Chapter 79

Abby

We didn’t complete the bond that night.

I was grateful for that.

Not because I had changed my mind.

Because I wanted time between choosing and doing.

I wanted the decision to belong to me long enough that I could feel its shape without everyone else around it.

No Moon Goddess.

No pack expectations.

No fear.

Just me.

Kade understood without being told.

Mostly.

He still looked at me the next morning like he was afraid I might disappear if he blinked.

I threw toast at him.

That helped.

Two days later, we went to the cabin.

Kade had mentioned it once months ago.

A small place beyond the eastern woods, far enough from the packhouse that nobody wandered there accidentally.

I understood why he chose it.

Privacy.

Quiet.

No Cassandra downstairs.

No Liam ten feet away trying not to think about what his sister might be doing.

I refused to think a