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"Something very much just happened. I'm choosing not to run anyway." I press my hand carefully against his wound, applying pressure the way he taught me weeks ago. "Talk to me. All of it, right now, before I let myself think too hard about how insane this all sounds."

"Wolf shifters," he says. "We've existed alongside humans for generations, hidden, protected by exactly the kind of secrecy that just got tested tonight. I'm not the only one. There's a whole community, a pack, living quietly in these mountains for longer than this country's had a name." He winces as I finish tying off the wound with a strip torn from my own shirt. "My parents died protecting that secret. I've spent my whole life since then making sure nobody else's family pays that same price."

"That's what you couldn't tell me."

"That's what I was terrified to tell you. Because once you know, you're part of it too. The danger doesn't stay separate anymore. I should have told you before. I was a coward instead."

"You were protecting people you love. That's not cowardice." I help him to his feet, steadying him when he sways slightly from blood loss. "I'm not running, Kellan. Whatever this means, whatever danger comes with it, I already told you I'm not walking away. That hasn't changed just because I know the whole truth now."

"We need to get back," he says finally. "Get this wound cleaned properly, warn the pack about what just happened out here."

"Okay." I loop his good arm over my shoulders, taking as much of his weight as I can manage. "Lead the way. I've got you."

We make our way back down the mountain slowly, the forest around us gone quiet and still in the aftermath, and somewhere in that long, careful walk I understand that whatever life I thought I was building on this mountain has just changed permanently. I don't know everything about the world Kellan just opened up to me. I don't know what's coming next, or how dangerous the men who attacked us tonight actually are.

But I know I choose this. I choose him, wolf and man both, without a single moment of doubt.

14

KELLAN

The den sits deeper into pack territory than I've ever taken an outsider, a cluster of homes built into the hillside so carefully that anyone without the right eyes would walk past without noticing them at all.

She doesn't hesitate, not once, despite everything she witnessed a few hours ago. If anything, the closer we get, the more her grip tightens with something that reads more like anticipation than fear.

Rebecca finds us first, stepping out from the trees with the kind of alertness that comes from decades of guarding this exact approach, and stops dead the second she sees who's walking beside me.

"Kellan." Her eyes move from me to Zoey and back again, sharp and assessing. "You brought a human. Here."

"She's not just any human. She saw everything tonight, Rebecca. The bear, the attack, all of it. I didn't have a choice."

Rebecca studies Zoey for a long beat, the particular scrutiny she reserves for anything she considers a threat to the pack, and I watch Zoey hold that stare without flinching, without the kind of performed composure she used to wear like armor those first days on the mountain.

"You're the singer Yvonne's been housing," Rebecca says finally. "The one those cameras were tracking."

"Zoey. Yes." She extends a hand, steady despite everything. "I understand if you don't trust me yet. I wouldn't trust me either, if I were you."

Something in Rebecca's expression shifts at that, surprise flickering underneath the caution. She takes the offered hand, brief and assessing. "Honest. I can work with honest. She knows what she's walking into?"

"She knows enough. I told her the rest on the way here."

"And she's still here." Rebecca's mouth curves slightly, not quite a smile but close. "That says something."

Everett meets us near the central fire, the same steady authority he carries everywhere, and I brace myself for whatever judgment he's about to deliver. Pack law on this is absolute, has been for generations, and bringing an outsider this deep into our territory isn't a decision I made lightly or one I expect him to simply accept without question.

"You understand what you've done," he says to me, not unkindly, but direct in the way he always is.

"I understand exactly what I've done. I'd do it again." I meet his eyes without flinching. "She was attacked tonight because of proximity to me and this pack. She deserved to know why. She deserved the truth instead of more lies to protect a secret that already put her in danger."

Everett turns his attention to Zoey, studying her the way he studies everything, patient and thorough. "You're aware that what you've learned tonight puts you in a position most humans never occupy. Knowledge like this carries weight. Responsibility."

"I understand." Zoey holds his gaze steadily, no trace of the fear I'd expect from someone facing down an Alpha wolf shifter for the first time. "I also understand that Kellan has spent weeks protecting me without asking anything in return, and tonight he nearly died doing it again. Whatever responsibility comes with knowing the truth, I'll carry it. I'm not interested in running from something just because it's bigger than what I expected."

Something in Everett's expression softens slightly, the careful authority easing into something closer to consideration. "Kellan's parents died protecting this pack's secrecy," he says. "He carries that loss every day of his life. If you mean to be part of his world, you should know exactly what that cost looked like, and what it could still cost."

"I know some of it. I'd like to know more, if he's willing to tell me." Zoey glances at me, something steady and certain in her expression. "But I'm not asking anyone here to protect me from the truth. I've had enough people manage my life for me. I'd rather understand the danger clearly than be shielded from it."

Everett studies her a moment longer, and I can see the exact instant he decides something has shifted, some judgment reached that I don't fully understand until he speaks again. "Very well. She stays informed, under your responsibility, Kellan. If this goes wrong, the consequences fall on you."