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“Yeah, he helped us out a lot. I still owe him some money and—” She blinked rapidly. “Shit on a stick, I owe him a favor too.”
“A favor?”
She squeezed my hand. “He was going to get us papers again, but that’s why I’m here. I don’t want to run anymore, Slater. I don’t want my kids to not know who you are to them, or to have to be on the road. Changing their names the first time was easy because they were small. But now?”
“They’re so aware of themselves now.”
“I don’t want to force them to do anything. But I saw—in town—I saw that—” She whimpered and scooted toward me. “I saw Dirk’s hatchback nearThe Greasy Jester, and I got scared.”
She fell into my arms and cried. A lifetime of pain spilled from her then, soaking up my jeans and ripping a few errant tears from me as well. Sweet gods, she was suffering silently. She had been suffering for years. I couldn’t imagine how good it felt to finally just let everything out.
“And Blake kept your secret for you,” I whispered as I stroked her hair. “He wanted to protect you.”
“He told me to tell you when I was ready, but…”
I sighed. “You never were ready.”
She shot up from my lap and wiped her face. “I’m ready now, Slater. I don’t want to hide anymore. I don’t want to run. I love you so much that it hurts.”
Statements like that weren’t to be taken lightly. I stroked her cheek while searching her eyes for her conviction—and what I saw was pure devotion. “Do you mean it?”
“I mean it.”
“It’s going to take a lot of work.”
She smiled weakly. “I’ll do as much work as I can. I don’t want to lie to you ever again. It felt so gross to do it. I felt scared all the time.”
“Were you ever afraid of me?”
She flinched—and that was when I knew the answer to the question without her saying a damn word. But I needed her to talk to me. I needed her to admit things out loud so we could talk about them.
Neither of us could afford to hide. “Take your time. But it’s important, Ginny darling. I don’t want to go around scaring you if we’re going to try to work things out.”
She lowered her gaze. “Back when we had our midnight picnic, you threw that wine bottle.”
“Did you think I was going to hurt you?”
“Not logically.” She squeezed her eyes shut and shivered. “But my body was scared. Like it was an old memory that cropped up, you know?”
I held her shoulder lightly. “I’ll never do something like that again. I’m sorry, baby.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean I get to act however I want around you. If something I do scares you, I want you to tell me so I can fix it.”
More tears came, but these were happy tears. I swept a few away and then kissed her nose, adoring the way she giggled as a result. It was good to see her smile. It was good to have her near me. My heart didn’t feel like it was dying inside my chest, and I could tell she was feeling much the same.
We were meant for each other. Couldn’t our alphas understand that?
“You know, there was a point when I felt like the twins were mine,” I whispered. “Guess that’s a funny feeling now. I had plenty of funny feelings about you.”
“Like what?”
I invited her under my wing. She leaned into me, resting with the kind of ease that translated as trust. It felt good to feel it. “You called me a guest in your house one day. I got offended.”
She snickered. “No way.”
“Listen, we shouldn’t make a big deal of it, but something in my spirit knew that you all were my family. I guess I was right.”
