Chapter 61 — You Don’t Have To Step Aside

Grant gave Hallie room all afternoon. At first, she thought she was imagining it.

He had never crowded her. That was one of the things she trusted most about him. He could stand close enough for his presence to fill a doorway and still leave the choice of distance in her hands.

This was different.

When she joined Caleb at the work board, Grant found a reason to check stores. When the visiting Alpha crossed the yard to ask Hallie whether one line in the agreement reflected what she meant, Grant stayed where he was instead of joining them.

Nothing rude. Nothing dramatic. Just absence applied too carefully.

By evening, Hallie was irritated. She found Grant outside his room, reading one of the copied pages from the agreement.

“Are you avoiding me?”

His eyes lifted.

“No.”

“Then you have developed very convenient timing.”

Grant folded the page once. Hallie gave him the silence to answer, and he did not lie to her a second time.

“I thought you might want space.”

“I have space.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you adding more?”

His jaw tightened. For a moment, Hallie thought he might retreat into silence again. She stepped closer before he could.

They were close without touching, close enough that he had to meet her eyes instead of speaking to the empty space between them.

“This is not me accusing you of not caring,” she said. “I know you care.”

Something in his face shifted.

“Then what are you asking?”

“Why you are acting like caring means disappearing.”

Grant looked away.

The corridor was quiet and private. The young Alpha and his party remained on the other side of Cedar Draw reviewing their own copy of the agreement.

Hallie crossed her arms.

“Grant.”

He exhaled.

“He can offer you things I can’t.”

Hallie let the admission settle.

“What things?”

“You know.”

“I want you to say it.”

His gaze returned to her.

“A life people understand without explanation.”

Hallie stayed where she was. Grant continued.

“He’s young. Recognized. He comes from the same kind of structure you were trained for. If you stood beside him as Luna, no one would ask what authority you had or why you were in the room.”

Every word was true. That was why she did not interrupt.

“He can give you a place the outside world already knows how to respect,” Grant said. “I can’t give you that without turning Cedar Draw into something it isn’t.”

“You think I want you to?”

“No.”

“Then what is this?”

Grant’s mouth flattened.

“Not control.”

“I know.”

“I’m not going to ask you to tell me you don’t want him.”

Hallie’s pulse kicked once. Grant looked almost angry when he said it, but not at her.

“I’m not going to make you reassure me because I’m jealous.”

The admission landed between them. Direct. Unprotected.

Hallie lowered her arms.

“So you are jealous.”

“Yes.”

He did not soften it. Hallie moved another half step closer. This time their sleeves touched.

Grant stayed still. He did not reach for her. He did not step away.

“He made his interest clear,” Hallie said.

Grant’s expression tightened, but he waited.

“I set a boundary.”

“That was yours to do.”

“Yes.”

“And what he offered today?”

Hallie went still. Grant had not been in the room for that conversation.

“He offered something?”

“He didn’t need to tell me. I could see enough.”

Grant had noticed what changed without trespassing into her thoughts or knowing the details.

Hallie studied him.

“If I were free by my own choice, he would want to marry me.”

Grant absorbed the sentence without flinching.

“He would make you Luna.”

“Yes.”

“He’d be good at it.”

The answer startled her.

“At what?”

“Giving you that life.”

The absence of bitterness hurt more. Hallie lifted one hand and caught the front of Grant’s sleeve near his wrist.

He looked down at her fingers. Then back at her.

“I am not asking you to pretend that life has no value,” he said.

“Good. Because it does.”

His face went very still. Hallie held on.

“But respecting my choice does not mean making it before I do.”

Grant’s brow drew together.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

He shook his head once.

“You keep stepping away as if I’ve already chosen someone else.”

Silence. Hallie tightened her fingers on his sleeve.

“You don’t get to decide that the kinder thing is to remove yourself before I ask you to.”

Grant looked at her for a long moment.

“I don’t want to trap you.”

“Then don’t.”

“I don’t know what that looks like here.”

“It looks like staying where you were.”

His gaze dropped briefly to the small distance between them. Hallie closed it. She stepped until the front of her shoulder rested against his chest.

The contact fell short of an embrace but carried the weight of a choice. Grant’s breathing changed.

His hands remained at his sides. Hallie appreciated the restraint and, for once, hated how much of it he was using. She slid her hand from his sleeve to his forearm.

“You can be jealous,” she said.

A rough breath left him.

“That sounds dangerous.”

“You can also tell me when you’re jealous.”

“Worse.”

Hallie almost smiled.

“But you don’t have to step aside.”

Grant’s eyes held hers.

“I’m not asking you to promise anything.”

“I know.”

“I won’t.”

“I know that too.”

The quiet between them changed. It was unresolved, but better.

Grant raised one hand slowly and rested it against her upper arm. His palm was warm through her sleeve, his fingers settling once before going still.

The contact answered the distance Hallie had chosen to close without changing it. She stayed there.

After a moment, Grant said, “I can stop disappearing.”

“Good.”

“I was checking stores once for an actual reason.”

Hallie looked up at him.

“Once.”

His mouth moved. She let herself smile.

Grant walked beside her back toward the common room instead of making room for a decision Hallie had not made.

Tomorrow, the negotiation would continue. The young Alpha’s offer would still exist. So would the life it represented.