The words cut like a blade. My chest tightened, breath catching.
“You can’t change your wolf's mind? Or you won’t?”
His throat bobbed, and he leaned his forehead against mine as though he couldn’t bear to meet my eyes.
“I won’t,” he admitted at last, his voice gravelly low, weighted with something like agony. The pain that bloomed in me was sharp and immediate.
“Why?” My voice cracked, my heart pounding too loudly in my ears.
“Don’t you want me? Don’t you want me as your Luna? Or am I still just—”
He growled, low and fierce, silencing me. His grip tightened on my arms.
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence. Don’t you dare think for one second that I don’t want you. Gods, Veyra, I want nothing more than to mark you, to bind you to me so the entire world would know you’re mine.” H
