Chapter 198

** Ryder’s POV ** Halfway up the stairs, she tightens her grip on me, her lips brushing the side of my throat. Not kissing, just… there. Like the contact is something she needs to stay steady. “Ryder…” she whispers. I stop. Every muscle tenses because of how she says my name. Like she’s stripping the whole world away except for the two of us. I turn my head slightly, enough to see her eyes in the dim hallway light. They’re glowing faint gold now, not from power, but from emotion. Her hand lifts from my chest to cup my face. “I felt your heart when I marked you. All of it, every part.” A lump forms in my throat. “Yeah?” “It was beating so hard,” she murmurs. “For me.” “It always does,” I say before I can stop myself. She studies me as if she’s seeing something she’s been waiting to see for a long time. Her fingers stroke my cheek. “Ryder… I love you.” There it is. That word I’ve heard her say a hundred times, not just to me, but to our son, her other mates, her sister, but this time I d