Page 47 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
She blinked.
“I’ve never once thought you were lacking anything. Not then. Not now.”
Her voice was a whisper, “You really mean that?”
He nodded. “Every word.”
They stood there, just looking at each other as if truly seeing each other for the first time.
Then Cassie reached for his hand, lacing her fingers through his.
He squeezed gently.
And then, for the first time since he met her, Felix felt like maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t completely lost.
Chapter 15 - Cassie
As they neared Silvermist, it was all Cassie could do to keep the beating of her heart in check.
Close. Too close. She had revealed too much of herself, let him see too much, and he had nearly discovered her secret.
He said he didn’t care, wouldn’t care, that he would tear anybody who threatened her apart, but she couldn’t tell him this. How could she? It put his boys in danger, his pack. These people, the things they said they would do to her, the lengths they would go to…
She made a deal with herself then and there. If they ever got close, if she ever sensed their presence, she was gone. She would leave. Her wages from this job were generous enough that she had a good amount saved. Maybe she could cross the border into Canada, or catch a flight to Europe. Make a completely new life for herself.
Anything to protect the people that she now considered her family.
Because, like it or not, she had made a life in Silvermist. Somehow, without even realizing it, she had stitched herself into the fabric of the town. Into the boys’ bedtime routines, into Daisy’s sweetness, into the chaos of the pack. Into Felix.
And last night had only complicated things further.
She kept stealing glances at him as they walked, as though trying to memorize his expression when he wasn’t looking. There had been such care in his face when she told him the truth. No disgust, no awkwardness, no gloating. Just…gentleness. Reverence, almost. Like she’d handed him something precious and he knew exactly how to hold it.
He’d told her once that he wasn’t a gentle man, no matter what anyone said. She knew now with utter certainty how wrong he really was.
She hadn’t expected his reaction at all. He had looked sostaggered, like the world had tilted slightly on its axis.
I would’ve made sure you knew how much it meant to me.
And ithadmeant something. To her, at least. More than she had let herself admit. And now that the memory was no longer tangled in shame or fear, she could feel the sweetness of it curling inside her chest like a warm thread of light.
But then came the shadow.
The debts.
The lie.
It coiled at the edge of her mind like a serpent, hissing reminders:
You don’t belong here. You’re not safe. They’ll find you.
Cassie knew how people looked at her. A little wide-eyed, a little surprised when she showed steel behind her smile. No one ever really assumed someone like her was capable of disappearing. But she had. She’d walked away from so many old lives with nothing but a bag and the number of a new diner to work at scribbled on the back of a receipt.
She’d gotten a few more years with her mother. And for that, she was eternally grateful. But it came with strings. Debts to the wrong sorts of people. And they weren’t the kind to forget. They weren’t the kind to forgive.
Her fingers clenched unconsciously around the strap of her bag.
She couldn’t let Felix see how frightened she was. Not now. Not after he had looked at her like that, like she was worth something. He would try to protect her. He’d make promises. But he had sons to think about. A pack. A whole territory to lead.
