40. Chapter Forty
~Leo~
Plans were forming and possibilities opening, and for the first time since this all began, it felt like we might actually have a chance to outmaneuver fate itself. And yet, none of that occupied my thoughts as Kalo and I walked back to my bedroom.
Because Vaughan had been right: there was something only the two of us could decide, and as I closed the door behind us, the room felt smaller than it had that morning, leaving no space to avoid what needed to be said.
Kalo moved first, stepping further into the room and turning slowly, as though reacquainting himself with it. His fingers brushed lightly over the back of the chair and the edge of the desk, small, grounding touches that mirrored the way my own mind was searching for something steady to hold onto.
“I guess we need to talk,” he said at last, glancing over his shoulder at me with a wry smile.
I nodded, feeling too nervous to smile back. This conversation would determine the course of the rest of my life, and smiling felt like making light of it. “We should.”
He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his knees as he lifted his gaze to meet mine. “Why don’t we deal with one thing at a time?”
“Meaning…?”
He patted the bed next to him, inviting me to join him, and when I took a seat, the hair on the back of my neck stood to attention simply from the proximity to him. He was magnetic, in so many ways.
“Meaning: let’s pretend that none of the rest of it exists, just for now. No reaper, no full moon deadline, none of it. Just… us.”
Just us.
Two simple words that made my stomach flip with hope and dread at the same time.
It felt almost impossible to separate everything we’d been through from what we were, but if we didn’t try, we’d never know if what we had was real or just a reaction to pressure.
He was exactly right: we had to take this one step at a time.
“Alright,” I agreed. “Just us.”
Something soft and bittersweet flashed through his amber eyes. “Do you wish we’d met in a more traditional way?”
I exhaled as I thought that over. “At first, I did.”
“At first?” he repeated.
“Before I got to know you, I mean. Before I realized that nothing about you is traditional. But now, I wouldn’t change it if it meant changing you.”
That earned me another smile, a real one that shot straight to my heart.
“You’re very different from what I expected.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It’s not,” he assured me quickly, a quiet laugh escaping him. “I expected someone more… dominant, I suppose. More possessive.”
I grimaced. “If you don’t think I’ve been possessive over you, you haven’t been paying attention.”
Again, he chuckled softly. “Maybe possessive isn’t the right word, then. I guess I thought you’d be controlling, but you’re not. You’re steady and thoughtful. You think before you act. You…”
He paused there, and I held my breath waiting to see what words would come next.
“You make me feel safe.”
Coming from someone who had gone through what he had, the words landed heavier than anything else he could have said, and I blurted out the first reply that popped into my head.
“You do the opposite for me.”
Kalo’s eyebrows raised. “Oh?”
Fuck, that came out wrong. “I mean, you challenge everything. The way I think, the way I plan, the way I feel about things. I always valued order and predictability, and you’re none of those things.”
“Huh.” Kalo frowned, glancing down at his hands in his lap. “And that’s a bad thing?”
“No,” I quickly sputtered. “Not at all. It’s new, but I think I needed that. Somewhere between us is a really solid middle ground that we can find together. I like that you push me out of my routine.”
Kalo shifted on the bed, turning more fully towards me.
“I like that you care about your pack and about doing things the right way. And about me.” His gaze dipped briefly before returning to mine. “No one has ever been so determined to keep me alive before.”
Silence settled between us, filled with everything we weren’t saying as much as what we were.
“If none of this was happening,” he continued after a moment, “what do you think our future would look like?”
With everything else going on, I hadn’t really let myself dwell on that. It felt too far out of reach to be anything more than a distraction.
But since he asked me, I took the time to think about it.
“I think you’d find an occupation within the pack, something that uses your talents, and you’d complain about how structured everything is and I’d pretend to be annoyed about it.”
A smile tugged at his mouth, and I let myself smile too, just for a moment as the images formed in my head.
“I’d rearrange my schedule around you, and just when we got it settled, something crazy would happen with the pack to keep us on our toes.”
Kalo’s wistful expression suggested he didn’t hate the sound of it. “And no one in the pack would have any problem with us being together?”
“No,” I assured him, a little more forcefully than I meant to. “If the Alpha accepts it, they will too, and Vaughan has already accepted you. All of the team have.”
I hadn’t really stopped to let myself process how much it meant to me that they’d done so, but honestly, with all the other craziness going on, my mate being a man had been the least of anyone’s concerns.
“I like the pack,” he admitted. “At least, those who I’ve met. This kind of community is very different from my life as a genie, and even from the life I had before.”
“It can be a lot for a human,” I agreed. “We have our own rules and rituals, but once you’re in, you’re in. That’s not a question.”
He held my gaze for a long moment before speaking again. “You know, this isn’t only my choice. It’s yours too.”
I shook my head, though there was no frustration in the gesture, only certainty.
“I already made my choice the moment I marked you. I won’t ever take it back.
But I will also respect your decision, and if this isn’t what you want for your life, now that you finally have one again, I won’t force you to stay. ”
Stating it so plainly was taking a risk, like handing him a piece of my heart that I might not get back, but I meant every word. Kalo’s happiness mattered to me more than anything, far more than my own happiness and even more than my life.
The former genie studied me carefully, weighing every part of what I’d just said, and for a long moment, I couldn’t read him at all. I had no idea what he might be thinking.
At last, he smiled. “If the reaper wasn’t a part of this, if we’re still just talking about us, then I would choose this. I would choose you.”
Relief hit me so hard it almost knocked the breath from my lungs, and I didn’t give myself time to think or second-guess myself as I leaned over and kissed him, my hand roughly cupping his jaw.
Not an ounce of hesitation met me in return. Just certainty, and heat, and everything we’d been holding back finally breaking free as he leaned into me, his hand tangling in my shirt and pulling me closer.
For the first time since all of this began, I felt that he was truly mine, just as much as I was his, and at least for that moment, I couldn’t ask for anything more.