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I nod. “I remember you saying that.”

“Before New York was a whole heap of shit menial jobs, sleepless nights, roach infested apartments, and far too many close encounters with less than friendly shifters on the way to find a place that we could call home.”

“That’s why you chose Winter Lake? It felt like home?”

He shakes his head, smiling wryly. “I was pretty sick of people by the time I got to New York. Bennett felt much the same way. We both wanted somewhere we could live our own lives, not be surrounded by crowds, and build something that was just ours.”

I smile. “Ah, and a quiet retirement town was what you found.”

He slides his arm around my back, drawing me closer. “We didn’t find it. I like to thinkitfoundus.”

I’m trying not to think about the reason Mack is here, and that there is a world outside these four walls. But that world is still there, and I can’t ignore it even though I’d like to pretend it isn’t there.

I think about the reason Mack is here.

The reason Shane kidnapped me.

Dread forms in the pit of my belly at what it must mean.

Nothing good.

“Mack…”

He kisses me. “Tomorrow, Aerin. Let me have today, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”

18

MACK

Ispend hours watching Aerin sleep.

One day. That’s what Franklin promised me when I made the decision to return to the Raleighs.

Not because this is the life I want. It isn’t. My life—and my future—is wrapped up in the beautiful woman currently sleeping in my arms.

But sometimes you have to do things that hurt. Things that mean those you love get to have a future they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Things that require sacrifice.

Her pert nose twitching is the first sign she’s awake, and as always, it requires brute force not to kiss every single one of the pretty freckles on her nose.

“I feel you watching me,” she says, her voice husky.

“Why did you always hate your freckles?” I ask her.

She flutters her eyes open and looks at me for several seconds without speaking. Before she’s said a word, I know she’s going to say something painful.

“It was another failing,” she says quietly.

I brush back the hair from her face. “You say that like you have a bucket full of them. You don’t.”

A faint smile drifts across her lips. “You never seem to notice my failings.”

I make my eyes wide. “Failings? What failings do you mean?”

That smile grows, and she takes my hand, squeezing it. “My freckles were something that I used to think were the reason Shane didn’t want me. I know it sounds stupid, but I thought if I was beautiful or blonde or had fewer freckles, then he would have been kinder.”

I don’t waste my time hating Shane for hurting Aerin. He’s dead. He can’t hurt her anymore.

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