“You know?”
“I’ve seen you have visions,” he admitted. “While I’ve watched you. I recognized the symptoms from my grandmother.”
“I’m still learning to navigate visions and read them properly, but I’m actively learning. I write down each one after I come back around from it. This new ability gave me the knowledge of the Ifrit. I couldn’t detect it before it came into my house, but I knew what it was.”
“And the visions you’ve had here?”
“The same. I can’t ever see anything specific enough.”
I held my breath, watching him to see how he’d react. I waited for the Mason I knew to laugh, to wave me off, to smirk and say something humiliating.Freak. It's not enough that you take up the entire sidewalk, but you’re a freak with visions now?
My face burned as I shoved that thought down.
You think anyone will believe you? Get out of my face, Bryce.
Still, none of those things that I feared so bad came.
Instead, Mason met my gaze, nothing but sincerity in them. Inch by inch, he shifted closer. For the first time in years, my first instinct wasn’t to back away, to put space between us. Instead, I clenched my fists at my side and realized that, beneath his gaze, my thoughts didn’t stray to how much space I took up on the sofa.
“Don’t push yourself,” he murmured. “And don’t blame yourself for anything you haven’t seen clearly. Clairvoyance is slippery, and if youcanhelp the pack, that’s only ever your choice. I’d never pressure you into being around them more than you have to coincidentally be. I’m trying to make my pack better; for the most part, they are. You don’t have to trust them, but I’d like to think that one day you can trust me again. At the very least, trust Jackson.”
So many secrets, all tangled up within one another, a web that I’m in the center of.
“He’s seen enough, and he’s been as angry as I.”
That comparison shuddered through me, and I nodded. I did not cringe when he came closer, but I let myself breathe, to wait for what would happen when he got close enough. Was it because he was being kinder to me than he ever had been? Was it the fact that I had been dreaming about this version of Mason for as long as I could remember?
My judgment clouded, and I realized how exhausting it was to resist Mason.
How I didn’t want to. At least not in this moment.
God, I had missed him.
His eyes dropped to my mouth, and his hand lifted. This time, he didn’t lower it. He kept reaching for me, and my breath anchored in my throat. Every sense filled with him, the alpha that had fleetingly been mine. The alpha that had fathered my daughter.
“Mason.” My voice was a bare brush of breath, and yet Mason’s eyes closed, as if he had waited to hear me say his name like that for too long. I leaned in, as he did. I couldn’t help but look at his full mouth, those lips that had once uttered the worst things I’ve ever heard—those same lips that had once groaned my name into my ear. So many conflicting emotions went through me, yet I still leaned in, wanting him,needinghim—
“Hello!” June’s voice rang out as the front door opened, flying open. Mason and I sprang apart.
Mason cleared his throat, smiling at June, all innocent. “Hey, June.”
“Hey, yourself.” She smirked, catching my eye as she sauntered in. “Sorry to barge in. Old habits. Jackson hates it when I crash the place, so I tend to do it more.”
“Figures.” Mason looks at me, and I can’t believe I detect a hint of embarrassment at being caught.
Caught almost kissing the fat girl, I tell myself… yet, the words don’t strike as true as they usually do. Yet that age-old worry still nestles in me. He’s confident—who did he think might come in and find us?
“Mason was just leaving,” I said quickly, standing up, but I felt fingers reach out to snag my wrist.
“Actually, I wasn’t.” I turned to find him holding onto me, his eyes intense, not daring to look away from me for a second.
“I’m sure you have better things—”
“I was coming to do some work here,” June interrupted, closing the door behind her. As if she were at home here, she walked into the kitchen, still talking as I heard the clang of a mug. The coffee pot began to whir, reminding me of my own untouched drink on the table. “I can’t really focus at the museum right now, so I figured I’d come here. If you two are headed out, I can watch Cassie. Get acquainted with my goddaughter.”
“Goddaughter?” I laughed.
“Well, we joked about it once, right?” There was that spark of hurt in her face as she smiled at me, but it was a sad sort, and I was hit with more guilt for what I’d kept my best friend out of. She was right. We’d stayed up talking for hours most nights, dreaming of the days when we had a family of our own, cubs to look after, a mate to always protect us and love us no matter what. We’d laughter, once, back when I hadn’trealized just how deep my insecurities would become, that we were too strange to ever fall in love with.
