Sunlight filtered through the heavy velvet curtains, softer this morning, as if the day itself understood we had only just begun to live fully. I stirred slowly, warm and safe beneath the layers of fur and wool, my head resting comfortably over Damon’s heart. Its steady, powerful rhythm had become my favorite sound—strong, constant, the very beat of the life I now called mine. His arm was draped heavily over my waist, holding me close even in his sleep, his breathing slow and deep against the top of my hair.
For a long moment, I just lay there, listening, tracing the faint lines of the scar on his chest with gentle fingers. It still felt like magic, how everything had shifted. Once, this man was nothing but coldness and sharp edges to me—someone I’d been forced to call family, someone I’d
