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I slid my arm around his shoulders, giving him the real me instead of a leather substitute. He flinched, then leaned into the touch.
“Let’s go inside,” I said.
He let me guide him back up to his apartment. The lock was busted, the strike plate hanging loose from the frame. I got a chair from the kitchen table and wedged it under the handle. Temporary fix. I’d replace the whole thing tomorrow.
Niles sat on the couch with his knees pulled up to his chest. His feet were bare, his hair was a wild mess. He looked small, frightened, and it gutted me to see him this way.
“I knew he was creepy,” he said. “I knew it yesterday. The way he looked at me. The way he stood in the hallway. I should’ve told Mrs. Calloway.”
“This wasn’t your fault.”
“He was in my apartment.” His voice cracked. “He got through my door.”
I sat beside him, and he unfolded just enough to lean into me, his body curling toward mine like a plant seeking light. My arm came around him, my chin resting on top of his head.
“You’re safe,” I reassured him, but I needed to hear those words too. Although I’d stopped Niles from thinking about Morton’s intentions, they unfolded in my skull. If I hadn’t stayed the night…
“Because you were here.”
“Then I’ll keep being here.”
The building held an eerie silence, like it was giving us time to process without the interference of noise. The chair under the doorknob cast a strange shadow on the wall that I focused on while trying to shake those haunting thoughts. Niles’ hand found mine, and he laced our fingers together.
“What if you hadn’t been here?” he asked again.
“Don’t, sweetheart.”
“I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Then think about this.” I turned my head, pressing my lips to his hair. “I was here. I’ll be here tomorrow. And the day after. And every day you want me here.”
His breath hitched. He glanced up at me with those green eyes. The fear was still there, lurking in the corners, but something else was pushing through. Something that made me hold my breath.
“You mean that,” he said.
“I mean it.”
“This is the part where I make a joke to deflect my emotions.”
“This is the part where you don’t have to.”
A small smile surfaced. The expression was fragile but real. “You’re ruining my coping mechanisms.”
“I’ll ruin all of them.”
He laughed—a small sound, barely there, but fuck if it didn’t ease the tension in my shoulders.
“I want you to stay,” he said.
“I’m staying.”
“I mean permanently.” His fingers curled into my shirt. “Move in. Or I’ll move out. Whatever gets me closer to wherever you are.”
The offer was so sudden and so earnest that it took my brain a second to realize what he’d said. This was Niles—chaotic, sassy, leaping toward me with complete trust. But underneath the chaos was something real he wanted to build with me.
“You want me to move in,” I said.
“I’m aware it’s fast, that we’ve known each other for a very short time, and my apartment is tiny. My plant is emotionally distant. I have a father who leaves passive-aggressive gifts in my bedroom.” His words came faster, tumbling over each other. “But you just stopped a man from doing something terrible, and you’re a wolf shifter, and I’m your mate, and I don’t want to sleep alone anymore. So, there’s my case.”
