Chapter 117
Cole
She was trembling under my touch. Her scent was confused—arousal mixed with shock, satisfaction tangled with horror.
Through the bond, I felt Asher and Blake's approval rolling like thunder.
Well done, brother, Asher sent.
Should've killed him, Blake added. But I guess this works.
"Did I scare you?" I asked, needing to know. Needing to hear it from her.
"Yes," she whispered.
The word punched through me. But then—
"Good." I kissed her forehead, breathing in her white musk and snow. "You should know what I'm capable of. What we're all capable of. For you."
Devon and two other players moved forward silently, dragging Tyler's broken body toward the parking lot. Nobody met my eyes. Nobody dared look at Kara.
Perfect.
I guided her toward the Tesla, my arm around her waist. She leaned into me, and that was—everything.
"Let's get you home," I said.
"What about—" She glanced at the blood trail in the snow.
"Devon will handle it. Tyler will heal." My voice went flat. "And he'll remember every second of today for the rest of his life."
In the car, Kara finally seemed to breathe. But her hands were still shaking in her lap.
The question escaped before I could stop it. "Do you hate me now?"
Silence stretched between us. Through the bond, I felt her turning the question over. Really thinking about it.
Please don't hate me. Please don't be afraid of me. Please—
"No," she said finally. "I'm terrified of what you did. But I'm also... relieved? That you'd do that for me?"
The knot in my chest loosened. I reached for her hand, threading our fingers together. Blood still stained my knuckles, but she didn't pull away.
"Always," I promised. "No matter what it costs."
Through the bond, I felt Asher and Blake speeding toward home. Coming to check on her. Coming to make sure she was okay after what I'd done.
Kara looked down at our joined hands. Her thumb traced over my bruised knuckles, the blood there already drying.
"This is what being Luna means, isn't it?" Her voice was quiet. "Not just pretty dresses and parties. This. Violence. Protection."
"Yes." I wouldn't lie to her. Not about this. "Being Luna means being protected. But it also means witnessing what we'll do to anyone who threatens you."
She closed her eyes, leaning into my cool mint scent. I felt the moment she accepted it—not happily, not easily, but accepted it nonetheless.
"Then I guess I better learn to live with it."
My wolf rumbled with satisfaction. With pride.
She understands. She accepts what we are. What we'll do for her.
"We'll help you," I said softly. "We'll teach you to control your Luna aura so you don't lose yourself like that again. We'll protect you so you never have to do what I just did."
"But you'll do it again if you have to." Not a question.
"In a heartbeat." I brought her hand to my lips, kissing her knuckles. "You're ours, Kara. Our mate. Our Luna. Our everything. And anyone who forgets that will bleed for it."
She was quiet for a long moment. Then, so soft I almost missed it:
"Mine too. You're mine too."
Kara
The Tesla's engine hummed soft and low as Cole steered us away from Northern High, but we weren't heading toward Midnight Estate. The realization crept over me slowly, my breath still uneven from the library incident, from watching him break Tyler's fingers one by one in the snow.
"Where are we going?" My voice came out smaller than I intended.
Through the bond, I felt his careful consideration before he answered. "Somewhere you can actually breathe."
Cole's hand found mine across the center console, his cool mint and ozone scent washing over me in soothing waves. "Trust me?"
I nodded, unable to speak past the lump in my throat.
We drove in silence down Seward Highway, the winter landscape blurring past the windows. Twenty-five minutes stretched between us, filled only with the quiet rhythm of our breathing and the occasional crackle of ice beneath the tires.
When we finally pulled off the highway, I recognized Beluga Point immediately. The famous viewpoint where tourists came to watch for white whales in summer, where the local pack's mated pairs came to...
Oh.
My cheeks flushed hot despite the frigid air. This was that spot. The place whispered about in school hallways, where couples came for privacy and the stunning view.
Cole parked facing the frozen expanse of Turnagain Arm. The sight stole my breath—massive chunks of black and white ice floated in the steel-gray water, mountains rising like sentinels in the distance, their peaks dusted with fresh snow that caught the weak winter sunlight.
"It's beautiful," I whispered.
"Not as beautiful as you." His voice held that gentle warmth I was still learning to accept. "But I thought the view might help."
I turned to find him watching me with those impossibly blue eyes, his black hair falling across his forehead in a way that made my fingers itch to brush it back. The cool mint and ozone scent of him filled the car's interior, wrapping around me like a protective barrier against the world outside.
"Cole—"
"Tell me the rest." His interruption was soft but firm. "Everything Tyler said to you before the library."
My stomach dropped. "I already told you—"
"No." He shifted in his seat to face me fully, one hand still gripping mine. "You told me what happened in the library. But I can feel it through the bond, baby. There's more. Something you're holding back."
I tried to look away, but he caught my chin gently, turning me back to meet his gaze. His thumb traced along my jaw, the simple touch sending shivers down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
"We promised no secrets, remember? I need to know all of it. Not to punish you," he added quickly, feeling my flash of panic through the bond. "But because I can't protect you from what I don't understand. And right now, there's this... rage sitting in your chest that you haven't fully released."
He was right. God, he was right. The anger still simmered beneath my skin, not at Cole's violence but at every word Tyler had thrown at me. Every implication that I wasn't enough, wasn't worthy, had only gotten here through my body and not my own merit.
"He cornered me in the hallway," I began, my voice barely above a whisper. "Before lunch. Said—said things about my 'debt-slave bloodline' not being fit for a Luna. Called me Carrot, like the old days. Like I was still just... just the hired help pretending to be something more."
Cole's hand tightened on mine, but he stayed silent, letting me continue. I felt his scent shift slightly—the mint sharpening, the ozone crackling with barely contained electricity.
"He asked if the marks were real. If I'd just—" My throat closed up. "If I'd just fucked my way into the position. If that's all I was good for."
The temperature in the car plummeted. Frost began creeping across the edges of the windshield in delicate patterns as Cole's scent shifted dangerously, the cool mint turning razor-sharp, mixing with the electric crackle of an oncoming thunderstorm.
His knuckles went white on the steering wheel.
"And you didn't tell me." His voice was too calm, too controlled. "If I hadn't felt your terror through the bond when he touched you, would you have told me any of this?"
Shame burned through me. "I... I don't know. Maybe not all of it."