Chapter 245

**Jake’s POV **She’s close enough now that I can feel the heat coming off her skin, and I still haven’t touched her.Every instinct I have is screaming at me to close the distance. To pull her in. To make sure she’s real and solid and not just something my bond-starved mind conjured up to survive the last eight months. But she’s standing right there, close enough to touch, and she stayed. That matters.My hands are shaking, so I shove them into the pockets of my jeans before she can see. Leo hasn’t moved either. I can feel the tension in him like a coiled wire. His wolf is pushing hard, but he’s holding the line. We said we wouldn’t chase her, we said we wouldn’t corner her, and we said that if she came back, it would be because she wanted to She said she chose this, and I cling to that like it’s oxygen.She looks smaller up close. Not physically, just… softer. The sharp edge she walked away with isn’t gone, but it’s not aimed outward anymore; it’s aimed inward now.“I’m scared.” She admits, and her words echo in my head.She’s terrified of losing herself, and that does something to me. My wolf presses forward, not to claim or dominate; he just wants to soothe her. He doesn’t understand why she thinks we would ever let that happen.