Page 49 of Easy, Tiger

"Where's Nolan?" I ask Sadie after meeting the last person.

"Amelia is checking his shoulder at his place. That fall you two took yesterday, plus shifting tonight, put a lot of strain on the new bone. She's giving him a heavy dose of her shifter poultice so he'll be back to a hundred percent by morning." Sadie smiles reassuringly. "He's been pacing a hole in the floor waiting for you, though."

She leads me to the largest cabin at the center of the enclave, serving as the physical and metaphorical heart of the community. Lamplight glows through windows framed by intricate woodwork I recognize as Nolan's craftsmanship.

"His alpha cabin," Sadie explains softly. "He uses the house near town for his woodworking business and interacting with locals, but this is his true home."

The door opens before we reach it.

"How are you holding up?" Nolan asks, searching my face for signs of panic or regret.

"Still processing, but not running."

"Yet."

The moment I clear the doorway, Sadie departs tactfully into the night behind me. Nolan's private space reflects everything I've learned about him—functional furniture built with artisan care, bookshelves lined with wilderness guides and woodworking manuals, and sketches of forest scenes pinned to the walls.

"Ask me anything," he says, collapsing into a chair across from the couch where I've claimed a corner. "I've hidden enough from you."

"All those weeks of hiking together, coffee at Ellie’s, dinners, and the bonfire. Was any of it hard? Pretending you didn't already know we were supposed to end up here?"

"Every day of it. There were nights I sat outside your cabin to make sure you were safe, and I'd have given anything to knock on your door and tell you everything right then. The bond doesn't exactly make patience easy."

"Then why wait?"

"Because I decided you deserved the chance to choose me for who I am, not because biology said you should."

The honesty in his voice eases the heavy knot in my chest. "I'm not afraid of what you are, Nolan."

"What are you afraid of?"

"Losing you to whatever's hunting your people. Watching you disappear into danger while I sit safely somewhere pretending I don't care."

He bends forward, elbows resting on his knees. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I want to fight beside you, not be protected from everything that matters." Anchored by his presence, I need him to understand this isn't a passing feeling brought on by moonlight and shock. "I spent six months letting other people decide who I was allowed to be. I'm not doing that again, not even for you."

His surprise dissolves, replaced by a grounded resolve. "That's not what I expected you to say."

"What did you expect?"

"Honestly? That you'd need weeks to even view me the same way." He reaches for my hand, lacing our fingers together like he's done a dozen times before, except now the gesture embodies the full reality of everything he is. "Instead, you walked through an entire hidden village in one night and came out the other side asking to help fight a hunter."

"I contain multitudes, Maren."

His laugh breaks something loose in the room, the tension of the whole night finally easing from his shoulders. "That you do."

Outside, the enclave descends into its nighttime peace, and as Nolan's hand finds mine in the quiet, I let myself believe this might actually work through shared effort and inevitable sacrifice.

18

NOLAN

Halsey sleeps better in my enclave cabin than I expected, curled beneath one of the quilts Sadie made years ago. Without a word, both of us understood that tonight had to be about rest, making the decision to give her the bedroom require no discussion at all. Monitoring her breathing even out in the lamplight through the cracked door, I marvel at how naturally she fits into this space that's been mine alone for so long.

Morning arrives with frost coating the windows and the welcome heat of coffee drifting from the main clearing. Halsey emerges from the bedroom, manifesting rumpled but determined, her hair escaping its braid in dark spirals.

"Sleep at all?" she asks, spotting the blanket folded on the couch where I spent the night.