Kael’s POV
I never thought I’d see her like this—so soft, so open, resting in my arms like she belonged there. Like we belonged.
The beast in me had been clawing against its cage for weeks, hungry for her touch, her scent, her very presence. But now, holding her close, the storm inside finally calmed. She was warmth in a world I had long since turned cold.
I washed her—slowly, carefully—until her breathing evened out and her muscles relaxed beneath my hands. There was no rush. No urgency. Just the quiet, unspoken acknowledgment of something deeper.
Alera.
She wasn’t just some passing feeling. She was a reckoning. A force that swept into my life, uninvited, and chose to stay. And Gods help me—I cared. Deeply.
When she returned from changing, dressed in something warm and clingy, her a
