Declan's POV
I almost didn't go back.
That's the thing I kept coming back to afterward, in the way you picked at something that had already decided to scar. I had been on that path, and I had felt her ahead of me, and I had made the decision to pull back and give her the distance she had been maintaining for three weeks.
It was the right call. I had felt good about it for forty minutes before my alpha started the argument again.
I gave myself until after practice.
Practice ended, and I showered, ate, and I went back to my room. I sat at my desk with the drawing in front of me and had the argument with myself one more time. She was building a life here. So was I.
The bond had made its connection and was maintaining it whether we engaged with it or not, and nothing about approac
