Page 122 of Daisy

"I'm fine," Daisy says quickly, but her voice is shaky and I can smell the spike of distress in her scent from all the alpha aggression. "Really, I'm fine. We both wanted this."

"Did you?" Cassian asks, and there's murder in his tone. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like he marked you without permission."

The air in the room grows thick with aggression. Cassian takes a step forward, his hands clenched into fists. Dante's eyes are blazing with cold fury. August looks like he's fightingbetween wanting to comfort Daisy and wanting to tear Gunner apart.

Through the bond, I feel Gunner's emotions warring, the fierce need to protect her battling against crushing guilt. His arm tightens around Daisy protectively, even as his face crumbles with guilt. His breathing is ragged, caught between the need to fight us and the overwhelming shame eating him alive.

"He didn't—" Daisy starts, but Gunner cuts her off.

"I did." His voice is still rough with aggression, but the fight is draining out of him as the guilt crashes in. I feel his self-loathing through the bond, so intense I have to press my hand to my chest. "I lost control. I hurt her. I—" But even as he says it, his hold on her doesn't loosen. He can't loosen it. The bond won't let him.

"Stop it," Daisy says fiercely, her hand fisting in his hair. "You didn't hurt me. You didn't do anything wrong."

I watch as Gunner looks into her eyes for just a moment, and the love there is so raw, so desperate, it's almost painful to witness. But then the guilt crashes back over him and he looks away, unable to hold her gaze.

"Look at me," she says firmly, her hand tightening in his hair and tugging until he's forced to meet her eyes again. "Look at me, Gunner. You didn't do anything wrong."

The tender moment between them doesn't diffuse the tension in the room. If anything, it makes the rest of us more aware of what just happened, of what we walked in on.

"You should have talked to us first," August says, his hurt clear in his voice. "This affects all of us, Gunner. The pack dynamic, Daisy's choices."

"I know." Gunner's voice cracks now, the protective alpha facade finally crumbling under the weight of his guilt. I feel the sharp spike of his anguish through our connection. "I know I messed up. I know I…"

"No," Daisy interrupts, sitting up despite still being connected to him. Gunner immediately adjusts to keep her covered, his protective instincts overriding everything else even in his emotional breakdown. "No, you didn't. I wanted this. I asked you for this."

The tension in the room shifts slightly. I can feel Gunner's emotional spiral beginning to slow, his guilt being tempered by her certainty and our growing acceptance.

"Are you okay?" August asks Daisy gently. "Really okay? No pain? No regrets?"

"No regrets," she says softly but firmly. "And the only pain I feel is from you all making him think he did something wrong. When what happened was beautiful."

Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. Through the bond, I can still feel the echo of Gunner's pain—pain that we caused by bursting in here and making him feel like a monster.

"Look," Daisy says, her voice gaining authority, but then confusion crosses her face. "Wait… how did you all even know? How did you know to come back?" She looks between us, puzzled.

The others' eyes turn to me, and I can feel the weight of their stares. Daisy follows their gaze, her brow furrowing as she tries to understand.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you. I'm sorry we scared you. But this was our moment, and you've taken it from us." She looks around at all of us with quiet determination. "Please leave. We need to process this together, just the two of us."

"Alright," Dante says finally. "We'll talk about this more later. When you're both... disconnected."

Cassian just grunts, the murderous look finally fading from his eyes. August nods, seeming satisfied that Daisy is truly okay.

We start to file out, giving them space to process what just happened. But I pause at the door, looking back at them curled together.

"For what it's worth," I say, "I think you're perfect together. Even if you did give us all heart attacks getting here."

And I close the door, leaving them to figure out what comes next.

Chapter 32

Daisy

Iwake up wrapped in Gunner's arms, and everything feels perfect.

The bond pulses under my skin. Warm. Steady. Right. His emotions flood through me. Happiness and protectiveness and love so deep it makes my chest ache. In the best way.

My body feels tender but satisfied. The cramping that started days ago is barely there this morning. Just a dull ache instead of the sharp pains I've been having. Yesterday morning changed everything. When I finally worked up the courage to ask for what I wanted, Gunner gave me the most perfect first time I could have imagined. My first time. His first time. We gave each other something precious.