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Holy. Hell.

“I love these.”

I smiled out at Vorzyr as he stroked my wings wrapped around him, while we sat up in his bed against his headboard.

He had his maroon leather pants on, but nothing else.

I was wearing his white tee that fell down to my upper thighs.

Ever since I’d put it on a few minutes ago, he’d barely been able to keep his eyes off it. He definitely liked it on me, and it warmed me whenever I saw that from him.

It was possessive, sweet, and comforting all at the same time.

“I’m glad,” I told him, stroking his back with my wings.

His soft smile fell, clear worry replacing it and… something else.Guilt?

I got confirmation in the next second, when he asked, “Are you… healed? Did I—”

“You unleashed just like I asked you to. Just like you absolutely needed to.”

“I know, but—”

“Nobuts.I’m fine. Healed up quickly. No infections because we’re supernatural. All good.” I grinned at him and stroked his jaw. “Amazing, actually.”

“Amazing, huh?”

“Yeah, I love it when you give me that part of you.”

“Actually, yeah, how you handled it made that clear. You really do love it, don’t you? The beast unleashed?”

“I do.”

He moved in closer and rested his head on my shoulder.

So close, his warm breath whispered over my cheek as he said, “Thank you for giving this to me.”

“Do you feel a little better?”

“Yeah… I… it’s lighter. And that haze of red-hot rage and pain has dissipated.”

I reached out and ran my fingers through his hair. “I’m relieved to hear it. It doesn’t sit well with me seeing you in such deep pain. And possibly worse than that, you doubting yourself and who you are.”

“I’ve always known who I am. I guess Kai and I have that in common. But this… what we discovered… it’s threatened to shake that for me.”

“I understand where that rationale is coming from, but you can’t allow it more power than a fleeting thought, or something you only go to in your darkest moments. Because it’s far frombeing the truth. What you saw, whattheydid, doesn’t alter anything. It doesn’t undercut you. It doesn’t change you.”

He turned into my touch, wanting more, and I wrapped my wings tighter around him. “Kai and Nyx would tell you the same thing. You know that, yes?”

“I do, yeah.” He sank into me. “Ariana, I… Iloveyou.”

I jolted, then shifted to look at him head-on.

Reverence and adoration bled into me as he said, “I love what you did for me. I love everything you give to us, everything that you are, how far you’ve come into yourself, how we fitsowell. I love you with everything thatIam.”

Oh my God.

With things so up in the air in terms of the bargain I’d been bound by, I hadn’t wanted to go to that place with the guys, to put anything more upon our bond, our foursome.