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I’d dreaded this moment from the second I found out who she was. No, before that. I’d dreaded this moment ever since Joan died. Ash said not telling Mia and lying weren’t the same thing, but it sure felt like they were.

Regardless of what my brothers thought, Mia deserved to know the whole truth. Joan was her grandmother. If she left because of it, then I’d lay my heart at her feet and beg her to stay.

“Noah?”

I lifted my gaze to hers. “Joan didn’t die of a heart attack. She died because of me.”

There. I said it. I finally fucking said it.

Her eyes gaped open. I tried to grab her hand again, but she pulled it out of my reach. “What?”

I swallowed the big-ass lump blocking my airway. “Someone discovered her secret and that she’d sided with shifters. It wasn’t long before a hunter stalked her house, terrorizing her every night but even then, she didn’t stop protecting us.”

I stared at the ceiling, instead of peering at my shirt half expecting to see a gaping hole where someone had torn out my heart.

“My wolf waited in the forest behind Joan’s house every afternoon for years, waiting for you.” An imaginary fist squeezed and twisted my heart, but I kept talking. I needed to get it all off my chest. “I became complacent and, I dunno, angry that you never came back. Eventually, I gave up. I figured I’d missed my chance with you and I stopped going to Joan’s house. A week later, I sensed something was wrong with her, but I ignored it. That night a fucking hunter attacked her.”

Her fingers threaded through mine. “Oh, Noah.”

“By the time I swallowed my pride and got there, Joan was dead. Ash and I tracked the hunter all the way to Timber Falls. Before I tore the fucker apart, the local pack threw him in a cell so he could rot as a human and never again have access to shifter blood.”

I breathed my first full breath in nearly three months. I urged Mia to stand between my legs and peered up at her. “I’m so sorry.”

Her lips rolled inward. “It’s not your fault, Noah.”

“I stopped going to her house. I stopped protecting her. I failed you.”

She slowly shook her head. “No, you didn’t. The only one to blame is that hunter.” Her eyes widened. “That’s why the hunter didn’t attack us at the waterfall. He couldn’t sense you were a shifter.”

I nodded.

“But if the other pack locked him up, how was it the same hunter at the waterfall?”

“Somehow he escaped. But you don’t need to worry, the Timber Fall’s pack killed him. They’re not keen on second chances.”

She exhaled a deep breath but remained silent. We’d reached that point where there was nothing more to say. I’d laid it all out for her and now the choice was in her hands. The silence pounded in my ears as I waited.

I couldn’t lose her, not again.

“What if I become one of them?”

“You won’t. Shifter blood is the only way to trigger the curse. As long as you don’t drink the blood, you can fight the compulsion.” I pulled her toward me. “I know it’s a lot to process.”

“You think?” She gaped at me. “In a matter of days, I found out a whole other world exists, and not only am I destined for a guy who can shift into a wolf, but also my family spent years…” Her eyes widened. “Centuries, hunting wolves for their blood.”

I held her gaze. “We’ll get through this.”

She retreated a step, out of my embrace, letting my hands slip from hers. “I need time to figure this out.” She took another step backward. Her expression hardened. “I don’t even know how to be a mate. I came here to sell Joan’s house and set myself up in the city. I didn’t come here for…”

Me.

The sentence hung in the air, tearing out my heart. She’d come here with the intention of leaving, she’d made that clear from day one. But I thought I could convince her to stay. Convince her to be with me. Instead, all I’d shown her were death and danger.

I stood. “Let me cook you dinner. I’ll answer any questions you have.”

She shook her head. “No. I need time to think. Alone.”

Without waiting for my reply, she turned and walked out the door. I let her go even though every cell in my body screamed to chase her. She wanted space, I understood that. But I couldn’t lose her again. Not after waiting so long for her to come back.

How the hell did I screw this up so badly?