A snarl crawls up my throat, and my canines lengthen, pricking my lower lip. “They wanted someone to blame and they chose you. It wasn’t right.”
“Maybe it wasn’t.” His low, even tone soothes my wolf’s fury. “What’s done is done. We can’t change it.” His fingers tense around my hand. “Unless, can we? If we can go back in time or to the present—”
I shake my head before he’s finished speaking. “Believe me, love. I have revisited that day so many times. I could not speak or even touch the ghosts from the past. You cannot change what has already come to pass. If I could…” A lump sticks in my throat and I close my eyes against a sharp, sudden sting.
“It’s okay. I get it.” He squeezes my hand. “I guess there’s nothing we can do about it.” Disappointment lines Soren’s brow. “I wish I could remember even a little bit.”
Soren’s words plant a seed of an idea, and my heart races as that seed grows into a tree, branches reaching toward countless possibilities.
“What if I were to show you?”
Soren’s quiet for a moment. “What do you mean?”
Launching to my feet, I pace the length of the counter and back. “I don’t always have the best ideas,” I preface, hands up so he’ll hear me out uninterrupted. “My twin, Anders, will tell you as much. Once I tried to blend in with a family of walruses. I got these sticks and put them right here.” I point to where my canines are. “I thought if I could convince them I was one of them, they would teach me how to swim like they do so I could catch all the fish I could eat. Oh, and once I burned my tongue eating my aunt Helga’s boar stew, so I found a chunk of ice and stuck my tongue to it and—”
“Lyall.”
“—I was stuck there for two days!”
“Lyall.” Soren has a smile on his face, amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes. “What do you mean, ‘show me’?”
“Oh, right.” I give my head a shake. “I don’t have the best ideas. Not always. But if I were to take you back in time with me to see these events for yourself, mayhap that would stir your memories.”
Soren’s eyes widen. “Could we do that?”
I nod fervently. “Aye. If that’s what you wish.”
“If we did… would we be able to come back?”
“Of course. My twin and his mate travel back and forth often to visit our family.”
Soren runs his tongue over his bottom lip, like he’s tasting the idea, letting it linger on his palate like a fine mead. If ideas had a taste, what would it be? No, focus, Lyall.
“In movies and books there are all these consequences to time travel. Would we get in trouble?”
I’m about to shake my head, but as much as I wish to, I can’t deny the truth. I’m breaking every rule the TTA explicitly warned me not to break. In one night I’ve revealed the paranormal world and told him of our shared history. There is still time to back away before I get myself and my pack in trouble we may not be able to get ourselves out of. To put my family first.
But I look at Soren, and not even Thor himself could lend me the strength to leave him again.
Sorenismy family, and I promised myself that this time I would choose him above everything and everyone else.
“Lyall?” Soren watches me with wide eyes full of uncertainty.
I make myself smile, wishing only to reassure him. “There are risks, but you are worth all of them.”
Soren’s jaw tightens. “Could you get in trouble because of me?”
I nod. “Aye.”
“And you’re just… okay with that?” The bewildered expression on his face reminds me of just how far I have yet to go to remind him of what he means to me.
Good thing I’ve always loved a challenge.
Except for the time I shoved my snout in a beehive to get at the honey before the bears could. My nose was swollen for weeks.
Looking Soren in the eyes, I hold on tight to his hand, reaffirming my commitment to him. “I’ve never been surer about anything.”
Soren looks at me the way I imagine I must look at the northern lights when they dance above the mountains. “You’re either brave or crazy as hell. Not sure which.”
