Chapter 25
Jason
I’m free.
The words don’t make sense yet. They don’t sink into the marrow of me. They sit on the surface of my mind, unreal and feather-light, like something I’m afraid to touch in case it shatters.
One minute, I was on my knees waiting for the bite that would tear my throat out.
The next…
Violet.
My Violet.
Charging into a wolf execution ground in a muscle car with Buff sticking his wolf head out the window like an idiot, and her grandmother wielding a shotgun like she was born for war.
And then she stepped into the clearing.
Not afraid.
Not careful.
She faced the alphas and negotiated for my life.
She paid my debt.
And now, in the clearing where I thought I’d take my last breath, is a party.
A full-blown, rowdy, alcohol-soaked, firelit celebration. Apparently, the get-together was to celebrate my death. Turns out, me not dying has given the party life.
Someone’s grilling meat over a giant open pit, and the scent of smoke, fat, and herbs drift through the air.
Wolves laugh loudly, their voices overlapping in a cacophony of joy and relief.
Someone’s pouring a drink that smells like paint thinner.
Someone else is playing an off-key guitar.
Pack members wrestle, tease each other, shift mid-run, and splash into the pond at the center of the grounds.
It should feel chaotic and overwhelming, but instead it’s all muted.
Because all I can see is her.
Violet stands near the fire, hair glinting in the late-afternoon sun, listening intently to one of the wolves who’s explaining something with wild arm gestures.
She tilts her head slightly to track his voice, smiling politely, laughing when he pauses expectantly.
Every movement she makes is delicate and unafraid.
She saved me.
My heart clenches so hard I can barely breathe.
She saved me.
Not accidentally.
Not incidentally.
Not because she didn’t know better.
Because she chose me.
Someone slaps my back hard enough to make me stagger.
“Still alive, stray!” Talon crows, handing me a mason jar of something that smells unsafe. “Rejoice!”
I cough. “What is this?”
“Moonshine,” Thorne says. “Beer is for humans.”
I lift the jar to be polite. It burns my nose hairs clean off. “Cheers,” I croak.
They laugh thunderously, delighted.
But then the noise fades as Thorne steps closer, face sobering.
“Look,” he says, “the way you and your brothers were treated? That wasn’t right.”
Talon nods. “Three pups cast out? An alpha doing that should lose his title.”
My stomach twists.
I don’t want their pity, but hearing someone finally say it—someone with power, someone who could have made a difference—ignites something in me that I thought was long dead.
Thorne’s voice gentles. “You’re strong, loyal, and clever. You surrendered yourself for a human woman. Half my pack wouldn’t do that for their own mother.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I start.
He raises a brow. “Wasn’t it?”
I look at Violet again. My heart answers for me.
He chuckles. “We’d take you in. If you wanted.”
The breath leaves my lungs like a blow.
A pack. A real pack. After all these years. My wolf rises fast, pushing warm, golden hope into my bloodstream.
But…
I swallow. “I can’t.”
Talon tilts his head. “Why?”
“I…” My voice catches. “I think I already belong somewhere.”
Their gazes flick toward Violet with slow, knowing smiles.
“Ah,” Thorne murmurs, amused. “Your alpha-female.”
“She’s not—”
I stop.
Because she is. She is my equal. My anchor. My reason.
She’s the one who walked into a wolf execution and bought my life like it was on clearance at the grocery store.
Talon smirks. “Well, then. Best talk it over with your co-alpha.”
“Co-alpha?” I echo.
“Yes,” Thorne says mildly. “Because it’s clear you’re not the only one leading whatever… this is.”
Warmth settles in my chest. “No. I’m not.”
They clap my shoulders, laugh, and wander off to refill drinks.
I’m left standing there with my beating heart in my hands.
My wolf nudges me toward her.
Go.
I walk across the clearing, feet unsteady. Violet turns her head as I approach, sensing me in that uncanny way she does.
“Hey,” she says, giving me that warm, soft smile of hers.
I swallow hard. “Can we talk?”
She nods and takes my hand. We walk away from the fire and the noise, into the quiet, tree-shadowed edge of the campground. The air is cooler here, the earth damp, the woods breathing softly around us.
We stop near a stump.
I face her, and everything inside me spills over. “I’m sorry. For all of it. For lying. For pretending. For putting you in danger. For letting you think—”
“Jason.” She touches my cheek, her thumb brushing the line of stubble. “I’m not helpless.”
“I know,” I whisper.
“No,” she says firmly. “Listen to me. I am blind. Not breakable. Not fragile. And definitely not someone you need to die for. But you were willing to.”
“I didn’t see another way.”
“There’s always another way,” she whispers. “You just didn’t trust me enough to find it together. The worst is, I always believed you didn’t see me as fragile.”
The truth slams into me.
She continues, “If this is going to work—if we are going to work—there can’t be secrets anymore.”
“There won’t be,” I say immediately. “I swear. No more lies. No more pretending.”
“There also needs to be equality,” she adds gently. “You protect me when I need it. I protect you when you need it. Nobody gets to do all the saving.”
I smile, pained and awed. “You saved me better than I’ve ever saved anyone.”
She huffs a soft laugh. “Oh. So, in the spirit of transparency, I need to tell you something.”
“Yes?”
“My settlement was way more than I let on to the alphas.”
I blink. “Okay?”
She leans in close to my ear and barely whispers. “It was fourteen million.”
My jaw drops. “Four—”
Her finger seals my lips together. Fuck, yeah. Not a good idea to talk about that much money in front of wolves with super hearing. “Yes,” she confirms. “And no, I didn’t scam anyone. It was an airtight NDA and a corporate panic attack.”
I whisper. “You’re… rich-rich.”
She laughs. “I’m not irresponsible with it. But yes. I could’ve bought your freedom a few times over.”
I feel a little dizzy.
She takes my hands. “So, now the question is… is there room in my life for you?”
My throat closes.
“Violet,” I say, voice breaking, “I need to know—which Jason do you want?”
She smiles softly.
“Honestly?” she murmurs. “Either at this point. As long as you’re by my side.”
I choke on my breath.
“I’ll take both,” she adds, “if that’s all right.”
Something inside me—something old and wounded and feral—falls to its knees.
“I’m yours,” I whisper. “In every form.”
Her smile widens, then she pulls me down into a kiss that feels like forgiveness and home.
We walk back toward the fire, fingers interlaced, hearts beating in rhythm.
And this time I don’t look back.
We’re halfway back to the fire when a wolf barrels into me from the side.
I tense on reflex, but then I catch the scent.
Buff.
He knocks into my hip, tail wagging so hard his entire body oscillates. Then he jumps up, paws on my chest, licking my face like a deranged Saint Bernard.
“Okay, okay, big guy.” I wheeze, laughing despite everything.
Violet laughs too, the sound bright and delighted. “Is that Beau?”
“Yeah,” I say, shoving him back gently. “He appears to be alive and emotionally compromised.”
Buff shifts mid-tackle, bones cracking, fur pulling back. One second there’s a wolf licking my jaw, the next it’s my idiot brother, crying and clinging to me in front of an entire pack.
“I thought you were dead,” he sobs, voice thick. “I thought you were gone and I hated you for leaving and I love you and I’m sorry and also your girlfriend is terrifying,” he says all in one breath.
“Buff,” I groan, but my throat is tight. I hug him anyway, clapping a hand on his back. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
“Don’t ever do that again,” he mumbles into my shoulder. “We’re supposed to die together, remember?”
“That’s not the plan anymore,” I say quietly, glancing at Violet.
Buff follows my gaze, sniffles, and then gently disengages to wipe his face with the back of his hand. “Hi, Violet,” he says, earnest and shy. “Thanks for… uh… not letting my brother be murdered.”
She smiles fondly. “You’re welcome.”
There’s a delighted squeal from somewhere behind us.
“Buff!”
We all turn.
Thorne’s eldest daughter is beelining straight for Buff with the speed of a missile. She launches herself at him, and he catches her, stumbling back as she wraps herself around him like she’s climbing her favorite tree.
“I can’t believe this!” she says, laughing. “He said yes!”
Buff goes pink to the roots of his hair. “I—I mean, yeah, that’s a good thing—”
She plants a loud kiss on his cheek, and he nearly drops her.
“Oh my god,” I mutter. “We’re going to be related to a Eustace alpha.”
Violet chokes on a laugh. “You sound thrilled.”
“Terrified,” I correct.
Talon and Thorne reappear near the main fire with Meemaw between them like a queen holding court. They’re both in jeans and half-zipped hoodies now, looking far too pleased with themselves.
Meemaw, as she insisted everyone call her—is holding a mason jar of moonshine in one hand and a grilled skewer in the other, chatting like she’s at a PTA meet-and-greet and not in the middle of a wolf compound.
“…and then I told him, if you’re going to cheat on my granddaughter, at least have the decency to pick someone hotter than her—oh, there they are!” she crows when she sees us.
The alphas straighten instinctively.
“Violet, darling!” she calls. “You and lover-boy finished whispering in the trees?”
Violet squeezes my hand, amused. “For now.”
Talon claps his hands once. “Good! Because this is no longer an execution feast. This is an engagement party. Or a survival feast. Or a humans-scare-the-shit-out-of-us feast. We’re still deciding on the name.”
Someone near the fire shouts, “To the blind human and her suicidal wolf!”