ROGER AT THE BOUNDARY
He was exactly where he said he would be.
Standing at the boundary line with his arms at his sides and his face turned in my direction and the bond between us warm and steady and enormously relieved in the specific way of someone who has been waiting very patiently and is done waiting.
He saw me come through the trees.
And then he saw Lena beside me.
And his expression did the thing it rarely did, both layers simultaneously, the alpha and the mate and the man underneath both, all of them present in the same moment looking at the two of us walking out of the fourth territory together in the late afternoon light.
I crossed the boundary.
He had me before I fully cleared it, arms around me, solid and certain, and I let myself lean into it with the specific relief o
