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His hand clasped slightly around my hip, his thumb drawing those little circles over my skin, sending a sweet frisson of pleasure racing through me.

“I love it,” he hummed.

My breath hitched, a bubble of emotion bursting in my chest at the way he said it.

I had really fallen for this man, but it just kept going deeper.

His beautiful eyes burned with emotion as he looked down at me.

“My sweet mate,” he murmured.

I swallowed hard, my fingers pressing against his skin.

“My Alpha,” I whispered.

He ran the bar of soap over my skin with slow, gentle strokes, tracing every curve and plane. His hand followed, smoothing away the grime, working over the aches and bruises I had suffered in the cave. Every touch was reverent, careful, like I was something precious to him, something he had almost lost.

I let my head tip back as he worked the soap through my hair, my pulse settling as I let myself be taken care of. The tension I had been carrying for days bled from my muscles, the soreness soothed by the heat of the water and the gentle strength of my mate.

He rinsed me off slowly, watching like he was memorizing every inch of me. I turned in his arms, pressing my palms against his chest, feeling the steady thump of his heart beating beneath my fingertips.

His fingers stroked over my jaw, tilting my face up so I had to meet his gaze. His golden eyes burned in the afternoon sunlight, soft but intense as he looked at me.

“I should have never left you all those years ago,” he said.

I blinked, caught off guard, my hands gripping his forearms beneath the water.

“I thought I was doing the right thing,” he continued, his regret evident in his tone. “I told myself I was keeping you safe, that leaving you with those humans was the only way you’d survive,” a muscle ticked in his cheek, “but I was wrong.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, my throat constricting.

“I never stopped thinking about you,” he said. “Wondering where you were, and if you were OK.” His hands tightened around my waist. “When I saw you again, and I realized you had survived without me—” He let out a loud sigh and shook his head.

I had spent years thinking about that moment, the night he left me. The sound of his footsteps fading into the trees, the way I had curled into myself, waiting for the reality of being alone without him to truly sink in.

I had been angry, had hated him for it.

Looking at him, standing here, touching me like he needed to, like he was still making sure I was real, I finally knew the truth. I had survived because of him. Because of the things he taught me and because he had cared enough to make sure I had a chance, even if it had meant walking away, I was here with him now.

I reached up, brushing my fingers over his face, feeling the rough stubble on his jaw beneath my fingertips. “You didn’t fail me,” I whispered. “You saved me.”

Silas exhaled, his forehead pressing against mine. “I should have come back for you.”

I tilted my head slightly, looking up at him. “And if you had?”

He closed his eyes. “I would never have walked away from you again.”

A shiver ran down my spine, heat blooming in my stomach.

“I was a child then; you did the right thing,” I murmured, “but I’m not a child anymore, and we’re here, together now.”

His breath caught.

Then slowly, tenderly, he kissed me.

It wasn’t rough or demanding. It was gentle and deep, the kind of kiss that made my heart turn over in my chest. He tasted like home and safety, like everything I had been missing for so long.

I melted against him, my body pressing into his, my arms sliding around his neck as he pulled me closer, his hands smoothing up my back, holding me like he was afraid to let go.