“Quinn will be worried if he’s awake.”
“Yeah, my phone’s got zero signal here or I’d text him.”
“Go back and pick him up, bring him here.”
“The al— Malachi specifically said to stay with you until he gets back. And even if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t leave you right now.”
He’d heard their conversation from across the house, of course. Ember didn’t know it, but she’d proved herself tonight several times over in Malachi’s estimation. Composure in crisis, initiative without being prodded, willingness to follow his lead. And respect in asking what to call him. Not that he was authoritarian about it, but her question showed she cared about pack dynamics. Malachi didn’t take that for granted among humans. Maybe Ember and his best friend were on the road to mutual appreciation. The possibility spread peace through Aaron’s weary body.
He had to stop thinking like this. She wasn’t planning to stay. The idea began a howl deep inside him.
While he stared into his soup and fought himself, her hand settled on his forearm and stayed there. “You’re not okay,” she said.
“I’m not going into shock.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Her fingers gently kneaded his arm, a subconscious sort of gesture. Comfort again, but her touch did so much more to him than that. A faint growl escaped him, and she withdrew.
“Right, sorry. I’ll keep an eye on you from a distance.” She nodded to the chair across the room. “I’ll grab a book. I haven’t seen Malachi’s bookshelves, but I know they’re around here somewhere. Though I hope he has lighter selections too, because I can’t handle Tolstoy or Melville right now.”
Either he was confused and tired, or she was behaving strangely. “No, you don’t have to— It’s just— What about small talk? Could we do that?”
Her eyes brightened in the low lamplight. “Sure, if you want.”
He tried to shift on the couch to face her better, and pain knifed down his leg. He shut his eyes and pressed his lips tight, but a sound of weakness got through anyway. Then she was close again, her hand rubbing a slow circle between his shoulder blades.
“So what’s the one most important landmark you want to see before you die?” she said.
He had to laugh, though he could hardly draw a full breath at the moment. “Travel’s not really high on a wolf’s pastime list.”
“Oh?”
“That’s a generalization, but most of our pack have never gone farther than a day trip from home. I don’t know, I’m…content here. I’ve traipsed all over the pack’s couple thousand acres, and I love it all. Foothills, forests, ponds and streams, caves, even a waterfall.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“Since I was fifteen.” The memories hovered, threatened to return. The same bloodstained memories he’d been trying to put away when he charged out into the woods and met a bear.
“What about Malachi? He’s around our age.”
“He’d been here five years by then. His first change happened when he was eleven.”
Of course she didn’t understand the significance of that, only nodded. “That’s like me and Claire. We met when we were nine, and we’ve just stuck together. Did you and he get along from the beginning or was there some rivalry at first?”
This wasn’t small talk. This was deep talk. She had no idea what she was asking. Aaron drew a breath to answer, to open up the way she’d invited him to, hours ago when he chose a nighttime trek instead. He longed to know she saw him fully and still didn’t run, but if she did run, he’d never be able to take it back.
“Mal saw how messed up I was, and he…” Aaron cleared his throat. “He took me in.”
She leaned forward, her eyes fixed on his, absorbing his words. “The way you’re doing for Quinn.”
“Sort of, yeah.” Not really. Quinn didn’t wake up screaming. Quinn didn’t scald and abrade his arms and chest and face trying to wash off phantom bloodstains. Aaron would ensure he never had to.
“But Malachi was only a kid himself at the time.”
“We had different guardians, different homes, but he watched out for me all he could. We camped a lot, at this site he’d found. It’s on his property now.”
“Sounds like you had a hard time,” she said quietly. “Adjusting, or however this works.”
