"I wanted to come back," I whispered, the words barely audible, scraping past the tightness in my throat. "Before I even reached the road. The bond was screaming at me, and my body knew, and I... I wanted to come home. I wanted you. All of you."
Silence. Heavy, suffocating, pressing down on me from all sides.
"But you still ran," Ethan said quietly, his voice like ice, like the cold I could still feel in my bones. "You still left us. You still almost killed yourself — and not just from the cold. The bond sickness was killing you, Ava. Your own body was destroying itself because you left us."
"I know," I said, and the tears were coming faster now, sobs building in my chest. "I know. I understand now. I didn't before, but I do now."
"Do you?" Mason shifted behind me, turning me in his arms until I was facing him, until I could see the fury and the fear and the devastation written across his features. His dark eyes bore into mine, searching for something, truth, maybe, or sincerity. "Do you really understand, Ava? Because I need you to hear this, and I need you to believe it."
He cupped my face in his hands, his grip firm but not painful, his thumbs brushing away my tears with a gentleness that contradicted the hardness in his voice.
"Leaving us isn't just a choice," he said, each word deliberate, weighted, falling between us like stones. "It's a death sentence. The bond won't let you go. Your body won't survive without us. You are tied to us, Ava, biologically, chemically, permanently.And if you run again, you will die. Do you understand that? Do you truly, viscerally understand that leaving us means dying?"
I stared at him, at the raw terror lurking beneath his controlled exterior, at the love that burned in his eyes even through the anger. I thought about the snow, the cold, the feeling of my heart stuttering in my chest. I thought about the bond screaming, clawing, begging me to go back.
"Yes," I whispered, and I meant it with every fiber of my being, with every cell in my body that had learned the truth the hard way. "Yes, I understand. I can't survive without you. I don't want to survive without you."
Something flickered in Mason's expression, relief, maybe, or hope, but it was quickly swallowed by the hardness that had settled over his features.
"There will be consequences," he said, his voice flat, brooking no argument. "For what you did. For running. For scaring us. For almost dying."
"I know," I said, and I didn't flinch, didn't look away, didn't try to argue or bargain or beg. "Whatever you need. Whatever the punishment. I'll take it."
"You'll take it because you deserve it," Mason said, and there was no cruelty in his voice, just truth, just fact. "You endangered yourself. You hurt your pack. You need to understand that actions have consequences."
"I understand," I whispered, and I did. I did.
"But first—" His voice cracked, finally, the Alpha facade crumbling to reveal the man beneath, the man who had almost lost his Omega, who had watched her slip away through the bond and been helpless to stop it. His hands trembled against my face, his eyes going wet with tears he was too proud to let fall. "First, let me hold you. The bond needs it. I need it. Please, Ava. Just... let me hold you."
I nodded, unable to speak past the lump in my throat, and he gathered me against his chest, crushing me to him with a desperation that stole my breath. The others pressed close immediately, instinctively, drawn by the same need that was pulsing through the bond. Caleb at my back, his face buried in my hair, his arms wrapped around my waist. Leo pressed against my side, his hand finding mine and holding on like he'd never let go. Ethan at the edge of the pile, one hand on my ankle, his touch light but present, maintaining the contact he needed.
The bond sang with relief, with satisfaction, with the deep, primal contentment of a pack reunited. All four Alphas touching me. All four Alphas safe, close, and mine.
This is what my body needs, I realized. What my bond needs. I can't survive without them. That should terrify me. It did terrify me, once. But now, lying in the nest surrounded by their warmth and their scent and their love, it just felt like,truth. Like finally accepting gravity. Like coming home.
"I'm sorry," I whispered into Mason's chest, the words muffled against his shirt, broken and inadequate but all I had to offer. "I'm so sorry I scared you. I'm sorry I ran. I'm sorry I almost?—"
"Shh." His hand came up to cup the back of my head, holding me against him. "We know. We know you're sorry. And we'll deal with it. Together. But right now, just... be here. Be with us. Let the bond settle."
I nodded against his chest, breathing in his scent — cedar and smoke and something that was just Mason, and let myself sink into the pile of bodies surrounding me.
They were furious and terrified, hurt….but they loved me. Even now, even after what I'd done, they loved me.
I loved them. That was the truth I'd found in the snow, the truth I'd almost died for. I loved them, and I wanted to be here, and I was never running again.
"Whatever you need," I said again, my voice steadier now, more certain. "Whatever the punishment. I'll take it. I'm not running anymore. I can't run anymore."
"You're right," Mason growled against my hair, his arms tightening around me possessively. "You can't. And you won't. You're ours, Ava. You've always been ours. And now you finally understand what that means."
I did. I finally, truly did. The bond purred in my chest, content for the first time since I'd run. And somewhere beneath the fear and the guilt and the anticipation of what was to come, I felt something else.
Peace. Not because I was trapped. Not because I had no choice. But because I'd made my choice, in the snow, in the cold, in the moment when I'd realized that dying free meant nothing if it meant dying without them.
I chose this. I chose them. And whatever came next, whatever punishment they deemed necessary, I would face it. Because I was theirs. And they were mine.
I was finally, irrevocably, home.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
