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T hree days, fourteen hours, and eleven minutes later…

Yeah, I counted the seconds.

And that was exactly how long it took before my sweet, precious Jezebel opened her beautiful eyes.

For the first time in all that time, I felt whole again.

Complete.

“There you are,” I whispered, unashamed of the tears pricking my eyes.

They said real men didn’t cry, and for cowboys that went double. But I didn’t buy into the world’s view of what manliness or machismo meant.

Fuck that.

I loved this woman. She was everything to me and my Wolf. Not having her by my side was never part of the plan, and had she left this world, I would have followed and dragged her sweet ass back.

But I wasn’t going to think about all that because here she was, staring at me with wide, bright eyes, and fuck, my heart constricted until I thought it would implode.

“Emmet,” she croaked.

Her voice was rough and scratchy, but she had never sounded more beautiful to me than she did right then.

“I’m here, Angel. You’re okay,” I said, the latter probably more for my benefit than hers.

But she would be okay. I’d swear it on anything, anyone, anytime or place.

It was the one promise I intended to keep above all others. Even if I had to give my life for hers, she would be okay.

Jezebel was mine to protect. Mine to keep safe. She was mine. Period.

Demon reared up inside of me. The black Wolf snarled loud and clear into the metaphysical plane where he waited until we swapped skins.

Mine.