When he came back inside, Jules had found buckets and placed them under the drips already forming in the ceiling in her room.
"How bad is it?"
"Could be worse." He looked at her, really looked at her. Saw the frustrated desire in her eyes that matched his own. "Jules?—"
"Don't." She held up a hand. "Don't apologize. Don't tell me it was a mistake. Don't push me away again."
"I wasn't going to." He moved closer, unable to help himself. "I was going to say we should talk. Really talk. About everything."
She studied his face. "Everything?"
"Everything."
"Tonight?"
He nodded. "Tonight. After I patch the roof and try to get the generator running. I'll tell you... all of it."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She rose up on her toes and kissed him softly. "Then you'd better get to work."
As he headed up to the roof, Lex's wolf paced restlessly beneath his skin. Tonight, he'd tell her about shifters. About the pack. About what being with him would mean.
And then he'd let her decide if she could accept a man who was also a monster.
The temperature didn't get any warmer as the day wore on. By evening, despite the roaring fire, frost was forming on the inside of some of the windows. Jules had retreated to a nest of blankets on the couch, only her face visible.
"Still cold?"
She nodded miserably. "I think my blood is turning to slush."
He'd managed to get the generator running at about thirty percent capacity. Enough to keep the pipes from freezing but not enough to heat the cabin. The roof was patched too, but it was a temporary fix at best.
"Come here." He held out his hand.
She took it and let him pull her up, blankets and all. He settled into the corner of the couch and drew her between his legs, her back to his chest, then wrapped the blankets around both of them.
"Oh my God, you're like a furnace," she sighed, melting against him.
He tried not to think about how perfectly she fit against him. How right this felt. How his wolf was practically purring at having her this close.
"So," she said after a moment. "That talk."
His arms tightened around her, an involuntary response to how vulnerable he suddenly felt. The warmth of her body grounded him in a way, but it was accompanied by a whirlpool of anxiety that churned deep within him. "What do you want to know?" he asked, his voice steady despite the internal conflict raging beneath his calm exterior.
"Everything. Starting with why your eyes turned gold this morning." Her request was simple, yet he hesitated.
He fell into a silence that felt like an eternity, even to him. The air thrummed with tension as he stared into the flickering fire, realizing that revealing the truth would put her in danger. She deserved to know, yet fear coiled tightly around his gut, gnawing at the edges of his resolve.
Finally, she twisted in his arms, her eyes searching his. "Lex?" she prompted, drawing him from the depths of his spiraling thoughts.
"What if I told you... that some legends are real?" The gravity of his confession hung in the air, thick with unspoken implications.
Her response, a surprising calm, held a power he hadn't anticipated. She settled back against him, relaxing into the embrace that felt both right and perilous. "I'd say I'm listening." Her openness pushed him closer to the brink, and he felt his wolf stir restlessly, echoing her invitation with a primal urge to finally share everything. The good, the dark… everything. But could he trust her to bear the truth of his dual existence?
So he talked. Carefully at first, dancing around the edges of his secrets. He told her about his family. About traditions that went back centuries. About people who were more than they seemed.
