"What happens now?" I ask. "With the registry?"
Chase leans forward slightly. "As far as the registry knows, you'll be under my guardianship temporarily. They were eager to accept my request for temporary guardianship now that the heat is on them. How utterly fitting." His spits out the last words, then his voice goes soft. "But you don't have to go anywhere, Vee. Not right now. This house, Alex's pack—nothing changes unlessyou want it to." He glances at Alex, then back to me. "And with Ragon's situation resolved, I can put all my resources toward getting Alex's flag removed."
I nod, feeling my muscles relax. I haven't committed to anything permanent, but the door might be open soon. For now, that's a relief.
"Jasper and Eli are on their way," Chase says after a moment.
The room shifts.
Malcolm's jaw locks. Rhys freezes in his armchair, a predator's stillness.
I feel it before I see it—the tension climbing in the room, both of them orienting toward the door like something is incoming that needs to be managed.
"Hey." I say it to both of them. "They're not here to hurt me."
Malcolm looks at me. "You don't know that."
"I do know that. They testified against Ragon. They've been helping Chase for weeks. They drove here to talk to me." I keep my voice even. "I want to see them. I want closure. And I need you both to let me have it."
Rhys hasn't moved but the quality of his stillness has changed—that listening quality, the one where he's taking something in before he decides.
"Finn," Alex says from behind me.
Finn stands. He crosses to Rhys and puts a hand on his arm. "Come on," he says. "Upstairs."
Rhys looks at me.
"I'll be fine," I say. "I'll come find you after."
His face shifts. The war between his instinct and his trust in me, playing out in real time.
Trust wins.
He stands, and Finn leads him toward the stairs with the practiced ease of someone who has done this before—redirectingRhys when his instincts are pulling him somewhere they shouldn't go. Alex gives Rhys a look as he passes that means something between the two of them, a pack lead thing, a we've got it handled thing.
Rhys disappears up the stairs.
A little while later a car pulls up outside.
I meet Jasper on the porch. Eli nods as he goes inside, giving us space.
Malcolm is watching through the window, which I clocked immediately and chose to let go. He needs to see I'm okay. I can give him that much.
Jasper looks exactly how I expected—like a man who has been carrying a weight for a long time and hasn't yet figured out how to set it down. His hands are in his pockets and he looks at me with an expression that's complicated and raw and careful all at once.
"Hey," he says.
"Hey."
We stand on the porch.
"I don't know where to start," he says.
"Start wherever it's hardest," I say. "That's usually the right place."
He exhales. Looks at the middle distance.
"I'm sorry," he says. "For all of it. For not doing more. For watching you get smaller and quieter and sadder and telling myself the long game was worth it." He pauses. "It was worth it for Chase's case. But it wasn't worth it for you. Those aren't the same thing and I kept acting like they were."
