Page 108 of Wolf Cursed
He laughed.
I looked around, noting the vinyl wall paneling and thin as hell windows. It reminded me so much of the house I’d left behind. Not a home. Too temporary and toxic for that. But it was the last place I’d been with my father. The memory brought tears to my eyes.
“What are you thinking about?”
I blinked, forcing myself to refocus. Kai stood watching me curiously. I sighed.
“My dad,” I admitted.
“Do you miss home?” he asked.
I tried to figure out how to answer that. “This trailer reminds me of the one we lived in before— It was the last place we lived,” I finished.
“You lived in a lot of places?”
“Yeah,” I said with a laugh that contained zero humor. “You could say that.” I looked up to see if there was judgment in him. But there was only curiosity. And caring. “Fourteen places in five years,” I said. “Or something like that. I lost count.”
He walked over to perch on the edge of Crater’s desk right in front of where I sat in the wheeled chair. Our eyes met.
“I’m sorry about your dad,” he said quietly. “I don’t think I ever said that before.”
“I’m sorry about yours too.”
“Don’t be. My dad’s better off now. Hell, we both are.” He cocked his head. “You miss the trailer?”
“I miss my dad. But I lost the version I miss a long time ago.”
“Yeah, I know that feeling.”
Silence fell, and I did my best to shove all the ghosts from my pasts into the back of my mind. What mattered was this moment. With Kai. And the next moment. And the next.
“This means a lot, Kai. Thank you for sharing it.”
He blew out a breath. “It’s a little weird, I know.”
“It’s yours,” I said with a shrug.
He reached for my hand and pulled me to my feet. With the way he’d slouched down, we were eye to eye now. My breath caught, and I stilled, drawn into the sudden intensity of his gaze.
“I used to belong here, Ash. To this town. To Crater’s. Oscar’s. Not anymore, though.”
Tears burned my eyes. I felt those words all the way to my soul.
“Where do you belong now?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“With you,” he said simply, and the walls around my heart cracked wide open. “I know I was an ass about it, but I can’t afford to risk you. To risk this. And the pack…they’d use you against me.”
His stare was intent now as if searching for some answer he needed. Some sign.
“If that happened,” he went on. “I’d burn it all to the damned ground. I needed you to see this place. To understand how much it means to me. Because I’d give it up in a second for you. And that scared the shit out of me before. But not anymore. There’s only one thing that scares me now, and that’s losing you.”
“You’re not losing me,” I said.
But there was real fear in his eyes. A fear I knew too well. Especially since losing my dad.
“I’m not asking you to choose, Kai. You don’t have to give anything up for me.”
He shook his head like he was suddenly frustrated. “Maybe you should. Ask me, I mean. Because the answerisyou. I choose you, Ash.”
