Her voice cuts through everything.
She doesn't say anything else. Just my name. But her hand touches my arm—small, warm and steady—and her scent floods my senses. The smell of home. The beast stops and listens.
Her fingers slide up to my shoulder. She steps closer, pressing herself against my side, and the contact grounds me in a way words never could.
I look down at Peter—this pathetic creature, this man who beat his wife and bought his way out of consequences for years—and I see exactly what he is. Small. Weak. A man who can only feel powerful when he's hurting someone weaker than himself. A man who mistakes cruelty for strength and control for love.
I am nothing like him.
I release his throat and he crumples to the ground, gasping and coughing. Snot runs down his face. He's sobbing now—ugly, wet sounds that make my lip curl.
Sheriff Gardner's cruiser pulls up the drive, lights flashing. Finn made the call. The sheriff climbs out with two deputies flanking him, and I watch Peter's face cycle through relief, then confusion, then fear again when he realizes the cops aren't here to save him.
"Normally," I say, loud enough for Peter to hear, "we'd handle this ourselves. More hands-on." I crack my knuckles. "But for Sarah's sake, we'll let the law deal with you."
I crouch down until I'm eye level with the sobbing mess on the ground. "But hear me, Peter. If you ever show your face in Nightfall Cove again—if you come anywhere near her—the cops won't find you. We'll drop you in the monster lands and let you fend for yourself." I bare my tusks. "You wouldn't last a day."
Gardner looks down at Peter with undisguised contempt. "Peter Mitchell. Assault. Brandishing a weapon. Trespassing onprivate property. Violation of a restraining order." He nods to his deputies. "Cuff him."
Peter screams as they haul him to his feet. Threats and promises, money and lawyers, the same words that have always protected him.
"His family will have him out by morning," Sarah says quietly beside me.
"Probably." I watch the deputies shove him into the back of the cruiser. "But now there's a record. Paper trail his daddy's lawyers can't make disappear. And he knows what happens if he comes back."
The cruiser pulls away. Peter's face presses against the back window, pale and tear-streaked, until the car disappears around the bend.
"It's over, little human." I pull her against my chest, tucking her head under my chin and breathing her in.
My quarters feel smaller with all this violence still running through my veins.
Sarah locks the door behind us. The click echoes in the silence. I stand in the middle of the room with my hands shaking, the adrenaline finally crashing through me now that the threat is gone and my mate—that's what she is to me—stands safe behind a locked door.
I almost killed him.
I would have killed him, gladly, without hesitation. Torn him apart and fed what remained to the forest. The realization doesn't horrify me the way it should. The feral beast coils in my chest, satisfied but still hungry, and I press my palms against my thighs to stop them from trembling.
"Knox." Sarah's voice, soft behind me. "Look at me."
I turn.
She stands a few feet away, her eyes searching my face. The fear I scented earlier is gone completely. In its place: trust. Warmth.Something deeper that makes my breath catch.
"I almost killed him," I say.
"But you didn't."
"I wanted to." The admission scrapes out of me raw and bleeding. "I wanted to tear him apart piece by piece. Watch him bleed. Listen to him beg the way he made you beg."
She doesn't flinch. Doesn't step back. Just closes the distance between us and puts her hands on my face, her palms cool against my overheated skin.
"I know." Her thumbs stroke along my cheekbones. "I know you did. And I love you for stopping."
The words hit me like a physical blow. My lungs seize. My hands find her waist without my permission, fingers digging into the curve of her hips as I pull her closer.
"Say that again."
"I love you." She rises on her toes, pressing her forehead to mine. "I love you, Knox Stone. All of you. The president. The prince. The beast."
