EPILOGUE 2 SECOND ROAR
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Three years later, Maren is three — amber-eyed, white-horned, already climbing things that should be too tall for her. The territory is mapped. The Ordained know better than to come this far into the canopy.
Ada has a question she's ready to ask. Not because the rut demands it. Because she wants to.
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"Corvin."
He turns. His whole body turns, the tail unwrapping from my ankle.
The firelight on his crown horns, casting them in shadow.
His amber eyes catching the light and throwing it back.
The face I've learned to read like terrain—every ridge, every shadow, every micro-shift that tells me what he's thinking before the words arrive.
The face I've watched for three years, learning the grammar of his expressions.
He's waiting. He always waits. He lets me find the words.
"I want another baby."
His whole body goes still.
Not the stillness of surprise. The stillness of something very large recognizing something singular. His tail freezes on my ankle. His cock—soft beneath the loincloth a moment ago—goes rigid. Not aroused yet. Just alert. Something inside him hearing something it recognizes.
His pupils dilate. The amber bleeding into something deeper. Something that isn't quite human anymore.
"Ada." His voice is lower. Rougher. The full sentences still there, but costing him something. "You're sure."
The question costs him. I can see the effort it takes to form it. The effort to ask instead of simply take.
"I'm sure."
"Now."
Not a question. Not quite a command. The single word that means something inside him heard me and decided. Irrevocable.
I smile at him. Because I chose this. Because I knew exactly what would happen when I said those words.
"Take me," I say.