Chapter 118 Harper
Harper
The forest still smelled of smoke and gunpowder, the tang of iron clinging in the air. My hands shook as I wiped the dirt from my palms onto my jeans, trying to make the tremors stop.
Carter was still scanning the tree line, every muscle taut, but when his eyes came back to me, the steel in them shifted. Just a fraction, but enough that I saw it—the crack in his armor, the fear he wouldn’t admit.
I reached for him before he could hide it. My fingers slipped into his, and his grip was strong, almost too strong, like he needed to feel I was solid and real.
“I’m not broken,” I whispered, surprising even myself with how steady the words came out. “Shaken, yes. Terrified, absolutely. But I’m still here. Still with you.”
His jaw flexed, his chest rising and falling hard, and for a long moment, he just looked at me like he was memorizing every word, every breath.
“I was so scared,” I admitted, my throat tightening. “When the bullets hit the trees, when I dropped to the ground—I thought it was the end. But then… I realized I wasn’t alone. Not anymore.”
I lifted his hand to my chest, pressing it over my pounding heart. “This—this is what makes me strong. You. Us. Together.”
The wind rustled through the branches, carrying away the smoke, and in the quiet that followed, something settled between us. Not just survival. Not just love. A partnership forged in fire and blood, unshakable now that it had been tested.
Carter’s thumb brushed against my skin, his eyes softening, though his body was still coiled for battle.
And for the first time since all this began, I didn’t feel like prey marked by Redwood.
I felt like a fighter.