The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 197

**Ryder’s POV **

The cabin door shuts behind the others, and the silence they leave behind feels charged.

Paige stands in the middle of the room, breathing slowly. the weight of everything we just planned pressing down on her shoulders. The glow under her skin hasn’t fully faded. It pulses soft gold at her collarbone, her wrists, along her throat like it’s following her heartbeat.

She looks like pure power trapped in a human body… she looks like mine.

– Remy, Parker, and Callen left minutes ago, heading out for patrol. I know their absence leaves an ache in her, but the intensity of it lets something else bloom. Something that’s been circling us since the moment she said it.

I have to mark you.’

My wolf hasn’t calmed once since he heard the words, and neither have I.

“It feels too quiet now,” she whispers.

“It’s just us,” I answer, my voice low.

Her eyes meet mine, and something flickers there… curiosity, want, uncertainty, all tangled together.

For the first time since the attack, she’s not surrounded by half the pack or the Twiceborn or someone crying or shouting or fighting. It’s simply Paige… standing in front of me with the golden shimmer of a goddess and the vulnerability of the woman I fell in love with long before either of us knew what she was.

Just us.

Just her and me.

She takes a small step toward me. “You’re thinking too loud.”

“Am I?”

“Yes,” she smirks. “You’re always loud in here.” She taps

– her temple. “Even when you’re quiet out here.”

I swallow hard. “Then tell me what you hear.”

She watches me the way the deer watch my wolf… not with fear, but with awareness. Like she’s waiting for me to move so she knows where to step next.

“I hear..” she whispers. “Want. A lot of want.”

My hands clench into fists at my sides.

“And something else,” she adds.

“What’s that?”

“Restraint.” She tilts her head up at me. “You’re holding yourself back.””I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

“I don’t break that easily.”

No, she doesn’t. She’s proven that again and again.

I take a step forward, testing her. She doesn’t retreat. If anything, she leans closer like gravity pulls her to me.

“You said you wanted to try marking,” I say quietly.

“I do.”

“Do you understand what that means?”

“I think so.” She wets her lips. “It’s like your marks, just… mine. My version.”

“I think it’s more than that. A Luna mark is instinctive, but yours is more than that. It’s sacred and powerful, and just like mine, once it’s done, there’s no going back.”

Her breath catches. “I don’t want to go back,” she says, and there’s no hesitation in it. “Not from you.”

My wolf shoves at my skin so hard I nearly stumble.

I move closer until I’m right in front of her, lifting my hand to cup her jaw and brushing her soft cheek with my thumb.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

There’s no tremble in her voice, or hesitation in her eyes.That alone is enough to tear down any restraint I had left.

“Then come here,” I breathe.

She steps into me, her hands sliding up my chest, fingers curling into the fabric of my T-shirt like she needs something to hold on to.

The moment her body presses against mine, heat floods through the bond, sharp, warm, and so damn addictive. I feel her pulse race beneath her skin. Her power sparks, brushing against me like the buzz of static, sending a shiver down my spine.

I lower my forehead to hers.

“You’re incredible, Paige.”

“I feel like I’m going to combust,” she whispers.

“You are” My thumb glides across her lower lip. “Let me help.”

Her breath shudders.

langle her chin up and kiss her slowly, gently coaxing her.

She melts into it, her fingers tightening in my T-shirt. Her mouth opens beneath mine, and I deepen the kiss. Heat catches fast, like we’ve just struck a match.

She makes a soft sound of want, and it hits me so hard my knees almost buckle.

I slide my other hand down her back, pulling her againstme. She moves with me, into me, like she was made to fit. every angle of my body.

The glow under her skin flares, golden light blooming where my hands touch her. I can feel her power responding to me, wanting, awakening.

“Ryder…” she whispers against my mouth.

“Yeah?”

“Touch me.”

I do.

I let my hands roam, tracing the line of her spine, the curve of her waist, the softness of her hip. Her skin warms under my fingertips, light humming there like her body is answering back.

She grips my shoulders like she’s trying to pull me deeper into her.

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