The question lands like a punch. Because I don’t know the answer. Not really.
“I don’t know,” I admit honestly. “Part of me wants to say yes. Wants to believe I would have chosen you over everything else. But I was so driven back then, so focused on making it in the circuit. And I think… I think that’s why I left the way I did. Because I knew if you asked me to stay, I might have resented you for it eventually. And I couldn’t bear the thought of that.”
She nods slowly, processing. “At least you’re honest about it.”
“I’m trying to be. About all of it.” I reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “I can’t change what I did, Wills. Can’t go back and make different choices. But I can tell you that leaving you was the biggest mistake of my life. And if you give me another chance—if you giveusanother chance—I won’t waste it. I know this is supposed to all be a big fucking game, but I can’t lie to you. I want you. I want you in our pack as our Omega.”
The rightness of it takes my breath away. Fuck if Charlie and Beau would be pissed about it. I can’t fucking pretend.
“Jake—"
“I know you’re still pissed. I know you think this is temporary, that in two months we’ll all just walk away. But I’m telling you right now, that’s not happening. Not for me. Not for any of us.”
“But what if it isn’t what I want? What if I don’t want forever? What if I don’t want to be packed up and bonded?”
The possibility of that reality hurts so much that my Alpha wants to growl and protest. Fighting down the possessive urge to make her understand that she is mine, I look at her—the way her cheeks get pink in the cold, the fullness of her face and lips that I would give anything to feel right now…
“I’d let you go… but it would kill me. Because I’ve spent six years trying to get over you, and it didn’t work. Because watching you with Beau the other night felt right in a way nothing else ever has. Because when I think about my future, you’re in it. Always.” I take her face in my hands. “I will never stop being sorry for leaving you. For hurting you. For taking away your choice. But I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere. Not unless you tell me to.”
A tear slips down her cheek, and I brush it away with my thumb.
“I don’t know if I can trust this,” she whispers. “Trust you. Trust any of this.”
“Then don’t trust it yet. Just… give me time to prove it. Giveustime.”
She stares at me for a long moment, and I can see the war playing out behind her eyes—the want and the fear, the hope and the hurt.
Beau’s words from earlier remind me that she needs space. I bend down and press a kiss to her lips, and then I let her go.
We finish checking the fence in silence, but it’s a different kind of silence now. Comfortable. Like maybe we’ve turned a corner.
By the time we’re back on Pato and headed toward her car, the sun is starting to dip below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink. Willa’s fully relaxed against menow, her head resting on my shoulder, and I can feel the steady rhythm of her breathing.
When we reach her car, I help her down but don’t let go of her waist. She looks up at me, her eyes searching mine.
“Jake—”
I don’t let her finish.
I kiss her.
It’s not what I planned, but the moment our lips meet, something spirals free inside me. Sparks of need and awareness fizzle between her lips and mine, and when my tongue slides over hers, and I catch the almost-silent whimper, I pour everything I’ve kept locked away into that kiss—six years of longing, regret, and every unspoken thing that’s haunted me since the day I let her walk away.
She gasps softly, and the sound goes straight to my cock. Her scent flares, sweet and warm, rich with that honeyed undertone that’s always undone me. My Alpha instincts rise hard and fast, the urge to wrap her up and keep her pressed close nearly overwhelming.
Her Omega answers in kind—her body softening against mine, pressing into me. Her fingers fist in my jacket, and her scent deepens until it curls around us both, drowning me in need and in her.
The kiss turns deeper, needier, fire and tenderness all tangled together. It’s an apology and a promise, memory and future, all in one breathless collision.
She tilts her head, and my hand finds the back of her neck, right where her scent is strongest. The warm slide of skin under my palm nearly undoes me. I reach up and fist her ponytail, holding her to me. Every instinct screams at me to bite, to mark, to make her mine again, to reach in and feel if she wants me as much as I do her.
The smell of her slick is making me crazy, but I force myself to stay still, to let the moment be what it is.
As we continue to kiss, my hands roam lower, finding the button of her pants. I need to feel her, to feel the slick-soaked heat of her, like she’s water and I’m dying of thirst. I press her back against the car, letting my fingers slip lower, giving her time to tell me to fuck off.
But she doesn’t. Instead, she meets me with a needy whine that makes my knot start to swell.
“Let me feel you, Wildcat,” I murmur against her lips. Her answer is a widening of her legs, giving me better access to her heat.
