Page 71 of Holly Jolly Heat
"Because they saw what I was fighting," I said quietly. "They saw me falling and knew I needed the push."
"Did it work?" Lucas asked. "The push?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe it was Callie calling me out at three AM. Or maybe it was watching Dex fall and realizing Icouldn't stand the thought of losing any of you. Or maybe—" I looked at them, "—maybe it was all of it. Every moment. Every conversation. Every time you showed me that pack doesn't mean losing myself. It means finding the missing pieces."
"And?" Ro prompted gently.
"And I'm done fighting it. I'm done running. I'm done pretending this is just business when it's so much more." I took a breath. "I'm yours. You're mine. We're pack."
The words hung in the air between us. A declaration. A surrender. A beginning.
Lucas's hand found mine across the table. "Say it again."
"We're pack."
"Again."
"We're pack, Lucas."
He smiled, bright and beautiful and absolutely devastating. "Best words I've ever heard."
"We should probably talk about logistics," I said, my brain trying to engage professional mode even now. "The professional side. How we manage this publicly. The ethics of?—"
"Tomorrow," Dex interrupted gently. "Tonight, we just be. Tomorrow we plan."
"I'm not good at just being."
"We know," Ro said, smiling slightly. "But you're learning. Tonight was a big step, admitting how you feel. Letting yourself be vulnerable. Accepting pack."
"Tonight was terrifying."
"Tonight was brave," Lucas corrected.
We sat in the quiet kitchen, drinking hot chocolate, and I let myself feel it. The rightness. The belonging. The sense that I'd been fighting against the current and had finally stopped struggling and let it carry me home.
"I'm still scared," I admitted. "Of all of it. The professional complications, the vulnerability, the potential for loss. All of it."
"That's okay," Dex said. "We're scared too."
"You are?"
"Of course. Scared we're not enough. Scared you'll realize you don't actually need us. Scared we'll somehow mess this up and lose you." He met my eyes. "Fear is part of love, Michelle. The question isn't whether you're scared. It's whether you let the fear stop you."
"And I'm not," I said. "Letting it stop me. Not anymore."
"Good," Lucas said, squeezing my hand. "Because we're not going anywhere."
We finished our hot chocolate in comfortable silence, and when Lucas suggested we move to the living room ("Because kitchen chairs are not comfortable for emotional breakthroughs"), no one argued.
We settled on the couch, me in the middle, Lucas on my left, Ro on my right, Dex in the armchair nearby. The Christmas tree lights were still on, casting soft colored light across the room.
It felt like Christmas morning. Like opening a gift I'd been too scared to reach for.
"Tell us about the call with Callie," Ro said. "What did she say that helped?"
So I told them. About Callie's scent-match going viral, about how going public had actually helped her career, about the changing industry attitudes. About her asking what I wanted to catch me when I fell.
"She sounds wise," Lucas observed.
