The air was redolent of roses.
And I gave everything I could. For him.
For my wolf.
“Gordo.”
I opened my eyes.
Mark Bennett stood before me, on the other side of my father’s wards. Not as he’d been before, but as he was now. We could never be who we once were.
He smiled his secret smile. His eyes were blue.
He said “hey” and “hi” and “hello” and “you came for me, you really came for me.”
I said, “I did,” and “I had to,” and “You need to fight this, you need to fight this. For your pack. For me. Please do it for me.”
He nodded slowly before glancing over his shoulder.
Behind him, the younger version of himself was fighting against the wolf-hands.
And I thought maybe he was winning.
Mark turned back toward me. “He has to stay here, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah,” I said miserably. “We can’t—I can’t fix this. Not on my own. But we can contain it. We can close this door and keep it locked until we’re ready. I’ll help you. It’ll be you and me, okay? It’ll be you and me, and I will keep you safe.”
“Why?”
“I w
ould do anything for you.”
He reached up and touched the raven on his throat. “Because you’re my mate?”
I laughed wetly. “Yeah. Because I’m your mate.”
Oh, how that pleased him. How he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and I was consumed by the sight of him.
And then beside him, against the wards, was a door.
“Will this work?” he asked as we walked toward it.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because we’re the goddamn Bennett pack. Nothing will stop us. Not anymore.”
“It’s gonna be rough.”
“We’ve survived worse.”
The smile faded slightly. “We have, haven’t we?”
“And we’re still standing.”
He said, “Okay,” because it was that easy for him. To have faith in me.