“I didn’tknowyou.”
“And now you do?”
Karl nodded. “Enough to know when you’re deflecting.”
“Rude,” Leon said, but his usual bite was missing. He let out a small sigh. “Maybe not completely wrong, though. You know, I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Luna properly. She ran out to the car before they drove me away and shoved this into my hand.”
He drew the ring slowly from Karl’s hand and held up the chain, letting the ring dangle so he could look at it. Small and plain, just polished silver, worn smooth with years. He swallowed, and when he spoke again, his voice was strained. “I guess she understood more than me what was really happening, that it wasn’t just a vacation. She said it was so I’d remember she still loved me. That I was loved.”
Karl looked at it, then at him. “Do you still need that reminder?”
Leon’s lips parted like he meant to deflect again. Some sharp-edged tease, some mocking evasion. But it didn’t come.
His voice was quiet. “Some days.”
Karl leaned in and kissed him. Not with heat or hunger this time, but a softness that was filled with his feelings for this contrary cat. A soft press of lips that saidlove.
LEON
Karl’s kiss lingered, soft, unhurried. Like Leon was something precious. He wasn’t used to that. Stillness after sex wasn’t his style. Usually, he was out of the bed and pulling on his pants before the sweat had even cooled. He loved the game, the chase, but once the thrill was over, he moved on.
But lying here with Karl like they had nowhere else to be? It was like some animal part of him had finally stopped pacing. His cat was still and heavy with satisfaction, deep inside, and his bones didn’t want to move.
He studied the strong line of Karl’s jaw, the quiet patience in his eyes. And he said, without really planning to, “You meant it. About leaving here.”
Karl didn’t blink. “Yeah. I don’t say shit I don’t mean.”
“I know. That’s the problem.”
Karl raised an eyebrow, but Leon didn’t give him the chance to ask. Rolling onto his side to face him fully, he said, “Cats don’t reallydothe whole mate thing, not like wolves. For us, it’s not destiny, it’s more of an option. A pull you can follow or ignore. And I was happy with that. But then my cat saw you and saidmine.And suddenly all that opt-out stuff felt like bullshit.”
Karl’s eyes didn’t leave his face.
“I’ve never trusted fate,” Leon admitted. “I trustyou.And that’s a lot scarier.”
He waited for the pushback, but Karl just kept watching him, quiet and accepting.
Leon breathed out slowly, his gaze drifting to the ceiling. “I used to go to clubs just to feel wanted. To be the one in control. I’d prowl around, choose someone who couldn’t take their eyes offme, and either make them beg or let them think they were winning. Sometimes both. It was a game.”
He paused for a long time. He’d never been this open, not even with Luna. Maybe especially not with Luna—he couldn’t risk her rejection. But if this was going to work with Karl, he was going to have to learn to let him in, to allow him to see the bits of himself Leon kept hidden. And Leon was self-aware enough to know what he did and why he did it, why it was beyond a cat’s need for sensation, for luxury to dress the attention-grabbing way he did.
“It was a way to feel something good without letting anyone know me,” he confessed at last. “Tonight, with you… I didn’t hide myself. That’s not justnew, Karl. That’s fucking terrifying.”
Karl brought their joined hands to his mouth and kissed Leon’s knuckles. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know,” Leon said. “And that’s what makes it worse.”
Karl’s brow furrowed.
“Because now I have something to lose.”
Silence settled around them again.
After a moment, Karl shifted a little closer. “I can’t promise you nothing bad will ever happen. But I can promise I’ll be beside you if it does.”
Leon felt those words in his soul. He swallowed, then said softly, “If we’re doing this, being mates, then we do it our way. Not just the wolf way.”
Karl’s lips quirked, slow and warm. “You mean I don’t get to piss on you to mark my claim?”
