One week after the supervised visit, Mira woke at 3 AM in her childhood bedroom, gasping for air like she was drowning.
The mate bond.
It felt like her chest was being ripped open from the inside, like someone had doused her heart in gasoline and struck a match. The pain was so intense, so overwhelming, that for a terrifying moment she couldn't tell where her anguish ended and Kieran's began.
She stumbled to the bathroom on shaking legs and splashed cold water on her face, trying desperately to sever the connection, to push him out of her mind and heart the way she'd been training herself to do for months.
But the bond wouldn't let go. It pulsed and burned and screamed, demanding acknowledgment, demanding reconciliation, demanding things she couldn't give.
Through it, she
