“Please,” he said quietly, and I knew he wasn’t just talking about the story.
He settled on the floor between their beds with the worn book, his deep voice bringing wolves and magic to life. He read with different voices for each character, making the big bad wolf sound suspiciously like Cole and the clever fox sound like Hunt. The twins were transfixed, Rowan’s eyes fighting to stay open while Thea had already lost the battle.
Both were asleep before he was halfway through, but he kept reading anyway, as if stopping would end this precious moment. The way he watched them sleep, memorizing every detail of their faces, made my chest ache with complicated emotions.
“They’re perfect,” he whispered, carefully tucking Rowan’s blanket higher. “How did you do this alone? They’re so smart, so kind, so brave. You’re an incredible mother, Lina.”
“I had help,” I admitted quietly. “Friends, found family. But yeah, it was hard sometimes. Keeping their nature secret, finding ways to let them be themselves without exposing their oddities.”
He looked up at me from his spot on the floor, his eyes bright with unshed tears. “Thank you for letting me have this moment with them.”
The vulnerability in his voice, the raw gratitude for something that should have been his right all along, nearly broke through my defenses entirely. I wanted to rage at him for missing so much, to comfort him for his losses, to kiss him until neither of us could think straight.
Instead, I turned toward the door. “Come on. The others are probably wondering where we went.”
But as we headed back downstairs, I let my hand brush his. Just for a second. Just enough to let him know that maybe, possibly, I was starting to understand.
Even if I wasn’t ready to forgive.
28
— • —
Knox
I pulled up to Pine Valley’s main street, my palms sweating against the steering wheel. After days of negotiation, I’d finally convinced Lina to let me bring her home for the day. She needed to check on the shop, gather more clothes for her and the twins, and reassure her friends who’d been bombarding her phone with increasingly frantic messages.
Noah and Hunt had the twins for the day, which meant I had Lina all to myself. Well, myself and whatever protective army she’d assembled in Pine Valley over the years.
“Ready?” I asked, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
She smoothed her dress, a simple blue thing that made her look effortlessly beautiful. “They’re going to freak out seeing you.”
That was an understatement.
The moment we entered the coffee shop, Mika dropped an entire tray of mugs. The crash echoed through the space, followed by dead silence as every customer turned to stare. Vivi’s mouth fell open behind the counter, her hand frozen mid-pour over a latte that was now overflowing.
“Lina!” Sarah materialized from the back room with the speed of an avenging angel. “Young lady, you have some explaining to do!”
Her sharp eyes landed on me, and I watched recognition dawn across her face. The grandmother who’d raised Lina after her parents’ death, who’d been there for every milestone I’d missed.
“You,” she said, her voice dropping to dangerous levels. “You’re that man from five years ago. Matthias.”
“Knox,” I corrected quietly, meeting her gaze steadily. “My real name is Knox.”
“Where have you been?” Sarah demanded, stepping closer. “Eight days, Lina. Eight days of cryptic texts and no real answers.”
“What’s this emergency?” Mika added, abandoning the broken mugs. “Are the kids okay?”
“Why is HE here?” Vivi pointed at me with a whisk. “And don’t say it’s complicated. We want actual answers.”
“The children are fine,” Lina said, raising her hands peacefully. “They’re with... family. Knox’s brother.”
“Since when does mystery man have a brother?” Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“So Tyler’s mom WAS right,” Mika stage-whispered to Vivi, apparently forgetting werewolf hearing. “She did run off with a man!”
“It wasn’t like that,” Lina protested, but she was fighting a smile that made my heart race. The fact that she could smile about this, about us, even a little bit, felt like winning the lottery.
