Page 92 of Tempted By the Alpha Outlaw

I let out a rough breath, my chest aching. “And maybe I started to believe her.”

Reyes doesn’t say anything, just watches me with that same quiet patience, like he’s letting me pull the words out one at a time.

“I should’ve told her,” I rasp, rubbing my palms against my thighs like I can scrub the guilt off me. “I should’ve told her. But I kept thinking I could fix it before she found out. That I could make it right before it got to this point.” I drag a hand down my face. “And instead, I just made it worse.”

The weight of it crashes down on me all over again, pressing me into the floor.

Reyes tilts his head, his voice quiet when he finally speaks. “And what do you want me to do with all of this, Colt?”

I lift my chin, meeting his gaze. “I want you to do what’s right for the den. Whatever that is.”

Reyes doesn’t answer right away. He just looks at me, his amber eyes taking me apart piece by piece. Not with anger. Not even with disappointment.

Just understanding.

And that’s worse.

I brace myself for him to tell me I’m no better than the bastards who sent me here, that I deserve whatever’s coming. Hell, I do deserve it. If he tells me to pack my shit and run, if he calls for the pack to exile me, even if he says they have to kill me…I won’t fight it. But he just exhales, rubbing a hand over his jaw.

And when he speaks, it’s not at all what I expect.

“You know,” he says, his voice low, thoughtful, “the first time I saw Tilda, she was aiming a rifle at me. In fact…she shot me.”

I blink.

Reyes leans back against the desk, tilting his head like he’s remembering it. “She was sent here to kill me. To destroy this pack. That was her mission–and she almost did it.” He meets my gaze, and there’s no anger, no judgment—just a quiet, heavy truth. “If I hadn’t given her the chance to change, if I’d let the past dictate what I thought she was capable of…she wouldn’t be here now.”

I stare at Reyes, trying to process what he just said.

She was sent here to kill me. And she almost did it.

It doesn’t make sense.

Tilda is his. His mate, his second-in-command, the woman he trusts with his life. And she nearly ended him?

I shake my head, jaw tight. “That’s not the same,” I mutter. “She had a mission, yeah, but she didn’t?—”

Reyes lifts a brow, waiting for me to finish that sentence.

I don’t.

Because what I was about to say was bullshit, and we both know it.

She did betray them. She did come here to hurt this pack. And yet…

“She earned her place here,” Reyes says simply, like he already knows where my mind went. “She fought for it. She chose to make things right.”

I let out a rough breath, dragging a hand through my hair. “I don’t—I don’t know how to fix this.”

Reyes exhales through his nose, watching me for a long, quiet moment. Then he tilts his head. “And what makes you think I’m the one who gets to decide that?”

I blink.

I expected judgment. Condemnation. Hell, even exile. But this? This calm, this patience, this fucking mercy?—

It makes me feel like I’m about to break.

I shake my head. “If not you, then who? What, God?” The words come out more bitter than I mean them to.

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