Chapter 210

Alexander's POV I watched Summer sleeping beside me, the steady rhythm of her breathing filled me with a sense of peace I hadn't known in years. And as I looked at her now—so close, so real—the memory of that night came rushing back, uninvited and unstoppable. The moment her teeth broke my skin, everything changed. Her mark—Summer's mark—burned through my flesh like wildfire, but it wasn't pain that made me gasp. It was remembrance. Like a dam breaking in my mind, memories crashed through barriers I hadn't even known existed. Summer. My Summer. I remembered everything. The first time I saw her as children, her golden hair catching the sunlight as she played near the edge of Blackwood territory. The fierce little girl who wasn't afraid to challenge me even then. Our adolescent years—me watching her from afar, knowing someday she would be mine but forced to wait until we were both ready. The agony of seeing her with Foster—that bastard who'd claimed her through manipulation and lies. The