"And then you showed up."
Gray finally looks at me. His eyes are wet and the blue is bright and the walls aren't cracked anymore.
They're rubble.
"You walked past my window," he says quietly, "and my body knew."
"Before my brain. Before my discipline. Before any of the architecture I'd spent months building."
His hands shake harder.
"And I panicked."
"You didn't panic," I say. "You were cruel."
"I was cruel."
He takes it immediately.
"I crushed it. I thought if I crushed it hard enough, it would stop. I thought discipline was stronger than biology. I thought I could choose my way out of this the way I chose my way out of the mountain."
Just hold on.
Just hold form.
Just don't let go.
He presses his palms against his eyes. When he drops them, his face is wrecked.
"I thought Frosthaven was the answer. Getting out. Being normal. Having a life that didn't include chains and containment and a bond I didn't ask for."
His voice drops.
"And I was willing to sacrifice you and RJ and everything real to protect a plan that was never about healing."
A breath.
"It was about running."
The room is very quiet. Leo's hand finds mine in the dark. Holds.
"Stone told me," Gray says hoarsely. "After the path. He said denied isn't undone. He said the bond doesn't break — it just turns inward. Becomes pain instead of connection."
He swallows.
"He was right."
"Every day since I said those words to you, the bond has been eating me alive."
He takes a step closer.
Stops.
Waiting. Not assuming he's allowed.
"You deserved a man who fell to his knees the first time he smelled you," he says roughly.
"Instead you got a coward who tried to pretend you didn't exist."
