Redhawk Caldera then you'd love me, love me.

She expected him to say no.  Of course he didn't want her.  She was a broken, pathetic shell of a wolf - barely an echo of what she had been.  Even more, she was disfigured and ugly.  It was no more than she deserved for abandoning her family, but it still made her feel so ashamed.  How could he want her?  She was ugly, inside and out.  And he was perfect.  He deserved so much better than her and all of this misery she'd brought him.

It was with disbelieving eyes that Finley brought her gaze to her mate's.  She heard his words, felt the touch upon her mangled face, and after the briefest moments of sitting frozen in shock, she tilted her head towards him to drink in the most wonderful, the most therapeutic, hopeful words she would ever hear in her life.

"I love you too..." Fin said, gulping back another round of tears as they surfaced.  She had nearly called him 'Twig', but it felt too soon and raw to utter such a familiar moniker.  Timidly, she reached out for him, to run her nose along his jaw and then to press herself against him - if he let her.