Julian’s POV
When I had my first heartbreak with Ana Carter, I thought my world was going to collapse. At the time, I was young, brash, drunk on the idea of forever. I didn't care, all I wanted was Ana.
Fuck! I was willing to give up finding my fated mate for her.
Ana had been my first everything—first kiss, first promise, first illusion of permanence. And when she left, the emptiness she carved into me felt like a wound I’d never recover from. I had sworn, never to let another person become that vital to me.
But life is cruel, and sometimes it’s soft in its cruelty.
Aliona came into my life when I thought there was no silver lining left for me. She arrived like a quiet storm, unannounced and yet impossible to ignore. She wasn’t like Ana. Where Ana had been all fire and flirtation,
