Lorien POV

His voice cracked when he said her name, and my throat tightened. Auren was only a few doors away in his office close enough to hear if this conversation turned into something it shouldn’t. The last thing I needed was for him to shut down again because her name floated through the walls. Not when he had just asked me to consider accepting his mark. Not when we were finally… finally standing on the edge of moving forward.

I had a plan a real one to take that first step with him ...