JULIAN’S POV
I wasn’t going to let her go—
Not now.
Not ever.
Aliona had snuck into my mind, an uninvited thought that refused to leave. No matter how hard I tried to focus on pack matters, or the approaching war, or the thousand responsibilities clawing at me from dawn to dusk, she was there. Teasing me. Torturing me. Consuming every corner of my mind with her quiet grace and the way her eyes caught the light when she looked at me.
It wasn’t just her beauty, though God knows it was impossible not to notice that. It was in the small, unconscious things she did—like the slight curve of her head whenever she spoke softly about my injuries, her brows drawing together in concentration as though she could heal my pain by sheer will alone. It was in the way her shoulders lifted in gentle r
