KIERAN’S POV
A dozen emotions crashed into me at once, each one too big to contain, too sharp to breathe through.
But one truth pulsed louder than all else: Seraphina—my mate—was awake, alive, breathing in my arms.
Her eyes blinked open, heavy with exhaustion, rimmed red from rain and tears and gods knew what she’d endured.
But they weren’t distant. They weren’t cold. They weren’t shuttered like they had been for the past few months.
They were here.
Present.
Looking at me.
No rejection in sight.
My chest constricted painfully.
“Sera?” Her name scraped out of me as if I’d spent years choking on it.
She stared at me, lips parted, breath mingling with mine. The bond thrummed between us like something alive, coils of heat and clarity twisting into place. Our hearts beat at the same pace—fast, unsteady, erratic.
Moon above, it was real.
Not imagined.
Not forced.
Not one-sided.
