“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t.” He shakes his head. “Don’t apologize for surviving. I just—” He breaks off, looking away. “I just wish I’d been there when you needed me.”
“And what? Been captured too?” I bump his shoulder with mine. “You’re lucky you weren’t. You’d have hated the gruel they fed us.”
“But it should have been me in that prison. I’m just a hunter. You’re the Beta.”
I frown. “You’re not ‘just’ anything, Dane. And if it had been you, I’d have torn the mountains apart stone by stone to find you.”
“I tried,” he whispers, and the raw guilt in his voicemakes my chest ache. “Every day, I tried. But there was nothing. No trail, no scent, no leads.”
“Zella covered her tracks well.”
His expression darkens at the traitor’s name. “Ryker has hunting parties tracking her movements. When they find her?—”
“When they find her, I want to be there,” I cut in. “I want to be the one to end her.”
“You’ve changed.”
“Three months in a cage will do that to a wolf.” I pause, my mind drifting to copper hair and golden eyes.Three months changed me,I think.But what about three years? What was Kier like before they broke him down and rebuilt him into someone who talks to ghosts?
The thought sends an unexpected pang through my chest. I’ve seen glimpses of who he might have been—in his easy humor, his protective instincts, the way he moves with lethal grace despite years of captivity. But how much of the man I’m falling for is real, and how much is just survival carved into human shape?
What dreams did they steal from him? What hopes did they bury under silver and stone?
The questions feel too intimate, too personal for someone I’m supposed to be keeping at arm’s length. But I can’t shake the image of a younger Kier, maybe less scarred, less guarded, with laughter that came easier and eyes that hadn’t seen quite so much darkness.
Stop it,I order myself.It doesn’t matter who he was. It only matters who he is now.
“It’s more than that.” Dane tilts his head, examining me with the same careful attention that’s made him our pack’s best tracker. “It’s the way you carry yourself. You’ve always been ready for an attack, but this is something else.”
I look away, uncomfortable under his scrutiny. “Let’s change the subject.“
“Fine. We can talk about the nomad,” he says simply. “Kier.”
My pulse jumps at his name, an involuntary reaction I hate myself for. “What about him?”
“What’s really between you?”
“He helped me escape,” I say, keeping my voice neutral. “We survived together. That creates a bond.”
Dane’s expression tells me he’s not buying my dismissal. “Lithia, this is me you’re talking to. I saw how you looked at him when you arrived. How he watches you.”
I sigh, running a hand over my freshly shaved head. The bristle of short hair against my palm is strange after years of long locks.
“It doesn’t matter what it is,” I say finally. “I’m Beta. My responsibility is to the pack.”
“The pack doesn’t need you to be alone. Look at Ryker and Kitara. Their bond makes them stronger, not weaker.”
“That’s different. They’re true mates.”
“And what if Kier is yours?”
The question catches me off guard. My wolf stirs, pressing forward with a low whine of longing that I ruthlessly suppress.
“He’s not,” I say, more sharply than intended. “And even if he was… you know why I can’t.”
Dane’s expression softens. “Because of Mom and Dad?”
