"They were wrong." Her voice was fierce, protective. "You know that, right?"
"I know it now." I smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Took me a long time to believe it, though. After my grandmother died — she was the only one who ever made me feel like I wasn't too much — I kind of... shut down. Presented as Alpha at sixteen, thought maybe that would finally make me enough for them. But I was the wrong kind of Alpha. Too soft. Too emotional."
"The right kind of Alpha." She corrected firmly, her fingers intertwining with mine where they rested on her shoulder. "For me."
Something warm bloomed in my chest at her words, settling into the cracks that had been there for years.
"I left at eighteen." I continued, my voice steadier now. "Drifted for years. Pack after pack turned me away — said I wasn't serious enough, wasn't Alpha enough. And then I found Longhorn, and Reid looked at me and said I needed a meal and a purpose, and he could provide both."
"Best decision he ever made." She tilted her head back to look at me, her eyes soft and warm. "You're the heart of this pack, Kol. Don't you see that? Reid is the leader, Nolan is the healer, Sawyer is the protector. But you — you're what makes it a home."
I couldn't speak around the lump in my throat, so I just kissed her forehead, breathing her in, letting her words sink into all the broken places inside me. We sat in comfortable silence for a while, the swing creaking gently beneath us, the breeze carrying the scent of grass and horses and home. My fingersfinished the second braid and started on a third, and I let myself just exist in this moment — peaceful, content, complete.
The rumble of an engine shattered the calm.
I was on my feet before I consciously decided to move, my body positioning itself between Aster and the road, my eyes scanning for the source of the sound. A truck appeared on the distant road — dark, unfamiliar, moving slowly — and every instinct I had screamed danger.
"Kol?" Aster's voice was calm, but I could hear the undercurrent of tension, could smell the spike of fear in her scent.
"Stay behind me." My voice came out different — lower, rougher, stripped of its usual lightness. "Don't move."
The truck slowed as it passed the ranch entrance, and I could see the driver's head turn, looking toward the house. Looking toward us. My hands curled into fists at my sides, my body coiled and ready, a growl building in my chest that I didn't try to suppress.
If they turned in. If they came toward her. If they so much as looked at her wrong. I would kill them. The realization hit me like a lightning bolt, absolute and undeniable. I would kill for her. Not in some abstract, theoretical way. Right here, right now, with my bare hands if I had to. The violence lurking beneath my sunshine exterior wasn't a facade I'd been maintaining — it was a part of me I'd never had a reason to access before.
Until her.
The truck kept moving, disappearing down the road, and I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. But my body didn't relax. My hands didn't unclench.
"Kol." Aster's hand touched my back, her voice gentle. "It's okay. They're gone."
"It's not okay." I turned to face her, and I saw her eyes widen at whatever she saw in my expression. "Nothing about this isokay. Someone is threatening you. Threatening our pack. And I have spent my entire life being the harmless one, the easy one, the one no one takes seriously. But I swear to you, Aster — I am done being underestimated."
She didn't flinch away from the darkness in my voice. If anything, she moved closer, her hand coming up to cup my cheek, her eyes meeting mine steadily.
"I know." Her voice was soft, certain. "I've always known."
"I would kill for you." The words came out raw, honest, stripped of any attempt to soften them. "I need you to understand that. I'm not just sunshine. I can be storm too. And anyone who tries to hurt you is going to find out exactly how destructive a storm can be."
She smiled then — not a pitying smile or a placating smile, but something fierce and proud and loving all at once.
"There he is." She rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to my jaw, her lips soft against my skin. "There's my Alpha."
My Alpha.
The words settled into my chest and took root, warm and permanent. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close, burying my face in her hair, breathing in her scent until it filled my lungs, until it drowned out everything else.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you." The promise came out rough, absolute, vibrating through my chest. "Whatever comes, whatever Easton tries — I will protect you. Even if it costs me everything."
"I know." She held me just as tight, her heartbeat steady against my chest. "But you don't have to do it alone. We protect each other. That's what pack means."
We stood there for a long time, wrapped around each other, the morning sun warm on our skin. And when we finally pulled apart, I felt different. Settled. Sure. I wasn't the extra Alpha. Iwas hers. And she was mine. And anyone who threatened that was going to learn exactly what I was capable of.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
REID
The fence posts had been ripped out of the ground like they were nothing. I stood at the edge of the north pasture, surveying the damage with a cold fury that burned in my chest like acid. Twenty posts. Nearly a quarter mile of fencing. All destroyed overnight while we slept, while I slept, while I failed to protect what was mine.
