time during her speech. “I can’t be with you.”
“It isn’t weakness to rely on someone else, Zoe,” he said, approaching her, needing to touch her, feeling that if he could just get his hands on her, she wouldn’t be able to slip out of his life like smoke on the wind. “I’ve spent my entire life protecting everyone around me, doing it all myself, being the rock. You were the first person I depended on. I wouldn’t have let you watch my back if you were weak.” Close enough to touch her now, he gently brushed a hand across her jaw, cupping it. “I wouldn’t love you if you weren’t a warrior.”
She started to speak, but he could see on her face it was going to be denial, so he spoke over her, willing her to believe him. “I thought we made a pretty good team. You kept me from getting myself shot a second time. Turns out having someone to watch your back isn’t such a bad thing. So who’s gonna do that if you leave me?”
“I know you, Tyler. I don’t want to be another obligation, another person for you to protect.”
“You won’t be,” he vowed. “It isn’t easy for me to let you put yourself at risk, but I don’t ever want to hurt you or hold you back. I’m going to fuck up sometimes. I’m going to try to protect you, no matter what, but I’ll try to listen when you tell me I’m being a complete dipshit. And those obligations…” Tyler shook his head, trying to find the right words, unused to pouring his heart out. He swallowed thickly and tried again, not caring if the words were pretty as long as they were true. “My siblings are my life.”
“And you deserve a life of your own—”
“No, let me finish. My life wouldn’t be anything without my obligations. Without Ava and Michael and Caleb and Kane. They make it… They give my days reason and happiness. And you…my life would be empty without you, Zoe. I need you. I love you. Could you please say something and stop looking at me like that?”
Her lips quirked in a small smile, but he couldn’t celebrate yet. The smile was too sad. “I don’t want to stay here and raise a bunch of cubs.”
“I don’t want that either. Maybe kids. Someday down the road. But I want to leave Three Rocks too. Just you and me.”
She was already shaking her head. “You know you won’t abandon your siblings, Tyler. It isn’t in you to walk away from your responsibilities.”
“They’re grown now. And I won’t be abandoning anyone. Landon will need an ambassador to go to the other prides and packs, warn them about the Organization, make a plan for the future. Hell, maybe even talk about coming out to the humans.” He grinned. “I seem to remember someone thought that was a good idea.”
Zoe’s expressive face had stilled, a thoughtful light kindling in her eyes. “Ambassador?”
Tyler brushed his thumb over the fullness of her lower lip, marking his place. “We need to band together, all the shifters, if we’re going to have any chance of survival, but not all the prides are going to come easily. A trusted, persuasive emissary to travel around the world, acting on behalf of our families and our people… It would have to be a pair. So there’s always someone there to watch out for you…”
Tyler bent and pressed a soft kiss onto Zoe’s lips.
“It’s okay to rely on me, Zoe. I will always be here for you.” He kissed her again, longer this time, lingering in the warmth of her mouth. “It’s okay to need me,” he whispered against her lips. “I need you right back.” He kissed her a third time, deep and drugging, putting everything he felt, everything he hoped for into each caress. “It’s okay to love me…”
“I do.”
He dared put his arms around her. “Just don’t leave me.”
“I can’t. I won’t,” she promised, tugging him down for another kiss, fiercer and more passionate than the last. That single vow lit a fuse in his soul, sending him up like a firecracker exploding in the sky. When she finally pulled back, they were both breathless, clinging to one another to stay upright. They stood in front of the garage, in full view of anyone who cared to walk by, but Tyler couldn’t care less.
Zoe was his. Finally, irrevocably, perfectly his.
About damn time.
About the Author
Vivi Andrews lives in Alaska when