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“I want to experience everything with you. You know I didn’t have the best encounter…”

She trailed off. Her thoughts likely broken by the rage and possession that pounded through my body. My mind returned to that night. The way I’d found her. Her guilt that I’d chosen to bear, something I would never tell her. Something I’d hold for the rest of our lives.

I wound a hand in her hair.

“You’re going to experience everything with me. Whatever you need.” I paused, then pressed, “What else do you dream of in this life?”

She hesitated as she peered over at me. “I might like a family of my own sometime.”

Her confession about Kai came back to me. The loss she’d felt over that baby when she thought she was going to raise him.

Sorrow and hope filled me to overflowing, and the loss and fear swam through my insides.

Did I want that? Could I give her that?

“What is it?” she asked with her lips pressed to my chest. Forever knowing me better than anyone.

“Need to tell you something, Lena.”

She lifted her head to stare at me through the shadows. “I’ll hold everything you are, too.”

“Felicity,” I hedged, fighting the gutting pain that cut through me.

She winced at the name, though she just waited.

Torment crawled my throat. I had never told a soul. Had never intended to. But she needed to know.

“She had a baby.” I could barely force it out.

A gush of realization wheezed out of Elena. Instantly knowing what I meant.

“A son.” I murmured it toward the ceiling. Praise and grief. “Wesley.”

Saying his name ripped me in two, and the W tattooed on my arm burned in an outline of fire.

“Oh God, Trevan. You’re a father.” I could feel her turmoil and joy bleed all over the place. Her understanding and acceptance.

I could barely nod.

“What happened?” she urged.

My mind spun through the memories. I wasn’t sure I could get all of it out. Wasn’t sure I could tell her everything. The shame and disgrace too great. “She didn’t want him a part of my world, so she left. Told me to stay away or else she’d take the entire club down…the whole family included.”

Elena hesitated, then whispered, “Did she break your heart?”

I barely shook my head. “I’d been planning on ending things with her before I found out. Only part of it that broke my heart was that she took my son with her.”

Tender fingertips traced my jaw. “Oh, Trevan.”

“I didn’t deserve him.”

Her eyes pinched in sincerity. “That’s not true.”

Regret shook my head. “He is better off without me in his life.”

Elena blinked, her care seeping out all around her, her voice this supportive whisper that softly swept through. “Do you really believe that when you’re one of the best people I know?”

Grief bottled my throat. “I did. I did believe it, and I let him go because I thought it was for the better. Accepted that he would be so much better off without me. I couldn’t imagine bringing a child into my world. With the way I was raised and being the person I became.”