“You are safe,” I repeat, firmer this time.“That doesn’t mean bad people stop existing.It means they don’t get to win.Not here.Not with you.Not while I’m breathing.”
Tears gather in her eyes again.“I don’t want to live like this forever.”
And there it is.The thing that’s been sitting between us since the second I found her.The truth neither of us has wanted to say aloud.
I stare at her for a long beat.Then I ask the question I’ve been avoiding.“Do you want to leave?”
She goes very still.My heart pounds as I wait.
If she says yes, I’ll do it.I’ll sell the cabin.Take her somewhere far away.Build her another home if that’s what it takes.I’d rather rip my heart out than leave this mountain, but I’ll do it.For her, I’ll do anything.
Vivian chews on her bottom lip, thinking.“If you had asked me that a few days ago,” she says slowly, “I would have said yes in a heartbeat.”
I nod.That tracks.It makes sense, but she’s still thinking, still talking, and hope blooms cautiously in my chest.
“Before I met you… before I met the others… before I saw how strong everyone here is…” She looks down for a moment, then back up at me.“I thought the only way to survive was to keep running.”
I don’t interrupt.
“I still hate that they’re close,” she admits.“I hate that they can reach me.I hate that I was almost taken again.”
My arms tighten around her.
“But…” She breathes in shakily.“I’ve been thinking about the women I met.About what they went through and how they stayed.How they built lives here anyway.How Midnight Haven doesn’t hide from bad things.It protects people from them.”
A strange ache rises in my chest because I know where this is going before she says it.Still, hearing it feels like a gift I don’t deserve.
Vivian puts her hand over my heart.“I don’t want to run anymore, Logan.I love you.I think that this is where we’re meant to be.”
I stare at her.My whole body is so still that it almost hurts.
She smiles, small and shaky but real.“I want to stay.”
The words slam into me.She loves me.She wants to stay.
My bear roars so loudly inside my head that for a second, I can’t hear anything else.Emotion rises fast and hard in my chest.I have to swallow against it.
“Yeah?”I ask, because I need to hear it again.Need to make sure I didn’t imagine it.
Vivian nods.“Yes.I want to make this place my home.”
I look at her.At my beautiful, brave mate sitting in my lap after everything she’s been through and choosing this place anyway.Choosing me.
My throat tightens.I cup her face in both hands.“It already is,” I tell her roughly.“You hear me?It already is.This is your home.I’m your home.And anyone who tries to take that from you again is going to die.”
Vivian’s breath catches.A tiny smile curves her lips even through the leftover tears.“That was almost sweet.”
I huff out something close to a laugh and lean forward until my forehead rests against hers.“I don’t know how to be sweet, but I love you, Vivi.So much.”
“Yes, you do know how to be sweet.”
I shake my head.
She smiles a little wider.“You really do.”
I kiss her then.Slow and careful, a promise instead of a demand.She melts against me, and relief pours through my chest so strongly that it feels like weakness.Like survival.Like worship.
When I pull back, I brush my thumb beneath one of her eyes.“We’ll tighten security.No more walking alone.Not until this is over.”
