Page 83 of Tempted By the Alpha Outlaw

“And a complete inability to let things go,” Magnolia adds.

“So…basically you, but shorter?”

She gasps in mock outrage. “I am nothing like Lucy.”

“You just spent twenty minutes telling me how you acted out princess stories and demanded people rescue you.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

She hesitates. “…It just is.”

I laugh, and she glares, but there’s no heat to it, just warmth, just her, just this easy, teasing moment that makes my chest ache.

She’s so unbelievably beautiful like this. Happy. Mine.

And I’m about to take that from her.

The path curves toward the chapel garden, the scent of wildflowers rising in the air, but suddenly it’s harder to breathe. Magnolia keeps talking. “Honestly? I think Lucy might have the right idea. She doesn’t care about fate, or mates, or destiny. She just wants to slay dragons.”

I exhale slowly. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“No,” she agrees. “It doesn’t.”

She stays close, her fingers brushing over mine, her warmth seeping into my skin like she belongs there.

And then?—

“Have you ever thought about marriage?”

It hits like a blow to the ribs.

She doesn’t notice. Not yet. She just keeps going, curling closer, her fingers playing absently with mine. “About kids?”

A sharp, painful exhale leaves my chest. Magnolia turns to look at me, the glow of her happiness flickering at the edges as she takes in my face.

She doesn’t know.

She doesn’t know.

But she will.

I can’t run from this anymore. The truth is going to rot inside me if I don’t get it out now.

I tug her to a halt, the two of us stopped in the aisle of the chapel like this is some kind of fucked up wedding. She looks up at me, brow furrowed, and I can tell through the bond that she knows something is horribly wrong.

“I have to tell you something,” I say, my voice coming out a whisper.

Magnolia stills, her fingers twitching in mine. “Colt…”

Her voice is softer now, hesitant. Wary.

I don’t blame her.

The weight in my chest presses down harder, heavier, suffocating. I feel it in every inch of my body, in the bond stretching between us like a live wire, like it knows what’s coming. She watches me, searching my face, and I can see it—the moment doubt creeps in, the moment the warmth in her eyes flickers.

“You’re scaring me,” she breathes.

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