Evan's POV
She chose me.
I walk her home through the dark with her hand in mine, and I keep coming back to it, turning it over like a stone I can't believe I'm allowed to hold. She stood on the edge of a cliff and I handed her every reason in the world to run, laid them all out, the deadline, the danger, the wolf in the dark, the arranged mate, the fact that choosing me might get her killed, and she looked at all of it and said no. Said she was staying. Said it like it wasn't even a hard decision, though I watched it cost her, watched her understand exactly what she was giving up, and choose anyway.
Nobody has ever chosen me. That's the thing I can't get past, walking beside her in the quiet with the pull between us gone warm and settled for the first time since the boat. My father rais
