Then, something caught my eye.
A small stone near the base of a tree. Not a random rock. This one was placed there with purpose. Smooth. Oval. The surface was carved with careful hands.
I stepped closer, my heartbeat picking up for reasons I didn’t understand.
The engraving was simple. My name. A date. And beneath it, a single etched flower.
I knew that shape. I’ve seen it before. On my skin.
I knelt slowly, fingers trembling as I brushed dirt from the stone’s edge. The letters blurred for a moment, not because they were worn, but because my eyes suddenly stung.
A memorial.
For a boy who was eight years old. A boy who was missing. A boy who had vanished in the woods. A boy who never came home.
I knew the story. I had found the old news clippings on Evander’s nightstand when I had tided them up. They were faded with age, like a lot of the things that dealt with the boy he lost.
A tragic accident is what the articles said.
A boy who was most likely killed by a mountain lion. Even though no evidence had ever been found.
I understand why this Alpha was obsessed with the idea of me being that boy. And my heart ached at his loss.
I didn’t hear him at first. I didn’t even realize I’d wondered away from him. Not until I felt a shadow fall beside me.
Evander didn’t touch me right away. He didn’t say my name or ask what I was doing. He just stepped close enough thatI could feel the warmth of him at my side, steady and grounding, like he was giving me a way back if I needed it.
Only when I finally looked up did he crouch beside me, slow and careful, his eyes flickering from my face to the stone and back again.
“You found it.” His voice wasn’t surprising. Just…gentle and accepting. Like he had known, Iwouldfind it.
“Why?” The word slipped out before I could stop it. Too small, too thin. Too full of things I didn’t know how to say.
Why make this for a boy who wasn’t coming back? Why make a garden with flowers that pulled me towards them? Why bringmehere to see it all?
Just…why?
Evander didn’t answer right away. He didn’t rush to fill the silence or tell me it was okay. He just crouched there, close enough I could feel his warmth. His hand hovered near my back.
“Kasey.” Maybe he couldn’t answer. Maybe there was no answer towhy. Life was unfair like that. “My mom doesn’t believe remembering someone is the same as giving up hope.”
Hope.
The word felt too big in my chest, too heavy, like it didn’t belong to me. I shook my head, breath trembling. “Why show me, then?”
Evander finally let his hand settle between my shoulder blades. “Because you deserve to see the things that matter to me. And because…you matter to me just as much as that little boy years ago did.”
I didn’t know why that hurt. I didn’t know why it felt like something inside me was trying to wake up. I didn’t know why the blue flowers and the carved stone made my chest ache like a bruise pressed too hard.
I only knew that the questions still echoed inside me.
Why me? Why now? Why did this feel like something I should remember? And why did Evander look at me like he already knew the answer?
“Mom keeps this garden going all year,” Evander said, his voice low, almost reverent. “It’s how she copes. Losing that boy… it broke something in her. In all of us.”
He paused, eyes drifting over the flowers like he was seeing a memory instead of petals. “I was the one who suggested planting lilies in the valley. Took us forever to find blue ones—thought we never would. But we did. And now they grow here because she tends to them with everything she has left.”
He let the words settle between us, soft and heavy.
