He dragged in a breath, chest rising and falling.
“You’re twisting this,” he said, “you’re tired. I’m tired. I flinched. Reflex. That’s all.”
“I wanted your reflex to be anything other than fear.”
He stared at her as if she’d driven a knife between his ribs.
“What do you want me to say?” he asked, voice cracking. “Tell me. Spell it out. I’ll say it. I’ll-”
“I don’t want words,” she said, “you’re very good at words when you’re cornered. You’ve had ten years to practice apologizing to the ghost of me you thought you’d never see again.”
His hands clenched into fists. “This is unfair.”
“And whose fault is that?”
They stared at each other across the narrow strip of floor.
From the kitchen, water ran. Aurelia laughed at something, high and bright. The normalcy of it made everything in here feel more surreal.
Dani swallowed.
“Edith said,” she went on, quieter now, “that a man who built his whole identity on hating something doesn’t just wake up one morning and decide everything is roses. She said if I went into this thinking love would fix the way you’ve been taught to see us, I’d end up hurt. Again.”
His face shuttered.
“You think I haven’t changed at all?” he asked. “You really think I’m still thatboytoo afraid of showing weakness to fight for what he wants?”
“You mated me,” she said, “you brought me into your house. You’re trying. I see that. I feel it. But when it counts—” She lifted her hand again, palm up. No flame this time, just the faint shimmer under her skin. “When it’s me and the magic in the same room, you still can’t separate them. You still hear your father louder than you hear yourself.”
His throat worked.
“He told me wolves first,” Arthur said, raw. “Always. That’s what an alpha is. That’s what I’ve been doing for ten years. The one who puts the pack above everything, every time.”
“Even me,” she said softly, “even her.”
Pain slashed across his features. “Don’t—”
“If it came down to it,” she said, too deep now to let go, “if you had to choose between your pack’s fear andmylife. Between keeping them comfortable and letting me and my…ourdaughter live as ourselves. What would you do?”
He stared at her.
Images hit him; she felt them through the bond, jagged and hot. Hybrids at the gate. Witches on the wall. Nordan wolves behind him, looking to him for orders with panic in their eyes.
His father’s voice, deep and inexorable.Wolves first, everything else is temptation.
He swallowed, “I can’t answer that the way you want,” he said, voice hoarse, “you know I can’t. I’m Alpha. My first duty—”
“There it is,” she whispered.
The last thread of hope inside her gave a small, almost inaudible snap.
For a moment, she simply stood there, breathing too fast, listening to the blood rush in her ears.
Then she stepped back.
“I need air,” she said. Her voice came out too calm, given the earthquake under her ribs. “Before I say something I can’t unsay.”
“It’s not safe,” he snapped, reaching for the familiar ground, the one that always made sense to him, “Volnoye are still on the ridge. As alpha, it’s my duty to—”
