Then she thought about the look on his face when he'd come back inside last night. The tension in his shoulders. The way he'd held her like he was afraid she might disappear.
Maybe she should. For both their sakes.
But… what if he came back and asked her to leave? Told her it wasn't going to work?
"I'll leave him a note," she said finally. "But I can't be here when he gets back, Faye."
Faye opened her mouth to argue, but Adam appeared in the doorway.
"Jules." His voice was gentle but firm. "The meeting just ended. Riko shut down Stan's challenge. Lex is on his way back." Adam's dark eyes held hers. "And according to Riko, the first thing Lex said when it was over was that he needed to get back to his mate."
His mate.
The word hung in the air between them, heavy with meaning.
"He's never called anyone that before," Adam added quietly. "Ever."
Jules stood there, frozen, Fred clutched to her chest and her heart lodged somewhere in her throat. His mate. Lex had called her his mate. In front of the whole pack.
But even as hope flickered to life in her chest, Stan's words echoed in her mind.
He's never claimed you. Never marked you. If you were really his...
She needed to think. She needed space. She needed?—
The sound of a truck engine cut through her spiraling thoughts.
Lex was home.
Chapter 9
Lex
Lex was out of the truck before it fully stopped, boots hitting the snow-packed ground as he strode toward the cabin. The pack meeting had taken too long. Way too fucking long. He'd wanted to leave the second Riko shut Stan down, but there had been formalities. Explanations. A whole lot of posturing from wolves who needed to accept that times were changing whether they liked it or not.
But it was done. Stan had been put in his place—publicly, and he'd taken off like the pussy he was—and Riko had made it clear that any wolf who threatened a pack member's mate would answer to him personally. Human or not.
Mate.
He'd said it out loud. In front of everyone. The word he'd been avoiding. The truth he'd been dancing around since the moment Jules walked into his garage with her dying car and her ridiculous succulent.
She was his mate. And now the whole pack knew it.
It was time to make sure she knew it, too.
The cabin door opened before he reached it, and Adam stepped out onto the porch, expression unreadable.
"She's inside," Adam said quietly. "But you should know… she's packing."
Packing. She was packing.
Lex pushed past Adam and through the door. The first thing he saw was Faye, standing in the middle of the living room with her arms crossed and a worried expression. The second thing he saw was Jules.
She stood in the doorway to the guest room, coat on, boots on, that stupid succulent clutched to her chest like a lifeline. Her suitcases sat at her feet. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and the moment she saw him, her whole body went rigid.
"Jules." Her name came out rough, wrecked.
"I was just—" She swallowed hard. "I thought it would be easier if I?—"
