CHAPTER 31
AVA'S POV
“You think I enjoy this?” he murmured, voice rough. “Watching you push yourself when your body is still healing? Feeling every ache through the bond like it’s my own?”
“Then stop watching,” I whispered, even as my hands came up to rest against his chest. I told myself it was to push him away. My body didn’t listen.
“I can’t.” His forehead dropped to mine, breath mingling. “Not every time I look away, I remember how close I came to losing you in that forest. Not when Kael keeps finding excuses to be near you.”
The jealousy was there— raw, barely leashed. I felt it through the bond like a live wire. But he didn’t explode. He just held me there, breathing me in, fighting his own instincts.
“I’m not his,” I whispered. “I’m not yours either. Not yet.”
The word “yet”
