After losing my bondmate to illness, I’d accepted that my time to love was in the past. I promised her on her death bed that I’d never take another bondmate, and I meant it.

Instead I’ve lived my life to serve my clan, lending my assistance when they needed me and continuing to act as clan leader while Uttin traveled from town to town, freeing those who were forced to hide who they loved. I told myself devotion was enough.

I never expected one of those townsfolk to sway my heart.

He looked at me not as a leader or a legend, but as a man. An equal. Someone worthy of soft smiles and unguarded hope.

Loving him would mean breaking the last promise I made to the woman I lost. This choice could be the one that finally breaks me, or it could put my heart back together again.