Eleanora’s POV

The morning after the bond felt like waking up in a different world.

The sun spilled through Gannon’s bedroom windows, golden and warm, casting soft light over the tangled sheets and bare skin. My body ached in all the right ways, my heart fuller than it had ever been. And yet, deeper than all of that, something had shifted.

I felt it in my blood.

The bond.

Alive. Radiant. Thrumming between us like a second heartbeat.

I turned my head and saw him. Gannon, sleeping beside me, his features soft in a way I rarely saw. Without the burdens of his Alpha mask, he looked younger. Peaceful. I...