"What happens now?" I asked.
"That's up to you." He held my gaze. "All of it. I won't make decisions for you anymore. I won't hold back information or try to control the timeline. Whatever you want to know, whatever you want to do—I'll support it."
"Even if it means completing the bond? Triggering the change?"
His breath caught. "Even then."
"Even if it means everything you've been trying to prevent?"
"Yes." The word came out rough. "I'd rather face it with you than keep hurting you by staying away."
I studied him. This complicated, infuriating man who had tried to love me by keeping me in the dark. Who had made mistakes because he'd seen what happened to people like me and didn't want to watch it happen again.
I was still angry.
But I understood now where the fear came from. It didn't excuse what he'd done, but it explained it.
"You should have told me," I said quietly.
"I know." His voice was barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry. I was trying to protect you."
"I didn't ask for protection."
The words landed hard. I saw them hit—saw the flinch, the way his whole body absorbed the impact.
"No," he agreed. "You didn't. And you deserved better than what I gave you."
I turned toward the door. Stopped with my hand on the frame.
"I'm not forgiving you yet."
"I understand."
"But I'm not walking away either." I looked back at him over my shoulder. "Whatever's coming—the heat, the change, all of it—I need to face it with everyone. Including you."
Something flickered in his eyes. Relief, maybe. Or the first fragile edge of hope.
"I'll be here," he said. "Whenever you're ready."
I left without another word.
The hallway was dark. Quiet. My footsteps echoed against the floor as I walked away from him and everything he'd finally confessed.
I had more answers now. Not all of them—maybe not even most of them. But enough to understand what I was walking into.
Omega.
A classification erased from history. A type of wolf the council had tried to exterminate. A power that couldn't be controlled, so it had been destroyed instead.
Chapter fourteen
Itried to sleep.
I paced my room until Ivy threatened to tie me to the bed, then I paced the hallway instead. My mind wouldn't stop spinning—Cole's confession, his mother, the heat, the eyes that changed, the decades of hiding. All the pieces that everyone had kept from me, thinking they knew better.
By morning, the anger had settled into something cold and hard.
I found James in the dining hall. He was alone at a corner table, pushing eggs around his plate, and his head came up the moment I walked through the door. The bond between us flared—he felt my fury before I said a word.
