Page 199 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

It reminded me of the moment after I’d rescued her from Ciaran when she sank into my arms in such utter relief to finally feel so physically safe. Except this was more of an emotional dam that was breaking this time.

Regardless, I understood that she was overwhelmed and held her as tightly as I could until she could get in enough breath to speak again.

“I am so sorry, Sage. I swear I am so happy right now! I’m not sure what is wrong with me!” she sobbed, but I merely squeezed her tighter.

“It’s alright. You feel any way you need to.”

A medley of gratefulness, relief, hope, pain, and fear all stormed through her, but I took in all of it through our bond. Absorbed it. Lived in it with her. Held her through every aching second of it as she evicted it from her heart.

It took many long moments until she finally seemed to have cried out all the sharp pieces of what had shattered, leaving herraw and torn up inside, but also unburdened. We remained quiet for some time while I continued to rub her back, murmuring sweet assurances, until I felt that it might be safe to pull her upright so I could look at her.

Her face was red and blotchy, her eyes bloodshot and swollen from her grief. But there was new softness in her expression. A brittle and raw vulnerability like her heart was wholly exposed to me now.

I could stare at her like that forever. Not because I had any love of seeing her hurt, but because I knew this was a new part of her thatno onehad ever had before.

“What?” she asked, her ears lowering self-consciously when she saw me staring, but I smiled in reassurance.

“You are beautiful. It makes my chest hurt,” I admitted as I rubbed a hand over my aching centre where my shirt was soaked from her tears. She looked at my hand and then back up at me like she thought I was mad before she began to nibble on her lower lip nervously. I waited.

“Tell me this is different,” she beseeched me finally.

“Different?” I prompted her, not sure what she meant or what she wanted to know exactly.

“From anything you have known before.”

I would have thought that was obvious after all that I had told her in the hot springs, but I did not bring that up now while she was still so raw with emotion. I would tell her how I felt again and again in a hundred different ways if that was what it took for her to understand.

“Of course. I meant it when I told you that I love you,” I assured her with a hint of a teasing smile.

“But you also loved Orlaith,” she insisted, sobering me instantly with the unexpected mention of my ex lover. “You even said you’d always care for her,” she added, lowering her eyes inshame when I blinked at her in further shock. “I am nothing like her. Not soft or kind—”

I grabbed her jaw, reacting much more strongly to her horrible words than I had intended, and I had to instantly soften my grip on her.

“Look at me and listen very carefully,” I advised her, all softness gone as I implored her. “I will not pretend that I have not loved before. Nor that I am so coldhearted and shortsighted as to have purged myself of all the goodness I was privileged to learn before you. I made very careful choices about who was in my life and who I allowed to help shape me. I will not pretend that I am not here with you now, loving you as I do, because of everything that came before. Or that all of it did not make me into the male you say you love.”

I saw the moment she understood. The astonishment in her eyes as she realized what I was telling her.

“As for the other part. Iloveyou. I love absolutely everything about you. Even this snarky mouth that says the worst things about yourself sometimes. But I would not have you any other way, Ornella. Certainly not softer or quieter orlessened. I want you as you are.”

“Sage—”

“And if it is a matter of questioning my commitment, whether I am sure that you are all I will want for the rest of my life, then mark me,” I invited her.

Her objections sputtered out, and her eyes widened at me in shock.

“But I already forced the—”

“On the other side. A mark Iwantyou to leave on me, so there can be no question about how I feel,” I insisted with utter conviction.

She was so shocked that she could not speak at first, but then her eyes fell to the shoulder I offered, and I could see the heat ofwant in her eyes. The craving to claim me, but this time in a way that meant I truly belonged to her. That Ichoseto belong to her.

Then hesitation clouded her eyes, and although it made me want to growl in frustration, I waited as patiently as I could for her to share her concerns with me.

“There is something you need to know about me first before I agree to do that.”

“Tell me,” I commanded her immediately, but she was silent for so long I was not sure if she would obey.

“How do you feel about having children?”

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