POV: Xavier

"She's my mate!" I'd shouted, knowing it would make things worse. "And I won't let you touch her."

Damien had raised his clawed hand for the killing blow. I remembered accepting it, knowing I'd die protecting her.

Then golden light had exploded through the room. Thelma's power, raw and untrained but massive, had erupted. She'd stood between me and death, her eyes blazing with fury and love.

"You will not touch him," she'd said, and her voice carried the weight of Alpha command. "He's mine."

She'd saved me. Even knowing I'd been sent to kill her, even knowing I'd lied, she'd saved me.

That was who Thelma was....