Alessia:
I woke slowly, the way one does after crying themselves hollow.
My body felt heavy, drained, but warm.
And I knew that I wasn’t alone. The peace Sage, despite all the pain, was showing told me that I was laying in the arms of the one person that I felt safest around.
I was pressed against a broad chest, my cheek rising and falling with steady breaths that weren’t mine. An arm was wrapped firmly around my back, possessive even in sleep, as if instinct alone had decided I wasn’t allowed to drift away.
Alexander.
He was asleep.
Truly asleep.
Not the light, half-alert rest of an Alpha on guard, but the kind of sleep that came only after exhaustion finally won. His grip told me everything, he might not have been conscious, but his wolf was. Holding. Guarding.
Protecting.
The
