelings for you very clear, Mia Reyes. It’s only fair you do the same.”

“Fine,” I say but then hesitate. The old Mia would never admit this. But I remind myself things are different now, so I make myself tell him the vulnerable truth even if my voice drops in volume by about seven clicks. “Today, when Ramsey almost—” I stop, unable to say the words. Not that the next ones are any easier. “I was in love with you long before the mate bond told me you were mine.”

His grin widens, and I realize I’ve never seen him smile like this before. “Is that right?” he drawls.

“Yes.” I scowl. “And it really pissed me off, if I’m being honest. Almost as much as this moment is doing right now. I could do without the smug ‘I knew all along’ bullshit.”

“No, you can’t.” He reaches over and winds an arm around my waist, pulling me onto his lap. He’s careful not to jostle my injured arm. On my other side, Echo protests the movement lazily but then goes back to sleep. “That’s one of your favorite qualities in me. Admit it,” he says when we’re face to face.

“Hah. Never.”

“Do you know what my favorite quality is in you?” His voice drops low, which instantly gets my attention. He’s close now, close enough that I can feel the warmth of him through my shirt.

“I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”

“You don’t quit on the people you love,” he says. “Not for anything. You just keep going until the thing is done and the people you love are safe. Your wolf’s dominance—its stubbornness—is your strength.” His hand at my waist shifts slightly. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I swallow. “Nash.”

“I love you,” he says. Just that. No wind-up, no cushioning. “I’ve been in love with you for two years, and I would very much like to stop pretending otherwise.”

The room is silent.

My wolf is quiet too, listening, with the patient attention of someone who has been waiting for this exact moment for a long time and is hoping I don’t fuck it up for both of us.

I think about my father and his mate bond and what it cost him. I think about standing in the hallway and knowing what Nash was to me and feeling the floor drop out. And I think about what it felt like to reach through the bond this morning, and find him on the other side, and how it didn’t feel like losing anything.

It felt like finding something I’d stopped letting myself look for.

More importantly, in the end, it made me stronger instead of weaker. Not less myself. More.

“I love you, too, Nash Cross.” The words come out steadier than I expect. “I'll probably be furious about it for months and fight you on it every step of the way.”

He laughs, low and sudden, and I feel it in my sternum.

“Does that mean I get months’ worth of makeup sex?” he asks.

“Don’t push it.”

He pushes it by kissing me, which works out fine.