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Because I won’t.

Ever.

The battle behind us winds down, groans and snarls dying into silence. The smell of blood, fire, and singed fur fills the clearing, but it doesn’t touch the light in my heart.

Because she’s alive.

She’s mine.

And no one will ever take her from me again.

Not while there’s breath in my lungs.

Not while there’s a Bull in my blood.

And gods help the next motherfucker who tries.

Chapter Twenty-Eight-Kian

“I updated the Council. They’re sending a cleaner.” Max’s voice is level, efficient. Alpha-mode activated.

I hear him. I nod.

But I can’t speak.

Not yet.

Because my hands are full.

Full of her.

Arliss is in my arms, soft and warm and trembling slightly, but alive.

And I’m not letting go.

She curls into me like she belongs there.

Like she knows there’s nowhere else I’ll ever let her be. Her fingers clutch at my skin, and her breath tickles against the hollow of my throat.

I feel the shape of her body, every curve, every heartbeat, every shiver.

She feels perfect against me. Like she was made just for me, because she was.

And fuck, I nearly lost her.

That knowledge is a blade in my chest.

Cold. Deep. Still twisting.

So I hold her tighter and walk us both to the truck, ignoring the blood on my bare feet, the way my knees still want to buckle from adrenaline and sheer relief.

Zeke opens the door wordlessly, then circles to the driver’s side without a single smart-ass remark. That alone tells me everything about how bad this night really was.

The ride is silent.

The air in the cab is heavy with ash and blood and exhaustion. But there’s also this other thing.

This quiet, sacred kind of peace. Like the universe knows I’ve got my heart in my arms, and it’s giving us a second to breathe.