“What do you mean, targets?”
I hold her gaze. “Shifters don’t just fight over territory. Power. Control. A mate is leverage. Weakness.” My voice drops. “Something enemies can use.”
The color drains slightly from her face.
“And you think someone would come after me?” she asks.
“I know they would.”
There’s no point softening it. Not now. Not when the truth matters more than her comfort.
“That’s why I stayed away,” I continue. “Why I kept things distant. If I didn’t claim the bond… if I didn’t let it fully form… there was a chance no one would notice.”
Her brows pull together. “And now?”
I don’t look away.
“Now it’s too late for that.”
The words hang there, sharp and final. Tessa turns away from me, pacing a few steps before stopping near the window. She stares out into the darkening sky, her reflection faint in the glass. I don’t interrupt. This isn’t something you absorb in seconds. Hell, most humans would run. I brace myself for it. She wraps her arms around herself again, but this time it’s different—not defensive. Grounding.
“You’re telling me,” she says slowly, “that I walked into a town I didn’t understand, met a man I barely know… and somehow ended up in the middle of a supernatural… bond.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
She huffs out a breath that almost sounds like a laugh. “That’s one way.”
I wait. Every muscle coils, ready for her to turn and walk out that door. If she does… I won’t stop her. Ican’t.Because forcing the bond would make me no better than the predators I’m trying to protect her from.
“I won’t force this on you,” I say, my voice firm despite the way it costs me something to speak the words. “If you want to leave—leave town, forget all of this—I’ll make sure you get out safely.”
She turns then. Sharp. Fast.
“And you?” she asks.
“I stay here,” I answer simply.
Her gaze searches mine. “Just like that? You’d let me go?”
My tiger snarls at the idea. Rips against my control like claws against bone. But I hold steady.
“Yes.”
The word tastes like ash.
“Because it has to be your choice,” I add. “Not instinct. Not pressure. You.”
For a long moment, she just looks at me. Really looks. Like she’s trying to see past the man and into whatever lives underneath.
“If I stay,” she says slowly, “I’m choosing… all of this?”
“Yes.”
“The danger.”
“Yes.”
“The bond.”