Jaxon’s back was to me, his broad shoulders tense, his hands braced against the wooden beam as if he needed to hold the entire cabin up with his bare strength.
I could feel the weight in the air between us—thick, heavy, suffocating.
He hadn’t said a word since his promise to protect me.
But I could hear the war inside him. I could feel it in the taut line of his muscles, in the way his wolf paced restlessly just beneath his skin. I could sense it through the bond now humming quietly between us—a fragile thread neither of us dared to pull.
I sat in silence, giving him the space he didn’t ask for but clearly needed.
Finally, his voice broke the quiet. Low. Rough. Controlled.
Too controlled.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
The words landed like a stone in my chest.
I swallowed hard,
