“Because Ember trespassed on—?”
Malachi’s snarl paralyzed Aaron where he stood—a sound of wrath, a warning and a threat, louder and more violent than his usual wolf vocalizing. Aaron had heard it before only when his friend was badly injured, less than lucid from loss of blood. But maybe right now Malachi was exactly that. The heart’s blood of the alpha pulsed in these hills, had since he was eleven years old and first glimpsed the vista that would one day belong to him. Nothing brought peace to Malachi when deep disquiet hit him. Nothing but the land.
Long minutes passed before he spoke again, and when he did his voice was heavy. “A human looked on our moonbound forms, Aaron. It’s one of the greatest encroachments. You know that.”
“I know it gutted me to see her there,” Aaron said quietly, trying to ease the strain between them. If Mal ever needed a sounding board, a tough rebuttal from his beta, now was the time. “I’m not lessening that.”
Malachi spread his hands, the gesture hopeless.
“But these aren’t the days of pitchforks and torches, Mal. Ember’s one woman. One remorseful woman who loves a wolf pup. It’s not the same. It doesn’t call for the same response.”
“It’s my responsibility to uphold our customs. It was passed down to me when William died, Aaron. I don’t get to pick and choose.”
He knew that. But maybe he’d never fully seen the depth or the burden of it until now. He shook his head. There had to be another way. Then something new made his insides begin to burn. “I thought you’d talk about exile, but this… She won’t know where we are.”
“Of course not.”
“She’ll never see her nephew again.”
“Brought that on herself.”
Too much, all too much. Malachi’s words made the dreaded thing reality. Aaron dropped to his knees in the grass, feeling charred from the inside out. He was losing her. Not only the chance of a mated life with her. He was losing her presence, her friendship, forever. The hurt of what she’d done still festered in him. But she hadn’t left him despite what she’d seen, called him beautiful, refused to see him as a monster knowing he was responsible for a death. Forgiveness was possible between him and Ember, always. He knew this the way he knew the silkiness of her hair between his fingers, the depth of conviction in her eyes.
Malachi sat beside him, legs outstretched, ankles crossed. “I am sorry.”
“There’s—there’s no other way?” The words choked him.
“No.”
“Then…then I…” Aaron looked down the hill. His beautiful acres, so much space to run with his unerring wolf balance, so many little nooks of trees, dips of the creek he had memorized and loved for years. His chest hurt at the loss of his home, yet when he acknowledged it, the burning inside banked low.
“You what?”
“I’ve got to choose.”
Malachi’s head turned sharply toward him. “The pack?”
“I’m not going to leave her, Mal. I don’t think… It wouldn’t kill me, but I don’t think I’d be okay.”
“Aaron.”
“I mean it. I—I don’t know that I…”
He pressed a hand to his chest. The thought of leaving felt as if the bear had managed more than one unlucky paw swipe, had mauled him to pieces and left him on the trail alone. His people. Malachi, the brother of his heart. Quinn, the pup he longed to finish raising. Jeremy and Lucy and their kids, such treasured neighbors and friends. Old Arlo who he’d looked up to for fourteen years. Trevor, who felt the biggest feelings and was up for any adventure and wanted Aaron along for the ride. Ezra, who thought carefully and strategized to win and wanted Aaron on his team. Cassius, who was newer to the pack but rooted himself in deep when he claimed Sydney as mate and soon proved a wise and steady wolf. Rhett, who once told Aaron he would always support the pack, then definedsupportas“telling y’all off to your collective face if you need it”and“annihilating anything that threatens you.”
All of them. Lost to him for the rest of his life.
But he remembered the depth of Trevor’s pain flooding his senses. If Trevor could choose today, would he reclaim Kelsey at the expense of his pack?
“I don’t know how I’ll live with losing you all, but I will somehow. Ember has to be my choice. I know it in my body, Mal.”
“You question the lore, yet you’re willing to live by it.”
“It’s not about some mystical soul-tie. It’s not about wolf biology, like I’ve got to have her or lose my mind. It’s nothing like that. And it’s…kind of like that.”
“No. You can’t.” Malachi fisted his hands, pressed them to his thighs. “You need the pack. Wolves weaken on their own—mentally, physically.”
“Yeah, not looking forward to that part.”
