“Who sent you?”
“No one sent me.” The blade disappeared into a sheath at the stranger’s hip. “I’m here on personal business. Checking up on someone the pack banished last year.”
“Banished?”
“Margaret Jacobson.” The name was spoken with contempt. “She caused trouble in a village near our territory. My Alpha Seren handled it, but we like to keep tabs on problems.”
His tension eased slightly. If this stranger’s pack had banished someone for behaving badly, they at least had some standards.
“You still haven’t told me your name.”
“Korrin.” The younger Vultor rose to his feet, and Valrek noted with grudging respect that he moved like a predator even in casual motion. “Korrin Dain. My pack lives in the mountains to the west.”
“And they tolerate humans in their territory?”
“More than tolerate.” Something shifted in Korrin’s expression—a flicker of warmth that seemed at odds with his cocky exterior. “Our alpha has… progressive views on interspecies relations. Some of our pack have human mates.”
He froze.
“Human mates.”
“I know.” Korrin’s grin returned. “It shocked me too, but Seren’s not like the old alphas. He believes we can coexist. He wants something better than the bloodshed our ancestors chose.”
Human mates.The words echoed in his mind like distant thunder.
He thought of Ariella—her shimmering skin, her impossible song, the way she fit against him like she’d been designed for his arms. She wasn’t fully human, not anymore, but the principle remained. A pack that accepted mixed bonds. A community where Lilani wouldn’t be treated as an abomination.
It seemed too good to be true.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because of your daughter.” Korrin’s voice softened unexpectedly. “She deserves better than exile.”
His chest tightened.
“My pack—my former pack—disagreed.”
“Your former pack was run by intolerant, short-sighted assholes.” No hesitation, no diplomacy. “You saved your daughter from that. That took courage.”
“It took desperation.”
“Same thing, sometimes.” Korrin extended his hand in the human gesture of friendship. “I realize you may not want to leave your home, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be part of a pack. I can talk to Seren and tell him about you and your daughter. I can’t promise anything, but I believe he would welcome you.”
He stared at the outstretched hand. His beast, usually so suspicious of strangers, was quiet. Not acceptance, but… possibility.
“You would do that?”
“I would.” Korrin’s amber eyes held steady. “I know what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong anywhere. Trust me—I know.”
For a long moment, neither of them moved. Then he reached out and clasped the younger male’s forearm in the traditional Vultor greeting.
“I would appreciate whatever you can do.”
“Good.” Korrin’s cocky grin returned, but there was genuine warmth beneath it. “I’ll be in the area for a few more days. If Seren agrees to meet with you, I’ll leave a marker at the old lighthouse point.”
He turned to go, then paused.
“One more thing. I have a human mate as well.”
