“You've been avoiding.” Jonah's voice was gentle, but there was truth in it. The kind of truth that hurt because it couldn't be argued with. “Which, hey, valid coping mechanism. But you're also about to faceplant into that trim board, and I'd rather not explain to Daniel that his favorite human passed out from dehydration.”
“I'm not his favorite anything.”
Jonah snorted. “Sure you're not. That's why he looked ready to rip Luke's throat out when he questioned your presence at the meeting.”
I didn't have a response to that. So I set down my tools and accepted the burger Jonah held out.
We ate in silence for a few minutes. Sienna had drifted toward the back of the house, giving us space while pretendingto examine the renovation work. Wolves and their instinct for pack dynamics. Always knowing when someone needed room to breathe.
“I'm sorry,” Jonah said finally. “About Luke.”
“You don't have to apologize for him.”
“Yeah, I kind of do.” Jonah's jaw tightened. “He's my brother. Older brother. And he's... protective. Of the pack, of the way things have always been done. He doesn't trust easily, and he doesn't adjust to change well.”
I looked at him. Really looked. Saw the family resemblance now that I was paying attention. The same dark hair, the same sharp cheekbones, though Jonah's face was softer. Younger. More open to the world instead of guarded against it.
“That must be complicated,” I said. “Having a brother in the pack hierarchy like that.”
“It's something.” Jonah laughed, but there wasn't much humor in it. “Growing up, Luke was always the responsible one. The one who followed rules, earned his position, made our parents proud. I was the screwup. The one who couldn't take anything seriously.”
“You seem pretty serious to me.”
“I've gotten better at faking it.” The smile flickered, then faded. “Luke thinks I ride on his reputation. That I coast on being his brother instead of earning my place. And maybe he's not wrong. Maybe I've been the comic relief so long I forgot how to be anything else.”
“That's not what I've seen.” I set down my burger, met his eyes. “When the rogues came. You didn't hesitate. You threw yourself into that fight like you'd been training for it your whole life.”
“That's instinct.”
“Is it? Because instinct would tell you to run. Instinct would tell you to protect yourself. What you did was choice. You choseto fight. Chose to protect people you cared about.” I paused. “That's not coasting. That's not riding anyone's reputation. That's who you are.”
Jonah was quiet for a long moment. Something shifted in his expression. Softened.
“Evan said you were good at this,” he said finally. “The dad talk thing. He said it's like you can see through all the bullshit straight to the stuff people are actually scared of.”
“Practice. Nate spent years pretending he was fine when he wasn't. You learn to read between the lines.”
“Must have been hard. Raising him alone after—” Jonah stopped. “Sorry. I didn't mean to?—”
“It's okay.” And strangely, it was. The words came easier than they used to. “Anna and I raised him together for as long as we could. And when she got sick, when things got hard, we did what every parent does. We lied to our kid and told him everything was going to be fine, and then we held each other in the dark and cried when he couldn't hear us.”
Jonah's eyes were bright. Young. Full of an empathy that hadn't been worn down by years of disappointment.
“She sounds amazing,” he said quietly.
“She was.” I smiled, and it only hurt a little. “She would have loved all this, you know. The wolves, the magic, the whole impossible situation. She always said I needed more adventure in my life. That I was too practical. Too grounded.”
“What would she think of Daniel?”
The question caught me off guard. I opened my mouth to deflect, to change the subject, to do any of the dozen things I'd been doing for months whenever someone got too close to that particular wound.
Instead, I heard myself say: “She'd think he was exactly what I needed. And she'd give me hell for being too stubborn to admit it.”
Jonah's grin came back. Warmer this time. Real.
“I knew I liked you, Harrington.” He stood, stretched, grabbed his tool belt from the pile by the door. “Now. What needs doing? I've got wolf strength and zero skills, but I take direction well.”
“The kitchen cabinets need to come out. They're damaged beyond repair.”
