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Hewit looks up. “What?”

“Distance.”

My stomach drops.

Karloff sets the syringe on the tray and folds his hands together. “The bond is being reinforced by proximity. Distance would likely weaken the connection.”

I already hate where this is going.

Hewit goes very still beside me. “How much distance?”

Karloff’s gaze moves to me. “You would need to live apart. Far apart. Ideally, one of you would leave Screaming Woods.”

For a second, I’m sure I’ve misheard him. “Leave?”

“Build distance. No visits. No physical contact. Ideally, no communication for a time. At first, the separation would likely be unpleasant. Restlessness. Anxiety. Possibly heightened emotional responses. The bond may continue reaching for the other person simply because it has become accustomed to the connection.”

Hewit’s voice is hoarse as he asks, “How long?”

“Impossible to say. Weeks. Months. Years, perhaps before the connection fades.”

Fades.

That’s worse than anything else he’s said today.

I blink back tears as I look down at our joined hands. Two months ago, I didn’t know the shape of Hewit’s hand around mine. Didn’t know the sound he makes when he laughs for real. Didn’t know what it felt like to be seen by someone and wanted exactly as I am.

And now Karloff is suggesting that one of us could walk away from all of it. The thought of Hewit leaving Screaming Woods is so wrong that my body rejects it before my mind catches up. I would be the one to leave. Return to a life that never felt like mine and let everything between us fade.

Hewit looks at me instantly as my chest tightens with grief. “Nora?”

I can’t answer him yet. Because this is the moment the truth lands cleanly.

I love him.

I’ve known it in pieces. In the way I sleep better beside him. The way his silences never feel empty. The way his wolf pressed his head into my palm and trusted me. In the way I wanted Reid and Scarlett at his table because I wanted his life to get bigger again.

In the way I can’t imagine leaving him now without feeling like I’d be cutting something vital out of myself.

I love Hewit.

Not just the man. Not just the wolf. All of him.

And suddenly, the small chance that his bite might change me feels very different from the certainty of losing him.

Karloff is still talking, explaining that physical distance may be the safest alternative if neither of us is willing to accept the uncertainty of the claiming bite.

I barely hear him because I already know that going back to my old life is not an option. I came to Screaming Woods because some part of me believed my life was waiting here.

It was. He was.

I look at Hewit. He’s watching me with that familiar worry in his eyes, already trying to decide what he can sacrifice to keep me safe.

He doesn’t know yet that I’ve made my choice. If loving him means taking a risk, then I’ll take it. I don’t want distance. I don’t want the bond to fade. I want it completed.

I want him.

Every single part of him.