Lyra didn’t answer his question, but she didn’t need to.
Jake knew. She couldn’t survive a rejection, he was sure of it.
His heart stuttered in his chest at the thought. The idea of rejecting her, of causing her even more pain, was physically unbearable. Rome snarled, loud and savage in his mind, insisting that she was theirs. Every instinct Jake had rebelled at the thought of turning his back on her.
But when he looked at Lyra, all he saw was pain. Not just the scar on her cheek, but something deeper. A hollowed-out kind of grief that had taken root long before today.
He drew in a shaky breath, forcing down the primal urge to claim her.
“Lyra,” he said, voice rough, “I didn’t know… I didn’t see you before. Not really. And I can never tell you how sorry I am for that.” He swallowed ha
