Chapter 28 - Hunter
The wound on my shoulder has already started closing, and it seems to do so even faster while my lips are on hers, melding with as much intent as I can muster.
I can feel my body beginning the healing process, as it normally does, with everything stitching back together and reforming as it should. I’ll be stiff for a day, but by tomorrow, it’ll be nothing more than a memory. I’ve taken worse and thought less about it.
I’m not thinking about it at all, actually. Not while I have Tessa pressed against me, with the memory of her jumping in to help me still fresh in my mind.
When I finally break the kiss, one hand still cradling the side of her face, I look down at her and can’t ignore the warmth burning through me.
She’s staring back at me the way she’s been learning to look at me, with confidence and the silent reminders to herself that she doesn’t need to back down from me. I took her as my mate, which means she’s my equal in every way.
“Your hands,” I murmur, feeling as the one shakes faintly where it rests against my chest.
She looks down and pulls in a deep breath. “It’s just the adrenaline… it’ll pass.”
Reaching out, I gently take both her hands to just hold them, and she lets me without question.
She doesn’t pull back or try to come up with a reason to force distance between us. Her hands are colder than usual and still shaking slightly, but she still looks at me like this is the place she wants to be. Right here, with me.
The wind moves through the clearing as the smell of wet earth hangs in the air, stirred up from the fight. It’s refreshing and relieving, given the fact that I can still smell it, and I get to bask in it with the woman I fought for—and with, in the end.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I tell her, gently guiding her chin up with my finger. I hold her face there so I can take her in. “Hayes could’ve used you against me.”
“I know,” she tells me, not looking even remotely repentant. “But he didn’t, and I did it anyway.”
I hold her gaze, allowing mine to relax a little more as I appreciate every inch of her in front of me. “Yeah, you did.”
“You had it handled,” she murmurs, expression torn between having absolute faith in me and something more concerned. “I saw that. I just… I could feel everything through the bond, and I couldn’t just watch while it happened. I couldn’t stand it.”
The presence that has been sitting in my chest and building between us ever since the cabin, since the conversation in our room, and everything else in between, reaches a fever pitch at the mere hearing of those words.
“Come here,” I say, pulling her even closer.
She steps into it easily while I put my arms around her carefully, mindful of my shoulder, and she puts her face against my neck. She pulls in a deep inhale like she’s finally letting herself relax after it all, letting me hold her in the mess still around us.
The bond settles fully within itself, no longer agonizing over what it couldn’t be or trying so hard to push for more between us.
Savoring every moment of it, I just hold her, letting everything around us pass.
Eventually, we sit at the base of one of the old trees at the clearing’s edge while the territory around us stays quiet. I can hear and sense our wolves in the distance, but they’re far enough to let me relax.
As much as I don’t want to disturb the moment, a familiar sensation lingers in my chest, and it only gets worse the longer I delay it. Figuring there won’t be a better moment than this one, I gather my words and adjust my arm wrapped around her so that she can turn if she wants.
“I want to say something,” I tell her, already aware of the vulnerability creeping into my words.
Without hesitation, Tessa faces me, still in my lap. She stays quiet, allowing me to continue.
“I don’t care about the pack’s timeline, or whatever they might have to say,” I begin, eyes tracing her features.
“I don’t care how long it takes them to come around, or whether the rest will come to terms with your family’s history.
I know you, and I know you’ve deserved far beyond what you received for quite some time.
” My fingers lightly move along her jaw.
“I care about you, and I’m done reducing it to something easier for everyone to digest.”
Tessa stays very still, eyes on me all the while. “Hunter…”
“I know what I did, and I know the length I went to make you miserable before. But I need you to hear me say that I will spend the rest of my life, whatever that looks like, making sure you know that what happened before was a failure of mine that I own completely. I won’t hide behind the bond or any external circumstances…
it was me, and what I did was wrong. I’m more sorry for it than I’ll ever be able to communicate. ”
Regardless of the subtle pressure I’m putting on her right now by unloading this at once, Tessa doesn’t look away. Instead, a soft-looking emotion settles in her gaze.
“I can’t erase the past, but I want us to get past it one way or another.
I want it to be something we overcame, and not something we’re still standing in,” I add, thumb gently brushing just beneath her eye.
“I want you, not as the mate I claimed because the bond required it, but as the one who wants me in return. As the person who stood at the edge of a cliff and told an enemy alpha to leave, and meant it. The one who walked into a fight she didn’t have to walk into, and who’s willing to argue back at me when I’m wrong, even when I’m defensive.
I want all of you, and I’m done pretending otherwise. ”
The silence that follows feels lighter than I expect as she squeezes my hand once in return, reassuring in its gentleness.
“I’m still angry at you,” she starts, not sugarcoating it for my sake. “Not in the same way, but it’s still there underneath everything. I don’t forgive everything just because I understand it better now.”
“I’m not asking for that.”
“Good… because I want this too,” Tessa says, and her voice remains quiet yet steady.
She looks at our hands, then at my face, showing me just how much she means it.
“I’ve been fighting it because it’s easier to fight things than it is to trust them, but I’m tired of fighting you. I’m tired of fighting this.”
Moved by her willingness to move on from the things that followed us for far too long, I feel my shoulders relax, and I let my fingers slide into her hair.
“Then don’t.”
She looks at me for a long moment, and despite the complicated history between us, along with years of distance, damage, and the exhaustion that comes with it, I watch her willingly put it all down.
Tessa leans in, and I meet her halfway, capturing her lips with mine all over again. She relaxes against me, allowing herself to bask in the moment.
I do the same, forcing myself to keep track of every feeling, both big and small.
***
The old cabin on the outskirts of our territory is still Tessa’s, as she lived there before I brought her to the main house. It just hasn’t seen life in the last few weeks.
We walk through the woods as the sunlight lowers and becomes more golden. The long shadows of late afternoon fall through the pines, lighting the way as we go.
She knows this path better than I do, as she walked it many times in the version of her life that was about surviving rather than belonging. Even so, she walks it differently now, grounded in the decision she chose, and with absolute acceptance.
I follow her without question, letting her take the lead.
The cabin is small and a bit cold inside, but once the fire is built and Tessa wraps herself in a blanket she dusted off from the bed, the space becomes cozier.
She sits on the floor in front of the growing flames, vaguely cold still, but honest in the way she huddles up.
Unwilling to let the moment pass, I sit beside her, feeling as she leans into me and shares the blanket.
The contact starts as a small thing, yet that little surrender sparks a continuous want and need inside me, longing to keep her safe and comfortable.
My arm easily slips around her as I keep her close, and the two of us watch while the fire grows as the flames engulf more of the logs. Outside, the woods settle into the early evening, and nobody is there to rush us.
The bond between us is quiet and content, still humming lowly beneath it all.
For the first time, it feels like that connection is exactly how it was always meant to be, and how I plan to keep it so long as I breathe.
Turning my head just enough, I press a gentle kiss to Tessa’s temple, letting her feel everything I have in my heart for her. She eases into it, seeking more of my presence and warmth.
Regardless of all that I’ve done in the past, she’s here with me, and that alone makes me the most fortunate man in the world.