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“Whatever this game is, I’m not playing.”

“Cool, me either. I hate games. I like honesty and knowing where I stand, and I like saying exactly where someone stands with me. You’ve got a story. I’ve got a story. Everyone in my Crew has a story. Everyone in yours has a story.”

“That’s not my Crew,” she uttered, and then gasped and dropped her gaze to the coffee table.That’s not my Crew?She’d just said those words out loud, and easily.

When she dared a glance back up, a slight smile tugged at the corners of Kade’s masculine mouth. “Truth,” he said softly.

Jess swallowed hard and shook her head. “I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

“Want a theory?”

She couldn’t lift her face up to save her life, but she could lift her gaze to him. Her gaze and that was it. “Sure.”

“I told you, the longer you’re away from Sister’s Edge, the clearer things will become.” He gestured to her phone. “Have you ever talked to Derek like that?”

She thought about it. “Once.”

“What did you say?”

“I said you didn’t murder Tanner. Back when the big Crew meeting happened about it. I got banished to my room for a week. Samuel called in sick for me to work and everything. I was supposed to fast and think about the way I’d talked to my Alpha.”

“You fasted for a week? No food?”

She nodded once, not wanting to think about it.

“And what did you come up with at the end of that fasted week?”

Her bottom lip trembled, and she drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “That I had to pretend to believe whatever they believed if I wanted to stay there.”

Kade shrugged. “You don’t have to do that shit anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged again and looked around. “Who’s here to tell you what to believe?” he asked. “You don’t have to pretend anymore. Believe whatever you want.”

And she sat there in that moment, with the impact of his words lifting a weight off her shoulders she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying.

Kade made a gesture like scissors cutting through the air. “Cut that bond to Derek and see how fast you figure things out.”

“I don’t know how to do that.”

“Sure you do.”

She just stared at him, shaking her head.

“You’re already doing it,” he pointed out. “Listen to that gorgeous growl in your throat. Listen to the grit in your voice as you asked Derek over and over to answer to a lie. Look at your eyes.” He arched both of his eyebrows high, and took another bite of pizza, like he was done proving his point, and fair enough.

He’d left her with a dozen things to think about when she was alone and wanting to process what was happening.

“What’s in this for you?” she asked. “Are you wanting to destroy my bond to Derek and put it on you?”

“Oh fuck no. I have a bond to Wreck, and to the Cold Foot Crew. I’m not trying to be an Alpha or build a Crew. I’m good. I think you’re at the beginning of figuring out you’re good too. You’re just wary of it, and I get it. I was wary for a long time too.” He approached slowly and then squatted down on the other side of the coffee table and leveled her a look with those bright blue eyes of his. “I wasn’t supposed to be okay in Cold Foot Prison, but I was.” He gestured to the room. “You aren’t supposed to be good way out here, far away from Sister’s Edge. You’re supposed to be falling apart, but you sent me a selfie with Raynah today, and do you know what I saw?”

“What?” she whispered as a tear loosed from her eye and streamed down her cheek.

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and pulled up the picture, then zoomed in on her face. He pointed to her eyes. “Your animal.” He pointed to her smile. “Happiness.”

“What is in it for you?” she asked again, as a tear streaked down her other cheek.