AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Can I get a ride with you? I rode here in the ambulance.”
“Yeah, girl. I’ll take you wherever you wanna go. Your place, my place, whatever you’d like.”
Lana nodded and stood, gathering her things. I offered her a reassuring smile before turning to Cole. He was already settling back into his chair by Travis’s bedside, his presence a steady anchor in the dimly lit room. Our eyes met once more, and I almost said something. Almost apologized or asked for forgiveness. But I bit my tongue.
With a final glance at Travis, I quietly left the room with Lana, the weight of the night’s events following me into the hallway. As I walked alongside Lana, supporting her through her exhaustion, I couldn’t help but hope that Travis’s recovery would mark a turning point not only for him but for all of us. A chance to mend the fractures that had emerged in our pack and our relationships.
I could only hope that Cole would change his mind about the transitioning process. I wasn’t ready to lose him, but I also wasn’t ready to lose myself in another man’s decisions and convictions. I was done following other people’s rules. It was time for me to make my own decisions.
I still had a lot of soul-searching to do, but if I did choose to become a shifter and Cole couldn’t support me in a decision that would change both our lives, then...then maybe he didn’t deserve me.
And even though leaving him would be one of the hardest decisions I would make in my life, I would do it.
I would do it to protect myself.
I would do it to protect the identity I had worked so hard to build.
Chapter 10
Cole
I was relieved when Marley left with Lana, though I hated to admit it. I needed time and space to process the argument we’d had.
I knew I’d messed up and been wrong to go off on her like that, but her ultimatum had completely blindsided me. Where the hell had that come from? She told me she was prepared to leave me if I didn’t support her decision.
It stung more than I wanted to admit. Not because I thought I should be able to stop her—I understood why she felt she needed to do this—but because it hit home how little control I really had over my fate and hers. No matter what I wanted or how hard I tried to influence things, everything ultimately came down to her choice.
Maybe it was good that I’d been reminded of that. Maybe I really was out of line. Maybe I was no better than Wyatt after all. It bothered me so much to think that way. I loved Marley. I appreciated everything about her. I praised her. I worshipped her and the ground she walked on. And now she was telling me that we might not work out if I didn’t let her put her life at risk?
I looked at Travis, who was still dead asleep, propped up by many pillows, his pale brows knit together, his chest rising and falling. He could have died today. He could have died, and he didn’t even have the history of an aborted bite to complicate things. Marley did.
She believed that her choices were her own and that she would die on her feet rather than live on her knees. I respected that about her. In fact, it was one of the many reasons I was so attracted to her. So why did her request feel like such a betrayal?
Because it was. Deep down, I feared losing her. Losing someone who made me vulnerable. Someone who made me question my own beliefs and push myself beyond my limits. Someone I loved more than anything in the world, save for my son.
What had she told me? That I risked losing her either way?
It was hard not to resent her for saying that to me. I wanted to yell and fight, to grab her by her shoulders and shake her and tell her that she didn’t need to change. That she could stay exactly how she was and be accepted and celebrated in the pack.
Couldn’t she understand how scared I was of losing her? I wanted to beg her to reconsider. All these impulses warred inside me until I was certain that if I spoke to her again, I would say something irreversible. Something neither of us could come back from.
“You look like someone shit in your cereal,” a ragged voice said.
I jolted and looked at the bed, finding Travis awake and looking at me with heavy-lidded eyes. He gave me a smirk and lolled his head to the side in a groggy haze.
“Hey, man,” he said.
“Trav.”
He nodded, taking note of the tense silence between us. “So, what happened? Haven’t seen you look like that since Olivia was still in the picture.”
“Just a disagreement,” I muttered. “It’s not important. Let me get the doctor.”
He shook his head. “Don’t bother, I’m fine. Just fucking disoriented as hell. How long have I been out?”
I snorted, a small smile cracking through my bleak demeanor. “Most of the day. We got here around dinnertime. You just missed Lana. She waited by your bed from the minute we were allowed in.”
Travis grinned, rolling onto his side. “God, I love her,” he said. “Tell me, was she freaking the fuck out the whole time?”
