“For what it's worth,” I said, “I thought it was kind of sweet.”
Daniel didn't turn around. “Please stop talking.”
“The hovering. The protective thing. It's...” I searched for the right word. “Endearing.”
“I am not endearing. I am an Alpha. Alphas are not endearing.”
“You're a little endearing.”
He finally turned, and his expression was caught somewhere between mortified and something else I couldn't quite read. “Can we please pretend the last hour didn't happen?”
“Absolutely not. I'm going to remember this forever.”
“I hate you.”
“No you don't.”
He stared at me for a long moment. Then, despite everything, the corner of his mouth twitched.
“No,” he admitted quietly. “I don't.”
The moment stretched between us, weighted with something neither of us was naming. Then Daniel cleared his throat, shook his head, and that careful professional mask slid back into place.
“We found someone on our border yesterday. A wolf. Half-dead, bleeding.” He moved toward the door, all restless energy looking for somewhere to go. “He was being chased by rogues.”
“Is he okay?”
“Healing. Thanks to Gideon.” Daniel paused with his hand on the frame.
“And you're telling me this because?”
Daniel turned, and something in his expression shifted. Vulnerable, almost. Like he was asking for help and hated that he needed to.
“Because I'm better at giving orders than having conversations. You've seen how I am with people. I bark, they obey. Works fine for pack business, but this...” He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “This kid is traumatized. Scared. And I need to get information out of him without making it feel like an interrogation.”
“You want me to play good cop.”
“I want you to be yourself. You read people, Michael. You notice things I miss because I'm too busy thinking about territory and threats.” He held the door open. “Just... talk to him. See what you see. Tell me if I'm wrong to want to help him.”
I followed Daniel out of the office and down the stairs, through the mill floor where workers had returned to their tasks. A few still shot knowing grins in our direction, and I pretended not to notice the way Daniel's ears went pink at the tips.
Daniel ledme through the main floor, past common rooms that smelled like coffee and woodsmoke, up a staircase to a hallway that ended in a door reinforced with steel.
Gideon stood outside, arms crossed. He nodded when he saw us.
“He's awake. Been asking where he is, who saved him. Seems genuinely confused about how he got here.” His eyes flicked to me. “You sure about bringing a civilian into this?”
“Michael's going to help me talk to him.” Daniel's voice carried that Alpha weight I was starting to recognize. “I want his perspective.”
“Your call.” But Gideon's tone suggested he had opinions. “Fair warning. He's charming. The kind of charming that comes too easy. Watch yourself.”
Daniel opened the door.
The room was small. Bare. A bed, a chair, a window that looked out on the forest pressing close against the glass. And sitting on the edge of the bed, watching us enter with eyes that were amber and too bright and entirely too aware, was the wolf they'd saved.
Dark hair that fell artfully across his forehead, sharp features that caught the light just right, a body that managed to look vulnerable and dangerous at the same time.
His expression shifted when he saw Daniel. Relief flooding his features, genuine and raw.
