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“It isn’t. We’re—goddammit. It’s not just you, okay? Aileen and Patrice are right. We’ve lost our w
ay. But that’s not forever. We’ll find out how to fix all of this. We’ve come too far, been through too much, to have it all end like this.”
“But you’re still a human.”
“And I hate it,” he said. I started to get up, but he reached out and gripped my hand tightly. His skin was warm, his fingers thin and bony. “I feel weak and tired all the fucking time. But it brought you back to me. And I would do it again and again and again. You said you would do anything for someone you cared about. Me too. My wolf was taken from me. I can barely breathe at the loss of it. I feel like I’m cut off from everything I’ve ever known, and there are days when I think I’m losing my mind.” He swallowed thickly. “But I got you back, so it was worth it.”
He turned his hand over, his fingers grazing against my wrist. His pulse fluttered just underneath his skin.
“Chris and Tanner have had time,” he said. “They’ve come to terms. And once they knew where you were, we had to stop them, physically stop them, from going across the country and storming the compound and killing everyone who stood between you and them. Jessie too. Rico…. It’ll take time, but I know he’ll come around. You’re home, Robbie. At last.”
I held on to him with all my might. I thought he would bruise, but he didn’t try to pull away. “What do we do now?”
He cocked his head. “Now? We try again. Maybe things won’t be the same, but you’re still you. Deep inside. You’re still the Robbie I know. And even if things don’t work out between us, even if we never get back to where we were, it’ll be okay because I’ll have you here. And that’s the most important thing.” He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe you’ll want to find someone else to—”
I shook my head furiously. “No. I don’t—that’s not what I want. I don’t want that. I want….”
I wanted a pack who loved me.
Who trusted me.
Who never wanted to let me go.
Who missed me when I was gone.
Who thought about me and smiled.
I wanted a home.
He watched me as I struggled to put into words this overwhelming desire, this thing within me that I had dreamed about for as long as I could remember. I’d had it once. I wanted it again more than anything.
He said, “Then we start again. We take it one day at a time, and we start again.”
“How?” I asked helplessly.
He pulled his hand away, and I bit back a protest at the loss.
I was bewildered when he held it out to me. “Kelly Bennett.”
I stared at it. And him.
He wiggled his fingers.
I took his hand carefully. He was breakable. He was soft. I didn’t remember him, but I wished I did, because I thought maybe he could be everything. He was a summer filled with green, like so much relief.
It was preposterous. This moment. Him. All of it. But he shook my hand up and down.
“I’m Robbie Fontaine,” I managed to say, feeling stupid. “It’s nice….”
“To meet me?” He sounded amused.
I shook my head. “No. Well, yeah. But it’s just… nice.”
“I think so too,” he said, and instead of letting me go again, he kept his hand on mine on the top of the table.
“What if this doesn’t work?”
“Maybe it won’t,” he said slowly. “But that won’t be because I didn’t give it all I had. I will fight for you, Robbie. No matter what.”
