The words catch in Dorothy's throat as a lifetime of holding back crashes against the raw vulnerability of this moment. She turns to face him, her eyes shifting from blue to green as determination takes hold.
"Because I see you," she says simply. "Not the Alpha's son or Ethan's friend. Just you."
Magnus feels the weight of her words like a physical touch. In a pack where his identity has always been defined by his future role, the idea that someone sees beyond it is both terrifying and exhilarating.
"I've watched you for years," Dorothy continues, her artist's eye for detail evident in her words. "How you slip away to the lake when the expectations become too much. How do you help the pups learn to swim every summer without being asked? The way you leave food by old Mrs Harmon's door bu
