Elena's POV:
The kiss changed something in both of us. I felt it before I even thought about it.
It was not loud or earth-shattering... but quiet and soft. Like a door closing behind us, sealing off the version of me that still believed that I had always been replaceable.
I had been.
To my father, who chose to adapt a wolf in my place and then train him to make him into the best warrior--and he had always hated me.
It was easy to push me, because I had showed them time and again, it was easy to do so.
Even James thought that. Even James thought my dreams were jokes, that I wasn't successful enough, when in reality, I was even more successful than he was.
"Elena..." He breathed...
I felt his promise in the way his hands steadied on my back afterward. In the way he didn’t rush me
