“Yes. Besides her eye color, there’s no way a human could get past Cinderhollow’s barrier without any of us knowing.”
“But who in our tribe would do this?” he asked indignantly. “Just abandon a baby? If I ever catch who did this, I’m gonna give them a piece of my mind…”
“I don’t know. Maybe the circumstances aren’t what we suspect,” I said. “There could be a million reasons why someone would do this.”
Scar sighed, but he was clearly still upset. “I guess.”
“You said the scent trail vanished?”
He nodded seriously. “It was weird.”
“It didn’t lead into the air?” I asked. “Maybe it was someone who could fly. That would make sense with all the dragons and other flying shifters we have in Cinderhollow.”
But Scar shook his head. “Even if there was heavy wind tonight, which there wasn’t, there would still be a faint trace of it in the air. But there was just… nothing. Like the scent cut off from the world.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” I said, frustrated. “A scent shouldn’t justvanish. That’s not possible.”
Scar bristled. “Well, I’m just telling you what I experienced, okay?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything. It’s not you I’m frustrated at, it’s this situation... I’m just confused.”
He shrugged. “Me too.”
“Anyway, that’s not going to help us take care of Angel right now,” I said with a sigh. “She needs a lot of supplies I don’t have. It’s too late for any stores to be open, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning.”
“Ryu,” Scar said slowly, looking at me. “You keep sayingwe…What exactly do you mean by that?”
The question baffled me. “I mean, we’re going to do this together. Isn’t that why you came to me for help?”
Scar’s expression was a mix of relief and confusion. “Um… Right. But what’s going to happen? I mean, we don’t live together. Wearen’ttogether. How are we supposed to raise a kid?”
Oh.I hadn’t even thought about that. “Is that what you’re worried about? Other people thinking we’re a couple because we’re raising Angel?”
His eyes widened. “No!”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Forgetme—aren’tyouworried people will think we’re a couple?”
The flipped question made me pause. Truthfully, that was the last thing on my mind. Protecting Angel took precedence over anything else. But Scar seemed stuck on this point, on the fear that we would be perceived as a couple. Was he truly worried about that? Or was there something else going on in his mind that I didn’t understand?
“I think caring for Angel is more important than worrying about other people’s judgments,” I said finally. “Besides, it’s not anyone else’s business, right?”
“I guess,” Scar mumbled. “But I’ve been around people long enough to know that theyalwaysmake other people’s business their own.”
I sat down, looking at him seriously. “Does it bother you? What other people think?”
He blinked in confusion. “Of course it does. People judge me every day of my life. Hell, it’s more weird that it doesn’t botheryou.”
I shrugged. “They can think what they want.” I smiled at him. “We’re just an alpha and an omega trying to raise an abandoned baby together.”
It took a moment, but he returned my smile cautiously. “Okay. If you say so.”
I puffed out my chest in a display of over-the-top masculinity. “And if anyone bothers us, I’ll just crush them with my alpha powers.”
Scar let out a chuckle, which filled me with warmth.
Had he always had such a nice smile?
