Page 171 of Ranger's Wildflower

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I need to hear it.

Need to understand.

His head tilts.

“They took you from me,” he says simply.

My stomach drops.

“No,” I say. “I left.”

His jaw tightens.

“They made you think that.”

“No one made me do anything,” I fire back.

His breathing gets heavier.

Faster.

Unstable.

“I tried to fix it,” he says. “I tried to make it right.”

“With violence?” I ask.

“With what was necessary!” he snaps.

The sound echoes through the trees.

Trigger shifts.

Beast tenses.

Ace—

Ace is a wall behind me.

Ready.

Waiting.

“Come with me,” Daniel says again, softer now. “We can still fix this.”

I shake my head.

“There is no fixing this.”

Something breaks in his expression.

Cracks wide open.

And I see it.

The moment he decides—

If he can’t have me—

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