I thought about the night with Aurora, when Elena had transformed before my eyes. It was like watching a bear emerging from hibernation, foul-tempered and faintly aggressive with the outside world, turn to her cub and suddenly become all warmth and love. The smile she’d given Aurora, the way she’d made her feel strong just by bestowing a playful nickname. That was the night I discovered the true, tender underbelly of my fighter and decided, irrevocably, that I needed to have her. Not just have her to own her, because a woman like Elena couldn’t be owned and that was part of her powerful charm.
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