The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 198

** Ryder’s POV **

Halfway up the stairs, she tightens her grip on me, her lips brushing the side of my throat. Not kissing, just… there.

Like the contact is something she needs to stay steady.

“Ryder..” she whispers.

I stop.

Every muscle tenses because of how she says my name.

Like she’s stripping the whole world away except for the two of us.

I turn my head slightly, enough to see her eyes in the dim hallway light. They’re glowing faint gold now, not from power, but from emotion.

Her hand lifts from my chest to cup my face. “I felt your heart when I marked you. All of it, every part.”

A lump forms in my throat. “Yeah?”

“It was beating so hard,” she murmurs. “For me.”

“It always does,” I say before I can stop myself.

She studies me as if she’s seeing something she’s been waiting to see for a long time. Her fingers stroke my cheek. “Ryder… I love you.”

There it is. That word I’ve heard her say a hundred times,not just to me, but to our son, her other mates, her sister, but this time I don’t just hear it, I feel it deep in my soul.

With her wrapped around me, her power inside my chest, her breath in my ear, her heart joined to mine, I feel everything. The overwhetming truth of exactly how much she means it nearly makes my knees buckle.

I swallow hard. “Paige… I’ve loved you since the first time you ever spoke my name. That moment you chose to fight beside me, rather than against me like everyone else.

Instead of seeing the bad in me, you saw the pain, and I swear something in me just..” I exhale sharply.”…snapped into place.”

Her breath catches.

“And then you kept choosing me,” I continue. “Even after everything I did, when you were scared, when you thought you weren’t enough. Even now, when it feels like the entire world is burning around you. You chose us. You chose me.”

Her eyes shine with tears, but it’s not fear or uncertainty causing them; it’s something deeper. Something warm enough to crumble me from the inside out.

I press my forehead to hers. “I’m in love with you.

Completely, hopelessly, desperately. I don’t think there’s a version of me that exists anymore where you aren’t the centre of my world.”

She cups my face with both hands as she whispers myname. She leans up and presses her mouth to mine, slow and full of emotion instead of urgency. A kiss that feels like she’s giving me her whole heart instead of just trying to keep up with the fire roaring between us..

My knees almost give out again.

Her thumb strokes my cheeks. “You protect me, Ryder… not because of duty or power. Because you love me, I feel all of it.”

I let out a shaky breath. “You feel everything I am, and you still love me.”

“Of course I do.” She smiles softly. “You’re my other half.

My balance. My anchor.”

“And you’re my dawn,” I whisper. “My angel. My home.”

She kisses me again, deeper this time, and the bond between us surges so warm and bright I swear it lights up the whole hallway.

My wolf howls inside me, not with possession… but with devotion, with absolute, unshakable certainty.

“We’ll figure this out,” she says against my lips. “All of it, together.”

“Yeah,” I murmur, tightening my hold on her, carrying her the last few steps toward our room. “Together.”

Even before tonight, before her mark, before her power wrapped itself around my heart, before I felt the truedepth of her love, there’s no world where we wouldn’t walk into the next battle side by side. We’re not just bonded. We’ve proved we’re inevitable.

The bedroom door clicks shut behind us. Paige is still wrapped around me, her legs around my waist, her fingers tangled in my hair, her breath warm against my throat.

The mark she gave me is stilt burning under my skin, hot and claiming in a way that makes me feel owned, something I never thought my wolf would like, but for her, he doesn’t just tolerate it; he craves it.

I mean to walk her to the bed, but I don’t make it that far when she grinds herself against me.

A growl rips from me, and I turn, pressing her back against the bedroom door hard enough that it creaks against the frame. Not hurting her, never, but with every ounce of pent-up, overwhelming want l’ve been holding for what feels like forever.

Her breath catches, her fingers digging into my shoulders.

“Rye…”

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