Page 53 of Fat Enemy Mate

“W-Wilf,” she cries, “are you ok? Your throat.”

I don’t care about any of that; I only care about telling her everything I should have told her long before now. Not hiding, not pretending. Just the truth.

"Lara," I say, my voice still weak but determined to be heard. "I love you. I should have told you ages ago. I knew it, but I didn’t want to believe it. I looked for all the reasons it wouldn’t work when it was actually the simplest thing in the world, and I think I knew it right from the moment I met you."

She makes a small, broken sound against my forehead, and I think for one awful moment she’s going to take it all back, and she was only talking out of shock. I brace myself for the rejection.

"I love you," she says, on a shaking breath. "Wilf, I love you. I should have told you I was too stuck on what I thought was true to believe my own heart. I'm so sorry."

"Lara…"

"I love you," she says again, like she's checking it lands. "Tell me you’re going to be ok?"

"I’ll heal," I tell her. "I’ll be ok, Lara. I love you."

I close my eyes for a second with her forehead on mine, her hands on the wound at my chest, and her tears wet on my cheek, and my wolf, who has been pacing in me since the lottery a month ago, finally feels satisfied.

I realize we’re still surrounded by my pack, who have mostly moved away to give us privacy, but Luna crouches down beside us.

"Wilf, you need to lie still for me, please," she says quietly. "Your wolf is doing the work and doing it fast, but you need to let him finish before you move. Lara, you don't have to move. You don't have to do anything. Stay where you are. He's not going anywhere, and neither are you."

"Madelina…the witch," I start.

"Gone, Wilf," Luna tells me. "She ran when things got difficult. Anya can't track her through the cloaking, and the road's been searched. But we’ll find her. We’ll deal with all that later."

I don't argue, not because I don’t care, but because I know the others are on that. Right now, the only thing that matters is the woman who has just sunk into my arms on the dirty floor. My mate. The mate who hasn’t rejected me, the one who doesn’t know about lotteries or shifter magic. She just knows me. She has chosen me.

I close my eyes and let myself have the moment, my arms wrapped around Lara and my wolf healing, in more ways than one.

Chapter 24 - Lara

Fern is doing something complicated to the back of my hair that I've given up trying to even follow along in the mirror. She's got a handful of pins and a look of total concentration; every so often, she tells me tohold stilleven though I haven't moved. The bedroom is filled with the scent of the wildflowers Skylar brought over this morning to fill the room and also make up my bouquet. It's the first properly warm day of the year, and with the windows open, you can literally hear the forest coming to life all around the cabin.

"If you keep frowning, your face will stay like that," Skylar laughs.

"I'm not frowning," I tell her. "It’s just my natural expression."

"It's a frown," Fern agrees, adding even more pins.

Dina is in the armchair in the corner with her feet up, baby in her arms.I’ve gotten to know her well over the last few weeks, as, despite having a gorgeous new baby, she’s still actively involved in all the tactical situations, especially since Reyhan’s attack. Tonight, though, she looks the most relaxed I've seen her, and she keeps grinning at me in a way that's making me self-conscious.

"What," I say to her.

"Nothing," Dina says. "You just look happy. It's annoying. I came up here ready to help manage your nerves, and you're completely fine."

"I think she got over her nerves earlier," Luna says, coming back in from the kitchen with a tray of glasses. "I did find her pacing on the porch when I arrived."

"I was just checking the weather," I tell her.

"You were pacing," Luna laughs, but look at you now.

She’s right. I was pacing earlier. Wilf was setting off to get ready with Connor and the others, and it hit me: the magnitude of what we’re doing today. Not because I doubt it, but just the weight of the moment. I wish my father were here, and yet he would have been horrified that I would mate a shifter. I cling to the thought that my father was a good man, a great man, and had he gotten to know Wilf and everyone in Silvercreek, I’ve no doubt they would have changed his opinion of shifters, too.

My nerves lingered all day and only began to settle as the women arrived, one truck at a time, bringing flowers, food, and drinks, insisting on doing my hair and make-up, and making me feel like I’m exactly where I should be.

"Right," Fern says, fixing my hair with copious amounts of spray and stepping back. "Look."

I really look at myself for a moment. She's pinned my hair up off my neck with a few bits left loose, and there's a sprig of something delicate and white tucked into it. I don't recognize the woman in the mirror. She looks like someone who sleeps at night and isn’t afraid of anything; she looks loved.