Marked

Chapter 58: For Her

Kane's POV:

I waited until Tess was asleep to try to move away from her. I'd learned over a short period of time she was observant, even in her sleep. Disentangling myself from her wasn't easy but I managed to do it, slowly. The second I pulled away from her it was like she reached for me, catching my pillow instead and pulling it against her chest. She was so fucking innocent and cuddly in her sleep. Nothing like she was awake.

I got away and off the bed carefully, looking back at her, unable to stop myself from staring. The moonlight lit up her blonde hair, cascading down over her face. She was so fucking beautiful, it seemed unreal. Way too beautiful for me and yet, I was taking her home with me tomorrow. Somehow, she decided to stay with me after everything I put her through, even knowing about my past.

I'd be working every day to make sure she never regretted that decision.

The moonlight also allowed me to see her mark. It was an incredible relief to see the silver mark instead of the ugly scar I left the first time. I didn't think she'd ever let me fix that and now that she had, seeing that mark on her flawless skin no longer made me hate myself. Not as much at least. I still hated myself for hurting her but the fact we'd grown close enough she let me make it up, that made it so her mark wasn't painful to look at anymore. I loved seeing it now. I loved being close to her in a way I never thought I could be close to anyone.

I love you, Kane.

Four words had never held so much weight. There was a part deep inside me that said I didn't deserve that love, and another part that said after everything me and my pack had been through, we did deserve a love like hers. A powerful, relentless yet soft kind of love that could sooth some of the pain from the past and give us hope for a better future. We needed a lighter future, and she was the key to having that.

I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, listening closely for her heartbeat. It stayed slow and steady so I pulled back and stood, walking away from her and out the door, quietly shutting it behind me.

Tess was more than I even realized I needed. I'd hoped for a mate that was good for me, that could challenge me, that could fill the spots in the pack I knew were missing, that could sleep with me every night and fill the space up with so much good the other would go away.

Tess was so much more than that.

Tess was everything. She challenged me, she pushed me, she accepted me, she made me want to be something good. Despite what she thought, she'd already done more for our pack than she could understand. That house being gone lifted a weight off all of us. There wasn't a single person that had a good memory there and to have it burned down and replaced with a place that felt more like a home, it was an explicable feeling. I wished I could properly convey it to her, and maybe at some point I could. It just wasn't easy to explain to someone that a place full of nightmares being conquered and defeated and replaced with a place that was actually, truly safe, grounded us in ways we didn't know we needed.

I wished more than anything things were going better, that we weren't off to a rocky start by a Beta challenging me and then eight of our wolves going missing and Tess getting hurt... It wasn't a great start, but she was still here, still wanted to come home with me. I felt the weight in our bond, that she was worried about our pack, worried she couldn't help us. I wished I could make her understand she already was making a difference. I'd never seen more smiles in my pack than I did with her around. I'd never felt more lightness.

Tess deserved the best and I'd find a way to be that. I would do anything for her. Anything meant I had to deal with the shit I'd been avoiding and so I listened to her steady heartbeat one more time before going downstairs and sitting down at the second to last step.