Because whether Roan admitted it or not—we were heading straight into a storm named Wren. As eager as I was, I found that I could wait because I knew she’d be at our destination.
Time would tick down to us seeing her.
The longer we were in the car, the more the silence felt like it might crack open.
Roan hadn’t looked at either of us since we got on the highway. His hands never left ten-and-two, knuckles rigid, jaw sharp.
Rhett, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped moving since we left. His leg bounced, fingers drumming against his thigh, and every so often he let out a long, frustrated breath that made my temples throb.
“You need to calm down,” Roan said without looking at him.
“I’ll calm down when we know she’s safe.”
“She’s not stupid, Rhett.”
“Didn’t say she was. I said she’s alone.”
The corners of Roan’s mouth tightened before he said, “And we don’t know if she even wants us there.”
I leaned my head back against the seat. “Would either of you have stopped me from going?”
Roan cut a sideways glance at me.
“Exactly,” I muttered. “So stop acting like you have the high ground.”
No one replied.
The car settled into another tense quiet. My fingers itched for my phone, not to track her—there was nothing to track—but to hear her voice, todo something. But she hadn’t answered a single message. Not even the last one I sent that wasn’t a question, just a promise:Whatever it is, I’m here.
Still—nothing.
Rhett’s voice cut into the silence again, softer this time. “You think she’s scared?”
Roan’s grip on the wheel shifted.
I said, “I think she’s hiding something that hurts. That doesn’t mean she’s scared.”
“I think she’s in heat.”
Roan’s jaw flexed.
I closed my eyes, because hearing Rhett say it again still made somethingshiftin me.
I’d been to enough heats—been there for omegas in the worst and best ways—to know what the scent of one did to an alpha. Hell, even to a beta.
And Wren…
If that was what was happening—if she’d been masking it this whole time?—
The burn in my chest wasn’t lust. Not really. It was something deeper. Thicker.Older.
I didn’t want her because of a heat. I wanted her because she was Wren. Complicated, disciplined, terrifying Wren. With her steel trap mind and mouth full of dry fire and that fucking scent—whatever part of it she’dletthrough over the years—it always hit harder than it should’ve.
Now I wondered if that was deliberate. If we’d only ever gotten what she allowed.
Rhett’s knee bumped the back of my seat. “It’s like I can feel us getting closer.”
“Then keep your shit together,” I said without opening my eyes.
