---Lorenzo----
I stood outside her door long after I left her room, my hands clenched into fists at my sides.
The bond tugged at me, merciless, a low, relentless pull deep in my chest that urged me to turn back. To push the door open, to take her in my arms, to bury my face against her neck and sink my teeth into the soft skin there where her pulse beat so frantically.
To claim her.
My wolf raged for it, pacing, snarling, demanding I stop denying what was ours. Every part of me burned with the need—my body hard and aching, my blood pounding, my senses alive in a way I hadn’t felt since before I was Alpha.
But I didn’t move.
Not because I couldn’t. Not because she had told me to stay away. I had never been one to bow to anyone’s demands. No—what kept me frozen in place was the truth.
