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Please still want it.

I take her hand and rest it over my heart. It’s beating like a goddamn war drum beneath her palm.

“Arliss,” I say, voice low, rough, honest, “tonight nearly destroyed me. But it also made something crystal clear.”

She watches me, wide-eyed, mouth slightly parted.

“I can’t hide anymore. Not about the bond. Not about the future. Not about you.”

She leans closer.

“I want it all,” I say again, my voice hoarse, each word scraped from somewhere deep inside me. “With you. A life. A home. A family, if you want that someday. I want you here. With me. In every way.”

My throat tightens, heart stuttering beneath the weight of my own confession.

“But my world?” I shake my head, swallowing hard. “It’s not safe, Arliss. It’s rough. It’s dangerous. And tonight, fuck, tonight showed you exactly how ugly it can get. You were almost. God, you could’ve been?—”

I stop. The words won’t come. They’re too dark.

Too fucking real.

A breath shudders out of me like the ground beneath my feet’s been knocked loose.

Her fingers press to my lips before I can fall too far into the spiral.

“Hush.”

Her voice is soft but steady. “You saved me, Kian. I know what life with you means.”

But she doesn’t. Not really.

She thinks this is over. That the danger’s passed.

She doesn’t know the constant vigilance, the unseen politics, the Shifter Council’s scrutiny, or the weight that comes with loving a Bull who’s still half-wild and bracing himself for a fate that could steal his mind.

She deserves better.

She deserves more.

“You say that,” I rasp, curling my hand around hers. “But I need you to really think. I want you. I want this. I want us so bad I can taste it. But this isn’t some fairytale. It’s blood and bone and risk. You have to choose it. Not just say the words. You have to want it. Even when it’s messy. Even when I’m a fuckin’ monster fighting to stay human.”

She opens her mouth, but I stop her with a look.

“Because whether it’s magic or fate or fucked up biology. None of that matters to me. You’re mine only if you want to be. If you pick me, Arliss. If you look me in the eye and say yes, even knowing I’ll never be perfect or tame. But I’ll always, always be yours.”

Her eyes well up instantly, but she doesn’t blink.

She stares at me like I’m the only thing in the world worth looking at, and it damn near breaks me.

“What about you?” she whispers, voice trembling with unshed emotion. “Do you pick me, Kian? Not just because of fate. Not just because of the bond. But because of me. As I am.”

“I love you.”

The words come out raw, like a vow. “I’m yours, Arliss. And if you’ll have me, if you choose to stay, I will spend the rest of my life showing you that you were right to take the risk.”

Her bottom lip wobbles and she opens her mouth again—this time her voice is quieter.

“What about the Rut?”