“I know. But he still carries the guilt.” Nate's voice went soft. “Like he violated something. Like the choice should have been mine to make, even though I was bleeding out and couldn't make any choice at all.”
“That's Evan. Always carrying weight that doesn't belong to him.” I rubbed my jaw, feeling the stubble there.
“Wonder where he learned that.”
“You're not subtle, are you?”
“Subtle is overrated.” Nate tossed the stone into the pool, watched ripples spread across the surface. “You want to know what I think? About you and my dad?”
I blinked. The subject change was so abrupt it took me a moment to catch up. “I wasn't aware there was a 'me and your dad.'”
“Please.” Nate rolled his eyes with the particular exasperation of someone who'd been watching adults fumble around each other for far too long. “The whole pack knows. Hell, the whole town probably knows. You two look at each other like you're starving and the other person is a seven-course meal.”
“That's... an image.”
“It's accurate.” He turned to face me fully, crossed his legs, settled into a posture that said this conversation was happening whether I liked it or not. “My dad's been alone since my mom died. Really alone, in that way people get when they convince themselves they don't deserve anything good. And you've been alone even longer. So why are you both being so stupid about this?”
“It's complicated.”
“It's really not.” Nate's voice went sharp. “You like him. He likes you. You're both consenting adults with no actual barriers except the ones you've built in your own heads. What's complicated about that?”
“He's grieving?—”
“He's been grieving for a while now. At some point, grief becomes an excuse not to live.” Nate's expression softened slightly. “I loved my mom. I'll always love my mom. But she wouldn't want Dad to spend the rest of his life alone because he feels guilty about being happy.”
“What does Michael think about all this?” I asked carefully.
“I think he's scared. Scared of wanting something and losing it again. Scared of what it means to love someone who's not human.” Nate shrugged. “But I also think he's tired of being scared. He just needs someone to meet him halfway.”
“And you think that someone should be me.”
“I think you're the only one who could be.” Nate met my eyes, and there was something fierce in his expression. Something protective. “You see him, Daniel.”
I didn't have a response to that. Didn't have words for the complicated knot of want and fear that had been living in my chest for months.
“I'm not trying to pressure you,” Nate continued. “I just... I want him to be happy. He deserves to be happy. And watching you two dance around each other like teenagers at prom is getting painful.”
“Painful for who?”
“Everyone. Literally everyone.” He grinned, and suddenly he looked younger. More like the boy Evan had fallen for and less like the wolf-druid who'd helped kill a corrupted Alpha. “Jonah has a betting pool going. On which one of you breaks first.”
“Of course he does.”
“Sienna's got fifty on my dad. Says humans crack faster. But I've got money on you.” His grin widened. “Wolves are more impulsive. One of these days you're going to stop thinking and just do something about it.”
“You seem very invested in your father's love life.”
“I'm invested in my father being happy.” The humor faded from Nate's expression, replaced by something more serious. “He spent twenty years making sure I had everything I needed. Putting his own wants aside, working himself to exhaustion, never asking for anything in return. I just want him to have something that's his. Something good.”
The confession was raw. Honest in a way that made my chest tight.
“He raised a good man,” I said quietly. “Whatever else happens, he should know that.”
“He knows. I tell him.” Nate smiled, soft and fond. “But it wouldn't hurt if you told him too.”
We sat in comfortable silence for a while, listening to the waterfall thunder, feeling the mist settle on our skin. The forest breathed around us, patient and watchful, and I could feel Nate's connection to it like a second heartbeat. Strong. Getting stronger every day.
“Are you going to turn my dad? If you two... if this becomes real. Would you bite him? Make him pack in blood as well as bond?”
