Mama thinks she’s protecting me.
Maybe she is.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
And now, sitting here with Megan beside her, smiling, listening—my heart is in my goddamn throat.
I stare at her, waiting for it.The shift in her expression.The retreat.The “wow, this was fun but I need to rethink everything.”
Because if she says it—if she looks me in the eye and tells me she can’t do this—I don’t think I’ll recover.
I don’t think I’ll survive losing her.
I always figured I was too stubborn to break.
Too mean, too scarred, too stupidly loyal to crack under anything as soft as love.
But damn, turns out love isn’t soft at all.
It’s a fucking freight train.
Somewhere between the first night I touched her—that kiss that shook me to my bones, the first slide into her tight heat—and every moment since.
Walking the town side-by-side.Her hand brushing mine like it was an accident—it wasn’t.
The way she studies my town like she’s already fighting for it.The scent of her skin warming my sheets.Her voice in the darkness, hushed and sleepy, telling me she trusts me.
Somewhere in all of that?
Yeah.I didn’t just claim her.
Ifell.
Hard.
Helpless.
Headfirst into love.
Love so big it makes everything before her feel like a half-life I was forced to endure.
And now?I’m terrified.
Because my mother—I love her, but she has a way of ripping the wings off of hope before it learns to fly.She’s chased off every woman I ever tried to care about.
Truth is, they all ran because they couldsmellwhat lived under my skin.
The Wolf that isn’t some cuddly pack pet.
The Wolf with a curse in his blood and madness in his bones.
If Megan heard the wrong thing—heard it too soon—if she decides this is all too much, too chaotic, too dangerous, toome.If this is the part where she walks away, then I’m not just losing a lover.
I’m losing my mate.
The piece of my soul the universe carved out of my ribs and handed to me with a warning I was too blind to read until now.
And if she leaves—I won’t just be heartbroken.
