Matt shifted his weight minutely, an instinctive lean toward Jesse before he caught himself.
And Jesse understood. Matt wasn’t rejecting him or testing him. He was making sure Jesse truly wanted this, that he understood the weight of this moment. He was giving him the time Jesse had never given himself, allowing him to feel this, deep in his bones. Unshakable.
Jesse relaxed, secure in the trust he’d given Matt. And when Matt finally moved, when Jesse felt the soft brush of his muzzle, the warm, loving licks of acceptance, something inside him—something he’d kept locked away his entire life—unclenched.
Then Matt drew back, leaving Jesse alone and cold for an instant. But Matt was simply shifting, and Jesse instantly did the same. Matt looked at him, a tender smile in his eyes that stole Jesse’s breath.
“Jesse,” Matt said, his voice low and rough as he drew Jesse in and held him close, like Jesse was something precious. Somethingwanted.
Jesse buried his face into Matt’s neck, hiding the dampness in his eyes.
“I’ll keep you safe,” Matt promised, soft and low into his ear. And Jesse wondered what had happened to him that that sounded like the best thing imaginable. He didn’tneedthat, yet on some level… Something inside him welcomed it, almost like it was something he’d always wanted. Someone whosawhim.
Matt dropped a kiss against his hair, and Jesse drew back, sliding his arms around Matt’s neck, reaching up to kiss him. Itwas a brief kiss, but into it Jesse put all the things he couldn’t say in words, trying to let Matt know just what that goddamn stubborn,bossyalpha—the one who was patient, who got Jesse in a way no one else did, who gave him whatever he needed—meant to him.
“Keepingmesafe ain’t what you need to worry about right now,” he said as he drew back. It was the closest he could come to saying what he meant, which was,please,God,stay safe and come back to me.
But if he couldn’t say itnow,when could he?
“I trust you,” he said softly, unable to tear his eyes from Matt’s. It wasn’t weakness, to trust someone else. He understood that now. It didn’t threaten him—it expanded his world in a way he’d never expected. Everything was different with two of them in his world, not just Jesse, alone, the way it had always been.
Matt’s face filled with warmth, and something that Jesse thought might be love.
Then a sharp whine drew their attention. Karl was looking toward the woods, every muscle in his body tight and tense. Matt kissed Jesse one last time, deep and tender.
As Matt drew away and shifted, Jesse took an unsteady breath and stepped back onto the porch. Heknewthat if he went out there, he’d distract Matt and maybe inflame Cale. He’d do what Matt wanted and stay here. That was part of trusting Matt. Trusting him to know what was right for Jesse. Not blindly, but—well, trustingly. And that word was getting a hell of a pounding right now.
Tristan was standing in the doorway, hands tucked under his arms, hugging himself tight as he watched his pack—hisfamily—head into the night.
Jesse turned back one last time and found Matt’s gaze locked to his. That warmth, that quiet acceptance. It beat throughJesse—mine.Mate.
And then Matt was gone, gliding across the ground like a ghost into the growing dusk.
Chapter Twenty-eight
MATT
For a few, precious moments, Matt let joy burn savagely through him, filling every part of him until he thought he might burst with it. Finally, he understood what it meant to say his mate completed him. Jesse gave him something he couldn’t name, could onlyfeel, and it was like nothing he’d ever known.
But after that self-indulgence, he locked it down hard. He couldn’t be distracted in this fight.
He could already feel the intruders on his territory. His hackles were raised, and his lip kept rising in a snarl at the wrongness of it. But he had to keep thinking, had to keep his brain working with more than the instincts coursing through him, because if he failed—if Cale won—Matt knew his pack would never submit to someone like Cale. And if they refused to submit, they would be killed alongside him. A shifter like Cale wouldn’t let them go. The only one he’d leave alive would be Jesse, condemned to a life of slavery.
The pack bunched loosely behind him as he headed deep into the woods.
* * *
Matt crested the ridge and drew to a halt. The trespassers were clearly visible, washed in the light from the rising moon. A group of big wolves, maybe thirteen or fourteen of them, were waiting silently in the clearing below. InMatt’sclearing.
He stalked down the incline that led to the piece of his land they were sullying with their presence, stiff-legged and with only one thought in his mind. He would drive them away, send them fleeing with their tails between their legs so they never came back.
As he reached the edge of the glade, the gathered wolves moved, their ranks parting in eerie synchronization, and Cale prowled forward. He was big and black, heavy with muscle but graceful with it, and the sense ofwrongMatt had felt in his office crawled up his spine, sharper than ever. Cale’s yellow eyes burned as they locked onto Matt.
And then, without warning, Cale whirled and struck, sinking his fangs into one of his own pack. The wolf yelped as Cale shook him, with teeth buried deep. When he let go, the wolf dropped to the ground, ears flat, tail tucked in absolute submission.
Cale lifted his head, blood staining his lips. He was grinning.
A low, rolling growl built in Matt’s chest, reverberating through his bones. He wouldn’t be psyched out—not by Cale’s display of dominance, not by the slavish obedience of the wolves behind him. Matt was here for Jesse.
