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Sitting up, Leo looks at their faces, and when he gets to Gideon’s, he looks him dead in the eye and notes his obstinately clenched jaw and dark eyes.

It’s a stance that says he’s not going to change his mind.

Just seeing him, determined to keep doing what he knows hurts Leo tohis core, makes him furious.

“Don’t keep shit from me anymore. Do you hear me?”

He embraces the anger and the hurt, pushing his panic under the wave of fury. On the tail of his panic attack, it makes his hands shake, and his scent becomes more acrid and ashy.

“I’m not fucking around.”

He pushes Jay back, and Grayson grabs their leader so he doesn’t fall on his ass.

Gideon’s eyes burn into him, but he avoids the eye contact, skirting past Nix, who is beside him in the passenger seat, covered in the green blanket from the couch at home.

“Fuck this. Let’s see what we’re dealing with beforeSleeping Beautywakes up.”

Leo slides the side door open, and he’s greeted by the sight of a stunning two-level home, its facade adorned with windows.

There’s a wide-open courtyard and a single impenetrable door, with a security pad by the entrance.

He uses the same code from the gate, and without waiting for the others, Leo moves through the intimate living space and heads straight through to the back deck.

It’s on the edge of a wooded glade, offering a gorgeous view over a railing that overlooks the vast expanse of green that stretches for miles, while to his right, a long table with eight chairs sits under a summer-blue sky.

Sounds of his pack echo through the open sliding doors as they work to settle the unconscious alphas and prepare to hunker down.

“It’s nice,” Nix says, leaning his elbows on the railing beside him. “Smells likehome, even way up here, and after all this time. Like, I know the Gulf is just a few hours that way. Know what I mean?”

If he felt like talking, he’d tell him thatyes, he knows.

Nashville smells like home, no matter how long he’s been gone or where he’s been, but he can’t shed the frustrated anger and hurt easily.

Maybe that’s why he never lets those feelings take over; it takes a lot to work up to, and even more time to come down.

“I know you’re mad, and not too long ago, that might have made me afraid.”

Leo startles enough to finally look at his beautifully debauched mate wrapped in a blanket under the bright Florida sun.

Nix raises his hand. “No, you let me talk. It might have made me afraid in the beginning, because even though you told me you loved me every day, well…you understand why I’ll always be looking for more than words—maybe for forever.”

“Nix.”

“No, I need you to hear me, Leo. Like I said, I need more than pretty words. I’ll always need actions, too, andyouhave always given me what I need. Always. So when you say you worry that you haven’t been allowed to love us the most…well, that’s blatantly untrue.”

That feeling in his heart soars while his stomach plummets again.

“Nix, it’s not the same. How am I supposed to trust they’re letting me all the way in now? Gideon hid shit; my mom hidimportantshit from me—for my whole life.”

“Ah. This is about Lauren. Okay, you can be mad, I would probably be, too. And I told her you would be hurt.”

He rubs his forehead on Leo’s shoulder.

“But listen, I want you to think about this from another angle: are there things you won’t tell our babies? Because I have a long list already.”

Fuck. Leo hates thinking about what’s on that list.

The gritty parts of Nix’s life, the torture? The parts where Nix fought to the death.