Chapter 13
Mason
I stood in front of the narrow closet in Nico and Tony’s guest room, staring at my options. I had taken out a couple of shirts, two pairs of jeans.
There was also one jacket that actually fit me well enough, but it originally belonged to Nico. I didn’t want Levi smelling Nico’s scent on me.
My fingers hovered over a dark green button-down. Too much?
I pulled it out anyway, holding it up against myself in the mirror. The reflection staring back at me looked almost normal, which was ridiculous. There was nothing normal about any of this.
I had an actual date with Levi this afternoon, and part of me still had a hard time believing it. It felt wrong to be enjoying myself so much, enjoying my time with Levi when Kai was…
I swallowed and dragged a hand through my hair.
“Get it together,” I muttered under my breath.
I set the green shirt aside and grabbed a plain black one instead, then immediately frowned. It seemed too plain and safe. My mind went to the morning I woke up in Levi’s bed.
Was that only three days ago? Still, I couldn’t forget the way Levi had smiled at me, like I was something worth looking at.
Like I belonged there in his kitchen, barefoot and wearing his shirt, eating breakfast like it was the most natural thing in the world.
My throat tightened at the memory. I’d almost believed it. That I could have that. Something simple and good. I exhaled slowly and picked the green shirt back up.
“Fine,” I muttered. “We’ll try this.”
I was halfway through unbuttoning the shirt I was wearing when my phone rang.
The sound cut through the room like a blade. For a split second, something warm flickered in my chest. It must be Levi.
I grabbed the phone without checking the screen.
“Hey—” The word died in my throat.
“Someone sounds cheerful today.”
My blood ran cold. Daniel. Every muscle in my body locked up. I closed my eyes briefly, silently cursing myself. Idiot.
I always checked the number first, and always gave myself a few seconds to prepare. To put the mask on. And this time I’d simply answered, because I’d hoped, and wanted it to be Levi.
I forced my expression to go blank even though Daniel couldn’t see me.
“What do you want?” I asked flatly.
There was a pause. Then Daniel’s voice came back, mild and edged with something sharper underneath. “Is that how you should be speaking to me?”
My grip tightened around the phone. For a split second, defiance flared.
Then another image rose up uninvited. Kai. I pictured him tired, hurt and locked somewhere I couldn’t reach. My spine straightened. The fight drained out of me like water.
“No,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“Good.” Daniel didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t have to. He never did.
There was a faint rustling sound on his end, like he was shifting in his seat.
“This is what I need you to do for me,” he told me.
My stomach dropped. He used the word need, not want. This was serious. Was he and his group finally making their move?
“I hear there’s an upcoming festival in Pecan Pines,” Daniel continued. His tone turned almost conversational, like we were discussing the weather. “Most of the pack should be in attendance, won’t they?”
My heartbeat started to pick up. I didn’t answer, because I didn’t trust my voice.
“I heard the pack attends every town fest,” he went on, a faint scoff threading through his words, “to better integrate with humans.”
There was something in that scoff that made my skin crawl. I didn’t miss the contempt and mockery there, as well as the hatred, which Daniel never bothered concealing.
My fingers curled tighter around the phone. I knew where this was going. I knew, and I didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want the words to become real.
“Mason.” Daniel’s voice sharpened slightly. “I asked you a question.”
“Yes,” I said, forcing the word out. “They do.”
“Good.” That single word made my stomach twist.
“I want you to open the south compound gate,” Daniel said.
Everything inside me went still.
For a second I thought I’d misheard him.
“…What?”
“You mentioned in our last call you thought that was the weakest gate in the compound,” Daniel said smoothly.
The world tilted. I’d said that. God, I’d said that.
It was a lie of course. A desperate, scrambling lie because he’d been demanding information and I hadn’t known what else to give him. Now though, Daniel was using that information.
“Daniel, wait,” My voice came out rough. “You want to strike so soon?”
My mind raced. This had suddenly turned messy and complicated fast.
This wasn’t supposed to happen yet. I needed more time, but Daniel had already heard too many of my excuses.
“I need more information,” I pushed quickly. “The security rotations for one. if I don’t know the exact timing, it could go wrong.”
“The decision’s been made.” The words cut clean through mine, sharp and final.
My breath hitched. “I—”
“If you want to see your brother again,” Daniel said quietly, “you’ll do this for us.”
Anger burned through me. All Daniel had to do was bring up Kai, and I danced to his tune like a puppet. My chest tightened until it hurt.
“I’ll contact you again,” Daniel added.
The line went dead and silence rushed in, loud and deafening. I stared at my phone.
The screen had already gone dark. It was as if nothing had happened, like my entire world hadn’t just shifted under my feet.
My hand started to shake. I lowered the phone slowly. Then I sank onto the edge of the bed like my legs had given out.
“Shit,” I whispered. The word barely made it out.
My chest felt so tight, it was as if I couldn’t get enough air.
Daniel’s instructions were simple. Open the gate. Let them in. Into the pack, into Levi’s home. Into the place that had welcomed me with one arms.
My stomach twisted violently. I pressed a hand against it, swallowing hard.
I once again thought of waking up in Levi’s bedroom, his sheets around my body. Warm sunlight through the window.
For a second I hadn’t known where I was, until I turned my head. Levi was tucked next to me in bed, still sleeping.
Next, I saw him standing in the kitchen, smiling as he made me breakfast, like it was the most normal thing to do.
For those precious moments, it didn’t feel like I was living on borrowed time. Heck, I even let myself imagine just for a second what it would be like if that was real.
If I stayed and didn’t have to leave. I even pictured Kai there too, safe and teasing me about something stupid while Levi pretended not to be amused.
The image had been so clear and vivid. For a few moments, it even felt possible.
My throat tightened painfully. I opened my eyes. The room came back into focus, small and temporary. Not mine. Nothing about this was mine.
I stared at the green shirt was still in my hand. At the way the fabric bunched slightly between my fingers. A shirt for a date. A normal, stupid, hopeful thing.
My grip tightened, then loosened. I let the shirt fall onto the bed.
The future I’d let myself picture, it wasn’t just fragile and uncertain, it was impossible. Daniel would never let me walk away, not while he had Kai, and not while I was still useful to him.
Levi’s face flickered through my mind again. The way he looked at me, open and certain. It was as if he already decided I was worth trusting.
That I was special and was exclusively and irrevocably his. A sharp, bitter laugh scraped its way out of my throat.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “That’s going to go well.”
Because what happened when he found out? When he realized the truth? That I wasn’t just some drifter who stumbled into their lives. That I’d brought danger with me.
No. I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t think about that, couldn’t let my mind go there. I needed to think, find a way to stall Daniel.
My thoughts tangled and frayed. Nothing made sense. All I could see was Levi curled next to me in bed, possessive arm around my body. I let out a shaky breath.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
The words felt useless and small. I could still fix this, maybe. If I was careful and played it right. A hollow feeling opened up in my chest. Because deep down, I already knew.
Whatever I did next, someone was going to get hurt, and I wasn’t sure I could live with that.
* * *
Half-built fair stalls lined the main street, wooden frames and canvas awnings in various stages of becoming something festive.
Strings of lights hung loose between poles, not yet lit, swaying gently in the afternoon breeze.
A few vendors were already setting up, arranging jars, hanging signs, testing out grills that sent up faint curls of smoke. The summer fair wasn’t ready yet, but you could feel it coming.
That promise of something bright and loud and full of life. I walked beside Levi, a paper cup of coffee warm in my hands, trying to match my steps to his. It wasn’t working.
“Careful,” Levi said lightly, nudging my shoulder when I nearly stepped into a stack of wooden crates.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
He grinned at that, easy and unguarded. It hit me right in the chest. He’d gotten us coffee from his favorite place, he’d said.
Some small shop tucked into the corner of the street, the owner greeting him by name, asking about his brothers, slipping a few extra pastries into a bag like it was habit.
Levi had passed one to me without thinking.
“Try it,” he’d said. “It’s amazing.”
I’d taken a bite, and Levi was right. It was amazing.
We moved past a stall where someone was hanging hand-painted signs, the scent of fresh paint lingering in the air.
A group of kids darted past us, laughing, nearly colliding into Levi before veering away at the last second.
Levi merely shifted slightly, steady as always. I took a sip of my coffee to give my hands something to do. To keep them from shaking. My mind wouldn’t stop. It kept building things.
Scenes and moments, futures that didn’t belong to me. I could see it so clearly.
The fair was fully set up by the evening. Lights glowed overhead as dusk settled in. Music and laughter drifted through the air.
Levi was beside me, close enough that our shoulders brushed every now and then. I pictured Kai too. In my mind, he was here, rolling his eyes at something I said.
The three of us moving through the crowd like we belonged there. We weren’t packless or lost.
The image shattered, replaced by Daniel’s voice. I want you to open the south compound gate.
My stomach dropped so hard I thought I might be sick. The coffee in my hand suddenly felt too hot. How could I even be standing here right now, walking beside him?
How was I still smiling and pretending, when I knew what I’d been ordered to do.
My grip tightened around the cup. I thought of the deer shifter. The one they’d found, half-dead in a cage. The way Levi and the others had moved without hesitation.
They’d treated him like he mattered, like he was one of theirs, even though he wasn’t.
Would they do the same for me? For Kai, if our situation was reversed? The answer came too quickly. Yes. I knew they would, and that was the problem.
Because that meant I was standing here, about to betray people who would’ve saved us without hesitation.
My steps faltered. I didn’t even realize I’d slowed until Levi stopped walking beside me.
“Mason?”
I blinked, dragging myself back into the moment. Levi was watching me closely now, concern etched across his face.
“Is something bothering you today?”
The question hit like a stone dropped into still water. Ripples spread through my chest. I shook my head too quickly.
“No. I’m fine,” I lied, and dang it. I was sick of lying.
Levi didn’t move, or push, but his gaze didn’t waver either.
“You know you can always talk to me,” he said quietly.
Those words finally broke something inside me. Levi said that without hesitation or doubt in his voice.
I looked away, because I couldn’t look at him and keep lying. Not like this, especially when Levi was standing there offering me something real, and something I didn’t deserve.
My thoughts spiraled, faster and louder. Say nothing, keep the lie. Protect Kai and yourself.
But then, I thought of Levi’s laugh from earlier, Levi’s steady gaze on me now, and the way he’d looked at me in his kitchen when he made me breakfast. My throat closed.
I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t keep standing here pretending everything was fine while a clock ticked down in the back of my head.
While I knew what was coming, and what I was supposed to do.
My emotions surged, crashing into each other. Fear and guilt, and something dangerously close to hope. It built and built until it felt like it might tear me apart from the inside.
I dragged a hand through my hair, breathing uneven. Think. Think. Every scenario I’d run through in my head since the call played back again.
Tell him, don’t tell him. Run, stay. Lie, or confess. Confess.
Every path ended in something breaking, every single one, but one felt less wrong. I swallowed hard. Slowly, I lifted my head. Levi was still watching me.
He was always so patient. It made this so much worse. I glanced around the street, my eyes catching on familiar faces.
Nico stood a little ways off, talking to someone near a stall. Dane was nearby too, laughing at something, completely at ease.
My chest ached. I realized I couldn’t do this here, not in the open, and where anyone could hear.
“I…” My voice came out rough. I cleared my throat. “I’m not feeling well. Can we head back?” The words twisted in my stomach as soon as they left my mouth.
Because what I was really asking was, Give me a chance to break your trust in private. Levi didn’t hesitate, he nodded immediately.
“Yeah. Of course,” he answered.
His hand brushed lightly against my arm as we turned back the way we came. The contact sent a sharp, aching warmth through me, and somehow that made everything worse.
By the time we got back, I knew nothing between us would ever feel this easy again.