Jarrah was the first to wake the morning after their night of dancing.

He blinked a few times, yawned for a minute, and then registered the additional weight pressing soundlessly at the front of his body. Rolling his neck against the trunk of Daphne for a moment, he cracked what he could, and then glanced down. His breath caught in the pit of his throat at the sight of an angel perching her sleeping self on his chest, the side of her face nestled comfortably into him with a peaceful expression.

Still cocooned in the warmth of his arms, Rayne was fast asleep, not at all budging despite the early morning sun peaking through Daphne. Her lashes lay still against the tops of her cheeks, gently resting on the smooth valley of her rosy brown skin, and her naturally puckered lips were parted ever so slightly. Her face was flush against his chest and even after he adjusted his arm, she still didn't move.

Something about looking at her beautiful features made his heart pound out of his chest in a way that it never had before. Even with his fiancé back home, he always felt comfortable. Familiar. He loved his best friend, and he was so sure he could switch those feelings around eventually given time and marriage. It happened for his parents, so surely it could happen for him.

But then with Rayne . . .

Everything was so—so instant.

Jarrah remembered how radiant she looked to him the moment they met and she came to his aid. Though hating her was natural for their kind, he struggled to keep up the facade of loathing someone so achingly wonderful. She didn't see it yet, but she was already a better alpha than her father and Jarrah didn't even know her for very long when he came to that conclusion. He didn't need to. He saw it in the way she selflessly took a fools mission so no one else would have to risk their lives and go. He witnessed firsthand of her bravery when she defended him, an enemy creature, and got him out of that rancid jail cell and the iron clad chains. Or the care she took with the small nymphs the morning she gave him her first stunning smile, brilliant but shy at the same time.

Something about Rayne shook Jarrah to his very core, and he knew it was always going to be that way for him. Even after they both get through the war, and they go home to their separate people to live their separate lives, he knew her imprint on him would be forever.

"Rayne," he rasped, brushing the tips of his fingers along her jaw. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly at the contact, but she didn't wake right away. Instead, she curled further into him, her wild curls framing her high cheekbones.

Jarrah gently brushed them away, unable to help himself. "Rayne."

Rayne stirred that time, inhaling sharply as her eyes finally fluttered open, and Jarrah was met with his favorite shade of brown. Had anyone seen eyes that bright? That brilliant? He sure as hell hadn't before he met Rayne Vance. That woman was an absolute dream, and if he could stare at those eyes for the rest of his life, he would.

And it tore his heart in two that he couldn't.

But for now, he'd enjoy them for as long as he could.

And when her eyes finally stayed open, and her gaze trailed over his soft features in their close proximity, she smiled a grin so wonderful, so radiant, that he couldn't stop his heart from swelling. It took everything within him not to press his lips to hers and taste the tantalizing sunlight within them.

So he had no other choice but to smile back, and soak in their moment just a little while longer before returning to reality and finishing their journey.