Chapter 9 #2
I set Vivian gently in the passenger seat and buckle her in. My muscles are bunched with tension as I slip behind the wheel and drive us home.
I almost lost her.
The thought keeps trying to dig its claws into me, but I shove it down every time.
Not now, I tell myself. Right now, she needs me steady.
So, I hold it together as I drive us home.
By the time we reach the cabin, Vivian’s breathing has evened out a little, but she still hasn’t fully relaxed. I park and hop out, lifting her gently and carrying her inside. Kicking the door shut behind me, I carry her straight to the couch.
I sit with her on my lap instead of setting her down. Neither of us seems ready for space. For a while, we just breathe. I keep one hand at the back of her head, and the other spread across her back, stroking slowly up and down while she shakes.
“You’re safe,” I murmur. “He’s dead. He can’t touch you again.”
She nods against my throat. Small. Fragile.
I hate it. I hate that there’s fear in her again when I promised there wouldn’t be.
My bear, calmer now that she’s here, huffs inside me. Not your fault, he says grudgingly. But never again.
Never again, I agree.
After a few more minutes, Vivian finally pulls back to look at me. Her eyes are red-rimmed and glassy. Seeing her like this feels like a knife in the ribs.
“I thought…” She swallows. “I thought I was being paranoid at first.”
I brush her hair back from her face. “Tell me.”
She licks her lips. “I left lunch early because I missed you. As I was walking back, I felt like someone was watching me. I turned around, and he was there.”
A growl rises in my throat before I can stop it. Vivian flinches slightly, not from me, but from the memory, and I force the sound down.
“He said they’d been looking for me. That Michael wanted me back.” Her voice shakes. “I screamed, and he grabbed me.”
My jaw locks so hard that it hurts.
Michael. The cult leader. The man her parents tried to give her to. I already wanted him dead. Now I want it with a violence that borders on the unholy.
“They’re not getting you back,” I say, my voice low and rough. “Ever.”
Vivian studies my face for a second, then nods. “I know.”
Two simple words, but they hit me hard enough to steal my breath, because she means them. She believes me.
I press my forehead to hers for a moment and breathe her in. “Good.”
She’s quiet after that. I can feel her thinking, can see it in the slight furrow between her brows.
“What are they going to do now?” she whispers after a minute. “If one of them found me that easily…”
I don’t lie to her. I never will. “They’ll keep trying.”
Her face pales slightly.
I tighten my hold on her. “And we’ll keep stopping them.”
She swallows. “I hate that I brought this here.”
“No.” The word comes out sharp enough to make her blink. I soften my voice immediately. “You didn’t bring anything here, Vivian. They’re the ones making this choice. Not you.”
She looks down at her hands. For a second, I’m not sure she believes me.
Then she whispers, “I was starting to feel safe.”
My heart fucking breaks.
I cup her jaw gently and make her look at me. “You are safe.”
“But what if—”
“You are safe,” I repeat, firmer this time. “That doesn’t mean bad people stop existing. It means they don’t get to win. Not here. Not with you. Not while I’m breathing.”
Tears gather in her eyes again. “I don’t want to live like this forever.”
And there it is. The thing that’s been sitting between us since the second I found her. The truth neither of us has wanted to say aloud.
I stare at her for a long beat. Then I ask the question I’ve been avoiding. “Do you want to leave?”
She goes very still. My heart pounds as I wait.
If she says yes, I’ll do it. I’ll sell the cabin. Take her somewhere far away. Build her another home if that’s what it takes. I’d rather rip my heart out than leave this mountain, but I’ll do it. For her, I’ll do anything.
Vivian chews on her bottom lip, thinking. “If you had asked me that a few days ago,” she says slowly, “I would have said yes in a heartbeat.”
I nod. That tracks. It makes sense, but she’s still thinking, still talking, and hope blooms cautiously in my chest.
“Before I met you… before I met the others… before I saw how strong everyone here is…” She looks down for a moment, then back up at me. “I thought the only way to survive was to keep running.”
I don’t interrupt.
“I still hate that they’re close,” she admits. “I hate that they can reach me. I hate that I was almost taken again.”
My arms tighten around her.
“But…” She breathes in shakily. “I’ve been thinking about the women I met. About what they went through and how they stayed. How they built lives here anyway. How Midnight Haven doesn’t hide from bad things. It protects people from them.”
A strange ache rises in my chest because I know where this is going before she says it. Still, hearing it feels like a gift I don’t deserve.
Vivian puts her hand over my heart. “I don’t want to run anymore, Logan. I love you. I think that this is where we’re meant to be.”
I stare at her. My whole body is so still that it almost hurts.
She smiles, small and shaky but real. “I want to stay.”
The words slam into me. She loves me. She wants to stay.
My bear roars so loudly inside my head that for a second, I can’t hear anything else. Emotion rises fast and hard in my chest. I have to swallow against it.
“Yeah?” I ask, because I need to hear it again. Need to make sure I didn’t imagine it.
Vivian nods. “Yes. I want to make this place my home.”
I look at her. At my beautiful, brave mate sitting in my lap after everything she’s been through and choosing this place anyway. Choosing me.
My throat tightens. I cup her face in both hands. “It already is,” I tell her roughly. “You hear me? It already is. This is your home. I’m your home. And anyone who tries to take that from you again is going to die.”
Vivian’s breath catches. A tiny smile curves her lips even through the leftover tears. “That was almost sweet.”
I huff out something close to a laugh and lean forward until my forehead rests against hers. “I don’t know how to be sweet, but I love you, Vivi. So much.”
“Yes, you do know how to be sweet.”
I shake my head.
She smiles a little wider. “You really do.”
I kiss her then. Slow and careful, a promise instead of a demand. She melts against me, and relief pours through my chest so strongly that it feels like weakness. Like survival. Like worship.
When I pull back, I brush my thumb beneath one of her eyes. “We’ll tighten security. No more walking alone. Not until this is over.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll have someone with you if I can’t be.”
“Okay.”
I search her face. “You sure?”
Her light-blue eyes hold mine. “Yes.”
I shift so I can stand, keeping her in my arms.
She blinks. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to bed.”
A blush rises in her cheeks. Even now. Even after everything. “Logan.”
“Not for that.” I head down the hallway with her cradled against my chest. “Though I like where your head’s at.”
She lets out a tiny, startled laugh, and it soothes something raw inside me. Good. I want her laughing. Smiling. Teasing me. I want every trace of that man and what he did replaced with me. With us. With home.
When I carry her into the bedroom, I set her down gently on the bed and move around the room, grabbing what we need. Clean clothes, water, and another blanket. Tucking Vivian into bed, I rush into the shower, needing to wash the blood from my skin.
After a quick shower, I tug on clean clothes, grab a washcloth, and wet it. I take a deep breath and return to my mate.
Vivian watches me quietly while I kneel in front of her and gently wipe the dirt from her arms and face. My chest aches the whole time. I should have been there sooner. I should have—
Stop, my bear growls. She’s here now.
He’s right.
The second I’m in bed, she curls against me. My mate, my home.
I wrap her up carefully, tucking her into my side until there’s nowhere in the world she could be but here.
She lets out a long, slow breath. “Logan?”
“Yeah, Vivi?”
“Thank you for finding me.”
I close my eyes and press a kiss to the top of her head. “There was never a world where I wouldn’t.”
She goes quiet after that, and I think maybe she’s drifting off.
Then she whispers one more thing. “I’m glad I stayed that first day. I’m glad I gave this a chance.”
My chest tightens, and I hold her a little closer. “Me too.”
Outside, the mountain settles into the evening. The wind moves through the trees, and somewhere in the distance, I know the Midnight Haven guys are still out there making sure the body is gone, the trail is covered, and that no one comes near my cabin tonight.
My bear finally lies down inside me, still watchful, still alert, but calmer now that our mate is back where she belongs.
I stroke my hand slowly up and down Vivian’s back until her breathing deepens and sleep pulls her under.
Resting my chin on top of her head, I stare into the dark.
Let them come, let every last one of them try.
Vivian is home now, where she belongs, where she has me as her protector.
And I’ll kill anyone who forgets it.