Elle POV
The world was quiet.
Too quiet.
My body felt weightless, a strange mixture of exhaustion and lingering heat curling inside me like smoke. The fever had dulled, settling into a slow, molten throb beneath my skin. My wolf paced softly inside me—a warm glow, a golden pulse—present now where once there had been only silence.
But my mind…
My mind was a battlefield.
Claimed, but not truly.
Held, but not chosen.
Touched, but not marked.
My heart squeezed painfully at the last thought.
If he had wanted me—not just my body, not just the heat—
If I were truly his mate—
Wouldn’t he have marked me?
Wouldn’t he have sealed it, even in the passion of that storm?
I swallowed around the thick ache rising in my throat.
I could hear his breaths behind me. Not calm.
Not controlled.
