Mira’s POV.

We'd been working on the cabin foundation all day when the sun started setting. My hands were tired. Muscles aching in good ways. Kael started building a fire near the construction site.

"You don't have to stay," he said.

"I know."

"But you're staying anyway."

"Yes."

He didn't ask why. I built the fire methodically, starting with tinder, then adding kindling, and finally larger wood. I watched his hands work. The same hands that once wore an Alpha pendant. Now calloused from ...