Cassian’s Pov

I watched Lila sleep most of the day after her heat broke the resistance in her. She lay curled in my bed with the sheets tangled around her legs and my mark dark on her neck. Her face looked soft for the first time since the gathering. No anger or fight showed in it. The heat had calmed, but I knew it would build again soon. She had taken my cock many times now and begged pretty, but I held back the full claim. The knot. I wanted her to earn it completely.

She woke slowly in the late afternoon. She stretched under the covers. Her eyes found...