My wolf nudges me toward her.
Go.
I walk across the clearing, feet unsteady. Violet turns her head as I approach, sensing me in that uncanny way she does.
“Hey,” she says, giving me that warm, soft smile of hers.
I swallow hard. “Can we talk?”
She nods and takes my hand. We walk away from the fire and the noise, into the quiet, tree-shadowed edge of the campground. The air is cooler here, the earth damp, the woods breathing softly around us.
We stop near a stump.
I face her, and everything inside me spills over. “I’m sorry. For all of it. For lying. For pretending. For putting you in danger. For letting you think?—”
“Jason.” She touches my cheek, her thumb brushing the line of stubble. “I’m not helpless.”
“I know,” I whisper.
“No,” she says firmly. “Listen to me. I am blind. Not breakable. Not fragile. And definitely not someone you need to die for. But you were willing to.”
“I didn’t see another way.”
“There’s always another way,” she whispers. “You just didn’t trust me enough to find it together. The worst is, I always believed you didn’t see me as fragile.”
The truth slams into me.
She continues, “If this is going to work—if we are going to work—there can’t be secrets anymore.”
“There won’t be,” I say immediately. “I swear. No more lies. No more pretending.”
“There also needs to be equality,” she adds gently. “You protect me when I need it. I protect you when you need it. Nobody gets to do all the saving.”
I smile, pained and awed. “You saved me better than I’ve ever saved anyone.”
She huffs a soft laugh. “Oh. So, in the spirit of transparency, I need to tell you something.”
“Yes?”
“My settlement was way more than I let on to the alphas.”
I blink. “Okay?”
She leans in close to my ear and barely whispers. “It was fourteen million.”
My jaw drops. “Four?—”
Her finger seals my lips together. Fuck, yeah. Not a good idea to talk about that much money in front of wolves with super hearing. “Yes,” she confirms. “And no, I didn’t scam anyone. It was an airtight NDA and a corporate panic attack.”
I whisper. “You’re… rich-rich.”
She laughs. “I’m not irresponsible with it. But yes. I could’ve bought your freedom a few times over.”
I feel a little dizzy.
She takes my hands. “So, now the question is… is there room in my life for you?”
My throat closes.
