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He was quiet for a long moment. A leaf spun past on the current and vanished downstream.

“A part of me understands that too,” he muttered, so low I almost didn’t hear it.

An ache grew inside me in the silence that followed.

Then he stood. “Thank you.” He turned and walked up the bank through the frost without looking back.

My hands trembled before my body followed. I sat alone by the river, sobbing, until my tears ran dry.

Imogene found me as I walked up the path. “Those furs are far too big for you,” she said with a wry grin. She leaned against the doorframe beneath the carved wolf.

I shrugged. It was better than red.

She eyed me with the same flat, measuring look she’d given me the first night at the cottage door, as if I were still a threat she hadn’t finished assessing.

“You talked to Gage,” she said.

“Yes.” I hesitated. “You told him.”

“The night you gave me the names.” She studied me. “He had a right to hear it before he had to look at you.” Her expression was hard, but then it eased. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

A few minutes later, she returned carrying a bundle of gray. She held it out to me.

“Wear this instead. It will fit you better.”

I shook it out. A coat. Dark gray wool, lined with fleece, the color of Conan’s fur. Worn at the cuffs, carefully mended at one elbow.

“It was my sister’s,” Imogene said. “Her name was Nellie.”

I looked up at her. She’d told me her sister died at the Harrow. My throat closed.

“Imogene, I can’t⁠—”

“You can.” She pushed off the doorframe. “You stepped out for Gage.” Her voice went higher at the end. “You stepped up for all of us.”

She took a few steps away before she stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Conan was right about you.” A pause. “I’m glad he was.”

She continued down the path.

I stepped inside the cabin and took off Conan’s furs. I put on the coat. The sleeves were long for me, and it smelled of cedar and a woman I’d never met. It was warm.

Conan returned minutes later and his gaze went straight to the coat. The slightest movement across his face made my chest ache.

“Imogene,” he said softly.

“Her sister’s.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Then she’s decided.”

“Decided what?”

“That you’re pack.” His voice roughened.

I stood in the middle of his home in a dead woman’s coat, with Gage’s words still echoing in my ears. I’d made my decision.

“Run the verifications,” I said.

His eyes searched mine. “Ruby?”