Kade didn't move immediately after her fingers closed around his.
He simply held her there, standing close enough that the heat of his body brushed hers, but he made no move to pull her forward or lead her anywhere. For the first time since the healer had spoken, hesitation flickered across his expression—not weakness, never that, but a deliberate, weighted pause as though the words forming on his tongue carried consequences that could not be taken back.
"Dakota."
Her name left him quieter now, heavier, laced with something deeper than command.
She looked at him, steady and unflinching, though the faint echo of the disturbance still lingered beneath her skin like a second heartbeat she could not ignore.
"This won't be like the bond we already have," he said at last.
A pause stretched between them, thick and deliberate.
