Roxie's POV
Raptor hated the plan. He told me so four times before he finally stopped fighting it.
"You walk in alone," he said, the last time, his hands gripping my shoulders in the gray light before dawn. "Into the house of the man who poisoned you for eighteen years. No pack at your back. No me." His jaw worked. "Every part of me is screaming."
"I know." I covered his hands with mine. "But an army gives Darius a war he's ready for. One woman he still thinks is weak gives me a door he forgot to lock." I held his golden eyes. "I know that house better than I know my own heartbeat, Raptor. I hid in its walls as a child. Let the thing he made me into be the thing that beats him."
He pressed his forehead to mine. The bond hummed between us, steadying us both.
"Come back to me," he said
