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I cannot be happier in this moment.

He pulls out of me, and some of him dribbles over my face. He pulls me up by my neck and hair and kisses me.

It is sloppy and wet. Our tongues and lips are greedy for each other. My hands is wrapped around his neck as he lifts me so that I am spread before him, his cock, hard again, teasing the entrance of my pussy.

He doesn’t stop kissing me when he slides in slowly, all the way to his groin.

He fills me up so completely I moan into his mouth.

He fucks me, slow and steady, sucking on my tongue, his hand clasped on my breasts.

I feel the waves of an orgasm again. And I know how close he is by the way he pulls me into him.

He pulls away from me and buries his face in my neck, right over where the deal was placed.

Suddenly, I bristle. I’m aware of what is about to happen. Something inside me resists, panic slipping in beneath the haze of desire.

“Kieran,” I gasp, pressing my hands against his chest.

He stills immediately, his breath ragged. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head, my pulse thundering. “Not...not like this.”

His jaw tenses, his grip on my waist loosening as he sets me back on my feet. His hands stay on my hips, his thumbs tracing slow circles.

I look up at him, my chest rising and falling in uneven breaths. “I-I can’t…we can’t…you can’t mark me. Not yet.”

His expression flickers—something close to hurt flashing in his eyes before he schools his features.

I search his face, looking for anger, disappointment. I don’t find it.

Just understanding. Guilt.

He blames himself.

“You don’t trust this,” he says, and it’s not a question.

I swallow hard. “I don’t trust you.”

I can feel the tension rolling off him, pressing down on him like a boulder. His scent—cedar and embers—lingers in the air, familiar and grounding in a way I don’t want to acknowledge .

He hesitates, his throat bobbing as he swallows. Then, with a deep breath, he begins.

“I was wrong, Hazel.” His voice is steady, but there’s a crack beneath the surface. “About everything.”

My heart is hammering against my ribs as he talks, his cock still inside me, pulsing with need as if begging me to forgive him too.

“I should have believed you from the start. When I accused you of working against Moonfang, when I let my doubts control me—I see it now. I let my fear and my pride blind me and Damon took advantage of that… and I let him.”

I swallow as he caresses my face with the gentlest touch. “Why now?”

Kieran exhales heavily, raking a hand through his hair.

“Because I spent a year trying to move on. Trying to forget. And I couldn’t.

” His eyes darken, filled with a hunger that echoes what I felt in that time.

“You never left me, Hazel. Even when I told myself I’d done the right thing, that you were a traitor, that rejecting you was for the best—” He stops, shaking his head. “It was a lie. And I knew it.”

His words strike something deep in my chest, something I don’t want to name, something that triggers a pain I never want to revisit.

Kieran lets out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. “I searched for you, Hazel. I hunted for any trace of you. When I realized the truth, when I learned that I was wrong all along, I wanted to tear the entire world apart just to find you again.”

I sit there, stunned.

I never imagined he had looked for me.

I force myself to hold his gaze, holding on to the emotion I feel.

“Then why haven't you believed me all this time, Kieran?

I'd felt alone, abandoned…I'd been doing everything in my weakened state to stay alive.

Fate gave you another chance to make things right.

Why didn't you choose me even after finding me?”

His jaw tightens. “Because I was too weak to trust you. I chose to believe you had betrayed me by conniving with Eldon.” He pauses, his fists clenching at his sides. “I hated the idea so much that I chose to believe it. Because it was easier than admitting that I had abandoned you for nothing. ”

I inhale sharply, the weight of his words sinking in.

I never thought he had regretted his choice until I was standing at his estate again, forced back into his world.

But he had.

The thought unsettles me more than I expected it to.

I force my voice to remain steady.

His eyes darken, his wolf flashing through for the briefest moment. “I want what should have been ours from the start.”

My throat tightens. “You think you can just say sorry and everything will be fine? And we’ll go back to day one?” I sound this way, but I want it so bad. I want it more than anything in the world. To reverse the hands of time.

“No,” he says softly. “While I would tour all the earth, heavens, and even hell just to do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness, I don’t expect you to forget. But I need you to know the truth.”

My wolf stirs, but I force her back, unwilling to let her dictate this moment. Kieran slips out of me, and I miss him immediately.

I exhale, trying to keep my thoughts from spiraling. “I don’t know what you expect me to do with this, Kieran.”

“I just wanted you to know. No more secrets. No more lies. You deserved better than what I gave you. I’m determined to give you anything you utter.”

I stare at him, searching for deception, for manipulation. I don’t find it.

I don’t know what to do with that.

Kieran sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. “Hazel...I want to be better. For you. For the pack. I don’t want you to hate me anymore.”

Silence stretches between us. The flames crackle. My heart pounds.

I should walk away. I should keep the walls up.

But something in me shifts, just slightly.

“I don’t trust you,” I say, because it’s the truth. As much as I want to believe him, as much as all of what he’s said has softened everything in me. I can’t deny the hurt that still aches for me and my wolf.

His lips press together, but he nods. “I know.”

I exhale sharply. “But I believe you. ”

A flicker of something passes through his eyes—relief, maybe. Gratitude.

I don’t know what this means. I don’t know if it changes anything.

But as we stand there, the tension between us softer than before, I realize one thing.

For the first time since coming back, I don’t feel like running.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough. For now.