Mira met his gaze steadily.
Then: "You need to kiss her."
Roshan froze completely.
"What?"
"Kiss her. Like you mean it. Deep intimacy that engages the bond without completing the mating."
Roshan's mind went entirely blank.
Then filled with shock, confusion, and something darker that he shoved down immediately.
But wait.
Wait.
"The bond?" he repeated, voice strange even to his own ears. "You're saying... she's bonding with me? Actually bonding?"
Mira's eyebrows rose. "You didn't know?"
"I thought—" He stopped. Started again. "I thought she was just responding to my kindness. To the fact that I helped her when she first arrived. I didn't think—"
'The pull. The warmth in my chest. The need to protect her that goes beyond duty or honor. That's been the BOND this whole time?'
He felt like the ground had shifted beneath his feet.
"How long?" he asked. "How long has the bond been forming?"
