The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 233

Decission 1-2

“Lori,” he said, and her nante felt different now-more intimate, more important. “I will be blunt with you. I am thirty-five years old. Lam á veteran. I have seen things, done things, survived things that would haunt most people for a lifetime.”

She was watching him, her green eyes fixed on his face.

“I carry a heavy baggage,” he continued. “I have a temper, and a difficult personality most of the time. I am not easy to live with. I am not easy to …love.”

He paused, his throat tight.

“Aside from this, there is an age gap between us. Quite a big one. You are barely out of childhood, and I

am…”

He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

“And my family,” he said, forcing himself to continue. “My family is not easy. Not at all. You would need to make a lot of adjustments. A lot of sacrifices. If you were to be my mate.”

He looked at her-really looked at her-and his chest burned with a pain he couldn’t name.

“You deserve someone better,” he said quietly. “Someone lighter. Someone closer to your age. Someone who doesn’t come with decades of damage and a family that will judge your every move.”

The words felt like knives in his chest.

Every syllable was true. Every syllable was agony… but he chose full honesty.

Lori’s eyes filled with tears.

She blinked, and a single drop slipped down her cheek.

“So this is it,” she said, her voice cracking. “You reject me. You just decided for both of us in the end.” Her voice rose, trembling with hurt and anger. “I don’t have any say in this?”

Attia’s heart twisted.

“You deserve someone better-”

“Don’t patronize me!” Lori’s voice cut through his words like a blade. Her eyes flashed-not just with tears, but with fire. “Don’t stand there and tell me what I deserve. You don’t know me. You don’t know what I

want. You don’t get to make decisions for me.”

Attia stared at her.

This was not the trembling girl from the classroom. This was not the stuttering student who had frozen when he called her name. This was someone else entirely-someone fierce and angry and utterly unwilling to be dismissed.

“I can make decisions by myself,” she said, her voice shaking but strong. “On whom I want as my mate … or not.”

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<Decission 1-2.

Attia was stunned.

Claim

He had expected tears. Submission. Acceptance of his judginent. He had expected her to nod and agree that he was right, that she deserved better, that they should walk away from this bond before it caused either of them pain.

He had not expected her to fight.

He had not expected her to burn.

Lori lifted her chin, her eyes blazing through her tears.

“And what if I want you as my mate?” she demanded. “Despite everything you said. Despite your baggage and your family and your difficult personality. Despite the age gap and the complications and everything else.”

She stood up from the bed.

She was so small compared to him. So fragile. But she stood over him like a warrior facing down a

monster.

“What if I want you anyway?”

Attia couldn’t breathe.

His heart had stopped. His lungs had frozen. His wolf was howling in his chest, drowning out everything but her words.

“What if I want you as my mate?”

The question hung between them, heavier than any he had ever faced.

Attia stared up at her-this fierce, trembling, impossible girl-and felt something crack open inside him.

“Then,” he said, his voice barely a whisper, “you are willing to accept our bond?”

Lori’s tears fell freely now.

She didn’t wipe them away.

“I asked you first,” she said. “Do you want me?”

Attia rose from the chair.

す

He towered over her, his massive frame blocking the light. But she didn’t step back. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t lower her gaze.

She stood her ground.

And Attia realized, in that moment, that he had never seen anything more beautiful in his entire life.

He reached out.

His hand trembled-he, who had faced demons and armies and death itself, was trembling-as his fingers brushed her cheek.

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