“This better be good,” he complains. “We had plans, but your text made it sound like it’s life or death.”
Raegan peers around him, curious. “You said you needed to talk to us about a situation?”
“I do. Come in.” I step aside to let them enter.
They walk into my living room, and Raegan’s gaze immediately sweeps the space, taking in the books scattered everywhere and the research materials spread across every surface. Her eyes land on the dining area where Sera is still frozen at the table, clearly not expecting visitors.
“Sera?” Raegan’s voice pitches up with shock. “What are you—” She rushes across the room before I can explain anything. “Oh gods, Sera. Your face.”
The bruises. I’d almost forgotten about them despite staring at her all morning. The purple marks along her jaw where one of the Thornridge operatives backhanding her. The rope burns on her wrists from the zip ties.
“It looks worse than it feels,” Sera lies, and I clench my fists at my sides, because that’s absolutely not true.
“What happened?” Raegan’s voice cracks. “Caelan texted asking if you were with me, and then she said you were in Grayhide working on some project, and I didn’t know what to tell her because I had no idea where you actually were—”
“I’m sorry.” Sera’s composure finally breaks, and a sob breaks loose. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know who else to trust,and the vision said not to tell anyone in Llewelyn, and then Thornridge grabbed me on the road, and—”
The rest dissolves into tears.
Wyn steps inside and closes the door behind him as Raegan takes Sera into the guest room, where she’s no doubt filling her friend in on everything that’s happened. Before they disappear, Wyn catches a good chunk of it, and he’s scowling right at me.
“Your ‘situation’ text made it sound like you’d found something in your research. Not that you were harboring a missing person. Oren’s going to lose his mind when he finds out you’ve been keeping Sera here without informing anyone.”
“I’m informing you,” I point out.
“Twelve hours after the fact doesn’t count as timely communication.”
He’s right, but I’m not about to admit that. “She’s not missing. She’s safe.”
“Does her matriarch know she’s safe? Does her family?” Wyn moves closer, and my wolf bristles at the perceived threat even though I know he’s not actually going to hurt me. “Or did you just decide on your own that keeping her location secret was the best course of action?”
“It was complicated.”
“It always is with you, historians.” He lets out a huff before he adds, “You get so focused on patterns and research that you forget about basic pack protocols. Like informing leadership when a member of an allied pack is seeking refuge in our territory.”
“She didn’t want me to tell anyone. The vision she had specifically warned her not to speak about it to anyone inLlewelyn. I was trying to respect that. She’s working with me to investigate a potential supernatural threat affecting her pack. Under the authority of the inter-regional agreement, which gives us legal grounds for collaborative research without requiring immediate notification of—”
“Don’t.” Wyn cuts me off with a look that could freeze fire. “Don’t hide behind treaty language when we both know what’s really going on here.”
I open my mouth to argue, then close it again. Because he’s right. The inter-regional agreement is a convenient justification, but it’s not the real reason I kept Sera here. Not the real reason I couldn’t stand the thought of her going back to Llewelyn where I couldn’t protect her.
“She’s your mate,” Wyn says it quietly, not a question but a statement of fact, so low the women can’t hear. “I can see it all over your panicked face.”
My silence is answer enough.
He nods in the direction of the hallway and asks, “Does she know?”
“No.” I drag a hand down my face. “Thornridge used a dampener on her yesterday. I’m assuming it’s having some residual effects, and that’s why she can’t feel it. And I’m not planning to tell her until we figure out what’s happening with the curse and the Thornridge threat. She’s dealing with enough without adding a mate bond she didn’t ask for to the list.”
“That’s not going to hold.” Wyn walks to the window and peers out at the desert landscape. “Mate bonds have a way of making themselves known whether we want them to or not. Trust me on that one.”
I think about the moment earlier, sitting at the dining table with Sera. How close we came to kissing before they came knocking. How her hand felt in mine, warm and perfect and right in ways I couldn’t explain.
“I know,” I concede. “But she’s already angry about being here. Already feels coerced and manipulated. Finding out I’m her mate on top of everything else?” I shake my head. “It would destroy any chance of her trusting me.”
“So you’re planning to, what? Keep it secret indefinitely? Hope she doesn’t notice the bond pulling at her? That worked out really well for Raegan and me. No complications there at all.”
The sarcasm is thick enough to cut. Wyn rejected Raegan for years to keep her safe, then kidnapped and forced her into marriage when Thornridge threatened her life. Their mate bond was a mess of secrets until they finally worked through it. He knows exactly what kind of disaster I’m walking into by keeping this to myself.
