His wolf stirred again, nudging at the place where all his certainty used to be.Mine, it said. And Karl had no argument left.
Mate. The word still felt impossible. Wrong, like it belonged to someone else’s life. Someone softer, someone free.
But it was Leon. It had always been Leon. From the moment Karl had first seen him—annoying even from a distance, all cheekbones and tight jeans andawareness—he’d known there was something there.
Didn’t matter how long he’d fought, it had still come to this in the end. Of course it had. Leon was his mate.
He didn’t have to be alone anymore.
Chapter Twenty-seven
KARL
The silence had grown slowly oppressive as he waited for Leon to return. Time passed, marked only by his heartbeat, and yet Leon hadn’t come back. He was still out there in the dark, nursing a hurt Karl had inflicted with hasty, angry words.
He hadn’t meant to cut that deep—he’d just needed to push Leon away. But Leon hadn’t fought back, and that was what kept twisting inside Karl, the way he’d simply stood there, taking Karl’s rejection as if it was what he’d expected. As if it was what hedeserved.
Karl needed to put it right, but Leon still hadn’t come back.
“Fine,” Karl muttered eventually. “Subtlety’s overrated.”
Careful of his ribs, he reached for the enamel mug sitting on the crate beside the bed. He threw it at the door, and was bleakly amused to see he was too weak for his throw to reach even that far. Still, it clattered to the floor with a sharp, metallic sound.
He waited, heart thudding faster than it had any right to, and within seconds, the door was pushed open. Leon stood framed in the doorway.
“Everything okay?” he asked, eyes sharp and searching for trouble.
Karl swallowed hard. He knew they had to talk, but he had no idea what to say. “You planning to lurk there all night, or are you coming in?”
Leon closed the door behind himself and crossed the room slowly, as if expecting this to be a trap. His expression was tight and guarded, the way Karl hadn’t seen in days.
It felt wrong. This wasn’t Leon. At least, not the Leon he’d come to know, the person Leon had trusted him with. His gut hurt with guilt and sorrow.
“Leon—” he said, then paused, not knowing what to say.
Leon still wasn’t looking at him.
The words came now, rough but steady. “I shouldn’t have said what I did, not like that.”
Leon’s eyes flicked to his, betraying his surprise.
“I thought you were fucking with me, that it was like last time and it wasn’t true,” Karl said, holding his gaze. “But you weren’t.”
Leon said nothing.
Karl wet his lips. “I just wanted you to know, that I know now. God only knows how it’s possible, but we’re mates.”
It was strange, saying the words out loud. They seemed almost to holdpower,as if some age-old truth had simply been waiting to be recognized all these years.
He paused an instant, before adding, “And I’m sorry for how I reacted.”
Leon’s eyes were on his, something terribly fragile in them. Karl’s breath caught, because he had the inescapable feeling thatif he got this wrong, said just a word out of place, it would shatter Leon.
LEON
He swallowed, and it hurt. He wasn’t sure if it was the truth he could see in Karl’s face or the fact he’dapologizedthat made his throat ache more. Because no one apologized to Leon. Not over things that mattered. But Karl had, and now Leon wanted to cry with how it felt.
But he had something bigger to figure out first—Karl knew they were mates, but what did that mean for them, if anything at all?He had no idea what Karl wanted, but sitting out in the freezing cold, miserably hunched in a tree, it had been clear beyond doubt whathewanted. He wanted Karl, for the rest of his life. He just didn’t think it would happen. But now…
