"Some of them won't want to. Going back into that headspace, even to help someone else—it costs something."
"I know." I thought about what Stone had looked like during those moments with RJ. The pain underneath the calm. The memories he'd had to dredge up to make the connection. "But some of them will. Some of them will want to use what happened to them for something good."
"And if it's not enough?"
"Then we figure out what else we need." I leaned into him, felt him lean back. "But we don't stop. We don't accept that this is impossible just because it's hard."
Stone exhaled slowly. The tension in his body eased slightly—not gone, but manageable.
"He's going to need a lot of help," he said. "RJ. What happened today was a breakthrough, but it's not a cure. He's still drowning."
"Then we throw him more ropes."
"And if he can't grab them?"
"Then we make sure he knows he's not alone in the water."
Stone turned to look at me. Really look, with those gray eyes that had seen too much and somehow still held hope.
"You really believe that's enough?"
"I believe it's what we can do. And I believe that matters, even when it doesn't fix everything."
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
"Okay."
We sat there on the floor of the common room as staff cleaned up around us and the building settled back into its routine. The crisis was over. RJ was safe—for now. The protocols had failed, but something else had worked.
Chapter twenty-three
Rae's office felt smaller than usual.
Maybe it was the weight of the conversation we were about to have. Maybe it was the stack of files on her desk, each one representing a wolf whose future was being decided in rooms like this. Or maybe I was just tired.
I'd come straight from the Healing Center after the incident with RJ. My hands were still shaking slightly—not from fear, but from the residual adrenaline of watching everything almost go wrong.
"You heard what happened," I said. Not a question.
"Neal called me immediately." Rae leaned back in her chair, her expression carefully neutral. "He also sent me his notes. And the security footage."
"Then you saw what Stone did."
"I saw a wolf use shared trauma to de-escalate a crisis that our trained staff couldn't handle." She folded her hands on her desk. "It was impressive. And deeply concerning."
I waited.
"RJ can't stay at Frosthaven."
The words landed heavily, even though I'd been expecting them.
"He'll be one of the first transferred to the new academy when it opens," Rae continued. "The construction timeline is being accelerated. We're hoping to have the initial facilities ready by early spring instead of late."
"Because of what happened today?"
"Because of what's been happening for months." She pulled one of the files toward her, opened it. RJ's name was printed on the tab. "He's had four violent incidents since arriving. Each one more severe than the last. The traditional approaches aren't working. The environment here isn't helping."
