Page 68 of Lone Wolf

My heart swells at her words. “You found your way out,” I say quietly.

“Because of you.” She turns to face me fully, her eyes serious in the moonlight. “You never gave up on me, even when I pushed you away. You kept holding the thread.”

I reach up to touch her face, tracing the line of her jaw with my fingertips. “And I always will.”

She takes a deep breath, looking suddenly vulnerable. “Sunny, I need to tell you something.”

“Anything,” I say, my pulse quickening.

Her eyes lock with mine, intense and searching. “I love you.”

I feel like the world has stopped spinning. I’ve been waiting to hear those words, hoping for them, but never pushing. Because I know what those words cost her—how many times Grandmother punished her for showing any emotion at all, how deeply she fears attachment. I’ve felt the same confession building in my own chest for months now, but I’ve held them back, afraid they would scare her away.

“I know I’ve taken too long to say it,” she continues, her voice low and earnest. “I’ve been afraid. Terrified, actually. AfterGrandmother…aftereverything, I didn’t think I was capable of this. Of feeling this much for someone. And then when I started to realize what was happening with you, I was even more scared.”

“Why?” I ask softly, though I think I know.

“Because loving someone makes you vulnerable. It gives them power over you.” Her hands tighten on mine. “And I spent so much of my life trying to ensure that no one ever had that kind of power over me again.”

I nod, understanding completely. “I know. That’s why I haven’t said it either, even though I’ve felt it for a long time. I didn’t want to push you before you were ready.”

Her eyes widen slightly. “You’ve been waiting for me?”

“Yeah,” I tell her with a smile. “I knew it had to be your choice. Your timeline.”

“And now?”

“And now I can finally tell you that I love you too. With everything I am.”

Something breaks open in her expression—wonder and hope and a vulnerability so raw it takes my breath away. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” she whispers.

“You don’t have todeservelove,” I tell her, repeating something Dr. Khatri has told us both in our sessions. “It’s not earned. It just is.”

She lets out a shaky breath. “I love you,” she says again, like she’s trying the words out, finding that they fit. “I love you, Sunny Santiago.”

I laugh, joy bubbling up inside me like champagne. “I love you too, Sarah Graves, or Ariadne, or Theseus, or whoever you want to be—because whoever that is, I’ll love you still. I love you so much it scares me sometimes.”

“We can be scared together,” she says, and then she pulls me close, her mouth finding mine. Her lips are soft, her hands gentle as they frame my face. I pour everything I feel into the kiss—all the love I’ve been holding back, all the promises I want to make.

When we finally break apart, both a little breathless, I rest my forehead against hers. “And you know what? We’ll pull that thread all the way out of the labyrinth and use it to bind us together. Forever.”

Ariadne’s eyes soften, and she kisses me again—deeper this time, with a hunger that makes my knees weak. Her arms wrap around my waist, holding me like she never wants to let go.

“Forever,” she echoes when we finally break apart. “I like the sound of that.”

We stay on the balcony a while longer, talking softly about everything and nothing. Plans for the future, memories of the past three months, silly jokes that make Ariadne’s rare laugh bubble up.

“We should probably go back inside,” I say eventually. “Itissupposed to be our party, after all.”

“I suppose,” she sighs dramatically, making me grin.

“Hey,” I say, struck by a thought. “What are you doing tomorrow morning?”

“Nothing special. Why?”

“I was thinking maybe we could sleep in, then I could make breakfast.”

Ariadne raises an eyebrow. “Or I could make waffles,” she suggests with unexpected enthusiasm.

---