Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
apartment to the door. When he opened it, a man from Fate Mountain Lodge stood in the hallway with paper bags stacked in both arms and a covered tray balanced against his hip. Axel grabbed the tray, and Reese took the rest. They set everything on the kitchen counter.
Steam fogged the plastic lids. The smell filled the apartment as soon as Axel opened the first carton, rich and warm and delicious-smelling. Reese found plates while Axel moved the paperwork off the table.
They opened the cartons and set them out. Pot roast with mashed potatoes, roast chicken with sage gravy, beef pot pie, smoked gouda mac and cheese, green beans with almonds, roasted carrots, apple-walnut salad, sourdough rolls with whipped honey butter, peach cobbler, and chocolate bourbon cake.
Reese looked from the food to him. “How many people did you think were coming?”
“I really like their food.” He smiled, uncovered the sourdough rolls, and set the whipped honey butter on the counter.
Everything smelled delicious, and looking at it all made her feel like it was Thanksgiving. She spooned mashed potatoes onto her plate, then pot roast, mac and cheese, a roll with honey butter, a piece of roast chicken with gravy slipping over the edge, and some vegetables.
They sat down at the table. Reese took one bite, then another, trying a bit of everything. The food was good. Warm, rich, comforting in a way she wanted to let herself feel.
But her mind went back to the report Axel had moved to the coffee table. Reasonable force. The phrase was neat and official, and nothing like the memory in her head. The skillet in her hands. The swing. The sound. Wade falling. Blood spreading across the floor.
Reese swallowed carefully. She didn’t grieve Wade. She couldn’t feel anything for him, and she wasn’t going to pretend he deserved her guilt.
But she had killed him. The report called it reasonable. Reese knew it was true, but she still didn’t know what to do with the fact that she’d killed the father of the baby inside her.
They ate for a few minutes while the record played. Reese cut a piece of chicken and dragged it through the sage gravy. She lifted the fork, took a bite, and stared off into the distance. Axel sat across from her, watching her with a concerned look on his face.
“Are you still thinking about the report?” he asked.
Her first instinct was to say no. No, she was fine. No, it didn’t matter. No, there was nothing to talk about. But she was tired of surviving by running away from everything that scared her.
“Yes,” she said.
Axel waited while Reese pushed her mac and cheese around on her plate.
“I know the report says it was self-defense. I know he would have killed you if someone hadn’t acted.” She looked up at him. “But I’m still the one who killed him.”
Axel stayed quiet for a moment, looking at her, a concerned expression on his face.
“You saved my life,” he said. “Wade kidnapped you. He held a gun to your head. He shot me.” Axel’s voice stayed even. “And before any of that, he told you he’d kill you if you ever tried to leave him again.”
“I know.” Reese pushed a carrot to the edge of her plate with her fork. “But that doesn’t change what I’ve done. It’s still there inside me, and I have to live with it now.”
The record kept turning. Piano moved softly through the room. Axel reached across the table and took her hand in his. His thumb caressed her knuckles, and she kept her eyes on their hands.
“I’m relieved he’s dead.” The words sat between them. “I’m relieved I don’t have to wonder where he is anymore. I’m relieved he can’t find me again. I’m relieved he’ll never touch me or threaten my baby.” Her throat tightened. “And that scares me more than feeling guilty.”
Axel didn’t let go of her hand. “Relief isn’t cruelty,” he said.
Reese closed her eyes for a second. She wanted it to be that simple. She wanted to believe him, but part of her was still afraid that feeling relieved meant something was wrong with her. When she opened her eyes, Axel was still watching her.
“I think I know that,” she said. “I just don’t know how to feel it yet.”
“You don’t have to figure it out tonight.”
The record kept playing. Reese looked down at their joined hands, then back at the food spread across the table.
Reese took a bite of the pot roast. “All this food is ridiculous.”
Axel glanced at the table. “Still not hearing a complaint.”
That made her smile, just a little. She took another bite of green beans. For a few minutes, they talked about the meal because it was easier than talking about anything else.
The pot roast was better than it had any right to be. The mac and cheese was too rich and still impossible to stop eating. The honey butter made the rolls taste like dessert before they had even opened the cobbler.
Axel had made the apartment warm, beautiful, and safe. A week ago, that safety had scared her badly enough to run. She took another bite of chicken, thinking about the night she’d decided to leave.
“I think I know why I ran,” she said, taking a deep breath.
She’d resisted telling him this since returning to Fate Mountain. Through the investigation and his recovery. Through the OB checkups that confirmed the baby was fine. She still hadn’t been able to face the mistake she’d made that night.
“When the listing showed up on the people-search site, Fate Mountain stopped feeling safe. Everything I’d established here, the diner, my friends... you. It all felt temporary again. Like the whole life I was trying to build could disappear because my name was online.”
Axel nodded.
“And then you said you were going to arrange a safe house.” Reese looked down at her plate.
“I know you were trying to keep me safe. And let’s be honest, it would have been much better for everyone if I’d accepted the offer.
But all my body heard was that someone else was going to have control over me.
” She swallowed. “So, I did the only thing I knew how to do. Run.”
Axel was quiet for a moment after she said it.
“It scared the hell out of me when I couldn’t find you,” he said. “And I’m not going to pretend I wouldn’t try to protect you again.”
Reese looked up at him.
“I don’t want you to stop protecting me,” she said. “I just need to learn the difference between being protected and being trapped.”
Axel’s expression softened. “And I need to remember that safe isn’t safe if you feel like you’ve lost your choices.”
Reese looked at him across the table, at the man who had thrown himself into the line of fire to protect her. In that moment, safety did not feel like a locked door.
The conversation settled after that. Not finished, exactly, but no longer pressing against her mind. Reese ate until she was stuffed. Axel made a serious attempt at the pot pie, then admitted defeat halfway through. But Axel then insisted there was always room for dessert.
He dished the peach cobbler into two bowls and added small slices of chocolate bourbon cake to the side.
Reese took one bite of the cobbler. The peaches were warm and soft, the crust buttery enough to make her close her eyes for a second.
“You were right,” she said. “There is always room for dessert.”
Axel smiled and took a bite of cake. The record kept playing behind them, piano moving gently through the apartment.
“I love you,” she said.
Axel went still, the fork hovering in midair. For a long moment, he only looked at her. Then he lowered the fork and smiled. “I love you more every day,” he said. “I’m glad you waited to say it until you were sure how you felt.”
“So am I,” she said, letting out a long breath.
Reese sat with the words between them and waited for panic to follow. It didn’t. Saying she loved him didn’t make her feel trapped. It didn’t make her want to take it back. It made something inside her settle into place, quiet and certain.
Since matching on mate.com, the mate bond had felt overwhelming. Permanent. Final. Another thing that could happen to her without her consent. But she was ready now. It was not because Wade was dead or because Axel had saved her, but because she was still choosing him now.
Reese took her last bite of cobbler and set her spoon down. “I want the bond,” she said. Axel’s eyes widened. “I want you to claim me.”
His hand tightened around his spoon. “Reese.”
“I know what I’m saying.”
“I need to make sure you do.” His voice was careful now. “The mating bite is permanent. It can’t be taken back if you change your mind. Once I claim you, the bond is forever.”
“I won’t change my mind.” Reese put one hand over her belly. “This is me, choosing you.”