Chapter 49: Confessions
304words
"I'm tougher than I look," I assured him. "Apparently being half werewolf has some advantages."
He chuckled, the sound warming me from within. "It certainly explains a few things. Your affinity for plants. Your fearlessness when you discovered what we are. The way you smell like pack even though you're human."
"Is that why you were so confused when we first met?" I asked. "Because I smelled… familiar somehow?"
He nodded. "It made no sense. You seemed human in every way, yet there was something about your scent that called to me, that felt… right."
"And now?" I asked, suddenly uncertain. "Knowing what I am, who my family is—does it change things?"
"It changes nothing," Liam said firmly. "Except perhaps explaining why I've been drawn to you from the beginning, despite my best efforts to resist."
"You did a pretty good job of resisting," I teased. "All that glowering and growling."
"I was protecting my pack," he defended, though his eyes were light with amusement. "And myself."
"From little old me?"
"From the way you made me feel," he admitted more seriously. "Vulnerable. Hopeful. Things an Alpha can't afford to be."
"And now?" I asked again.
"Now I know that those feelings don't make me weaker," he said, brushing his thumb across my cheek. "They make me stronger. You make me stronger, Charlie."
He kissed me again, and in that moment, I knew that whatever challenges lay ahead—Richard's judgment, my newfound heritage, the complex relationship between humans and werewolves—we would face them together.
The wall around Liam's heart had finally come down, and I had no intention of letting it go back up again.
