“Then why wear a watch?” I wonder out loud.
“Cael,” he mutters. “It’s a safety measure.”
“Oh.” My nose scrunches. “Could I, uh, wear it for you?” It’s an awkward question and the watch will look ridiculous on my wrist, but if it makes him feel better, then it’s worth offering.
He looks at me in surprise. “What?”
“If you don’t like the sensation of it on your wrist, then I can wear it… when we’re together, I mean.”
His brow furrows a bit. Then he shakes his head. “It’s okay. I can bear it.”
I shrug. “Just an offer, if you need it.”
“Thank you.” He swallows. “I’ll keep that in mind.” The sincerity in his tone tells me he means that.
His arms fall to his sides, his hands slipping into his pockets as he stares at me for another beat.
Then he clears his throat and continues his story about how his family’s trek across Canada to Kodiak Sector.
“Cael’s father found me somewhere in Alberta,” he says, a faraway glint in his icy gaze, like he’s reliving the memory. “He nearly killed me.”
“That wasn’t very nice of him.”
Grey grunts. “I was a hybrid Z-Clan and V-Clan Alpha mutt in his eyes. But when I couldn’t fight back—because of the collar—he stopped his attack and told me to start talking.”
He goes on to tell me what he said to Cael’s father, how he begged the Alpha to help his mother and sister.
“I didn’t care what he did to me so long as my mother and Nikiski were safe,” he mutters. “But for some reason, he chose to save me, too. Basically became the father I never knew I needed.”
“Where is he now?” I wonder out loud. “Still in Lunar Sector?”
He nods. “Cael’s whole family is there. My mother, too. But Cael proved to be the more superior Alpha, so his father relinquished the Prince title to his son.”
“That would never happen in Kodiak Sector,” I mutter. “Or any of the Z-Clan sectors.”
Grey huffs a humorless laugh. “No. No, it would not.”
Z-Clan Alphas tend to kill their young if it seems like the offspring might pose a threat to the hierarchy.
It’s deplorable.
Monstrous.
Horrific.
That’s why his father’s collar doesn’t shock me. He was trying to tame his strong son. Had Cael’s father not intervened, it’s very likely that Grey would have one day been killed by his own father’s hand.
“Anyway, the night his father came to rescue us all, it was my responsibility to grab Nikiski. But Spruce got to her first.”
My shoulders stiffen. “Spruce?” I echo, the name one I’ve heard in my dreams. Though, I’m not sure when or how. It’s… it’s foggy. But I know that name.
“My twin,” Grey growls. “He took Nikiski and bartered her life for his own—to Tadhg.”
“You’re certain?” I ask, somewhat confused by this description of events. Because something about it doesn't sound right to me. Though, I can’t… I can’t explain why.
“Yes.” He pushes off of the counter and comes to sit across from me at the table, then tells me about his research with Cael, how they followed the messy path left behind by Spruce, which took them to Alpha Sector. “We’ve spent nearly a century trying to decipher every avenue of the network, but there have been a lot of false leads and dead ends.”
“Tadhg?” I ask.
