Bearclaw Valley all i want

The silence between them stretched, thick and charged, pulling at the space between their bodies like a taut rope ready to snap. Cole didn’t answer right away—not because he didn’t know what to say, but because the weight of it sat heavy on his tongue, in his chest, in the way he watched her.
She was looking at him like that again. Like he was something worth waiting for. Like she’d already made up her mind, and all she needed was for him to say the words. Claim it. Claim her.
His jaw tightened, and his fingers—had he been human—might’ve curled into a fist to keep them from reaching for her, from tracing the delicate slope of her face, from taking what was already being offered.
She would be his.
His throat bobbed as he swallowed, unreadable eyes burning with something he wasn’t ready to name yet. You sure? His voice was low, gravelly, the question lingering between them, testing her resolve. You don’t wanna take that back?
There wasn’t any running from her.
He exhaled sharply through his nose, something like a huff, something like surrender. Then, finally, he reached. A hand—had he been a man—would’ve cupped her jaw, his thumb sweeping over the fragile skin there, tilting her chin up just enough to make sure she was looking at him, really looking.