Henrietta didn't kiss him back. She didn't pull away either.
For a heartbeat, she stood frozen beneath the shock of him and his presence flooding her senses through the bond like a wildfire breaking through a dam. Gideon's lips were warm, firm, unmistakably real, and the contact sent a sharp tremble through her wolf that she hadn't been prepared for.
Then he stopped.
Abruptly.
As if the same force had driven him forward had finally reached the edge of something irreversible.
His forehead rested briefly against hers, breath uneven, fingers still wrapped around her wrist like letting go might cost him something he couldn't afford to lose. The bond throbbed between them, tight and volatile, alive with everything neither of them had said.
Henrietta swallowed. Slowly, she pulled her hand
