"My mistake?"Ali."Tim, this is the chance I've been working toward my entire career.A platform to actually help supernatural communities instead of just taking pictures."
"By throwing me under the bus."
"It's symbolic charges.Community service and a fine."
"Ali, you don't understand how the system works.They'll use me as a scapegoat, make me the face of everything that's wrong with 'unregulated supernatural activity.'Once they have me, they'll find reasons to keep me."
"So what's your solution?Hide for another twenty years?Keep delivering medical supplies in secret while communities suffer?"
"If that's what it takes to keep you safe."
"What if I don't want to be safe?"Ali's voice cracked with frustration."What if I want to fight?"
"You want to fight?Fine.But not like this.Not by putting yourself in the middle of a federal investigation where you'll be torn apart by lawyers and politicians who'll use your testimony to advance their own careers."
Ali stared at him, seeing not her mate but another man trying to control her life for her own good."You don't get to decide that for me."
"I'm not deciding anything.I'm trying to make you see reason."
"Reason?"Ali laughed, but there was no humor in it."Tim, three days ago you were ready to risk everything to deliver medical supplies.Now you want me to walk away from a chance to fix the system that creates these problems in the first place."
"Because I love you."The words came out rough, desperate."Because watching you get destroyed by federal prosecutors and media scrutiny would kill me."
"And watching you sacrifice yourself to protect me is supposed to make me feel better?"
Tim’s hands gripped the steering wheel like it was the only thing keeping him anchored.When he finally spoke, his voice was so low she almost missed it.
"Maybe you should take the deal."
Ali's magic sputtered and died."What?"
"The book deal.The platform.The chance to make real change."Tim still wasn't looking at her."You could do more good in a year with national media attention than this convoy will accomplish in a decade."
"Without you."
"Without me."
The words hung between them like a death sentence.The mate bond sent jagged bolts of pain through her entire body.
"Is that what you want?"she asked.
"What I want doesn't matter.What matters is that you deserve better than hiding in a truck with a cryptid who can't even show his face without causing an international incident."
"Don't."Ali's voice shook with fury."Don't you dare tell me what I deserve.I spent my entire childhood being told what I deserved by men who thought they knew better than I did."
"This is different."
"How?How is this different from Cottonmouth deciding I wasn't strong enough to handle the truth about supernatural communities?How is this different from Derek deciding I was too weird to meet his business partners?"Ali's magic was building again, but this time it felt dangerous, unstable."You're doing the exact same thing they did.Making decisions about my life without consulting me."
"Because I'm trying to save you from a mistake that could destroy everything you've worked for."
"No, you're trying to save yourself from having to watch me choose something other than you."
The accusation hung between them like a living thing.Tim finally looked at her, and the pain in his eyes made her want to take the words back.But she couldn't.Because they were true.
"Maybe that's the same thing."
The CB radio crackled with urgent chatter, but Ali barely heard it over the sound of her heart breaking.Through their mate bond, she could feel Tim's anguish, his desperate love, his absolute certainty that he was doing the right thing.But she could also feel his fear—not of federal prosecutors or media scrutiny, but of her.Of the choice she might make if given the freedom to make it.
