Quinn sank back to the couch and wrapped his arms around himself. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. But I need you to listen.”
Quinn nodded.
“The custom, the safety measure, is that we move on. Completely. Abandon worldly goods, et cetera.”
Move on… Ember pressed deeper into the chair. He couldn’t mean what that sounded like. “Abandon your homes?”
“That’s right.”
He spoke with composure, but the devastation in his eyes betrayed him. Ember pushed up from the chair, but he held up his hand, palm out, keeping her back. She sank back down. It might mean nothing more than caution due to Quinn’s presence. It might mean she’d lost the right to comfort him. He still looked worn down, but he was more alert than he had been hours ago. He wouldn’t be held right now.
“Do you have somewhere—a safe house or something, until…?”
The moment she spoke the question, she understood its nonsense. No, there was no temporary accommodation for the situation because it wasn’t temporary. They were leaving. For good.
“Where will you go?” she whispered.
He met her eyes, and his voice trembled. “You won’t be told.”
Quinn rocked once on the couch, clearly wanting to leap up again, unable to hold in his own broken realization: “We’ll never see Aunt Em again.”
“No, pup.”
“We’ll never see Aunt Em again?”
“No.”
“That’s why you smell lost.”
Aaron looked away. “How’s that?”
“It’s because she’s your mate.” Quinn looked to Ember. “Uh, I guess that sounds weird if he didn’t tell you yet.”
“He did,” she said.
“Oh, okay. Well, so…” He looked from her to Aaron. “That’s why you smell like you’re losing things.”
“No, that’s not why. I’m staying with Ember.”
Her heart seemed to go still in her chest. “But…you can’t leave them.”
“You’re my choice,” he said.
Sitting across the room was too far away. She needed to touch him. She needed to tuck herself in close to him. “You’re a wolf. Wolves need their pack.”
“A wolf needs his mate too.”
“But…” Quinn’s bottom lip wobbled. “How’ll you live, Aaron? What about attachment and—and…?”
“And what?” Ember said.
“Wolf grief,” he whispered. “It’s…I think it’s like wolf senses.”
“You mean unbelievably strong and intense. In this case, intensely terrible.”
Quinn nodded. “For the wolf who’s lost. And for the pack who loses a wolf. Both.” A rumbling came from Aaron, the gentler version of a growl, but Quinn squared his shoulders. “It’s true. I’ve heard it talked about.”
