Because I think he’s been listening to me for weeks. Through the drug, through the fog, through every morning I walked in and saidmorningand talked to him like he was a person. The pulse rate, the involuntary movements. I thought those were reflexes. Now, I don’t think they were reflexes.
I don’t say any of it.
Brenna reads my silence the way she reads everything: carefully, completely.
“If he’s burning through full protocol,” she says, “we can’t hold him here.”
“We can adjust—”
“To what? We’re already at the upper limit for sustained sedation. Go any higher, and we risk overdosing him. We could be suppressing his system until it doesn’t come back.” She turns toward the window. The compound is settling outside,everyone trying to return to normal. “This is a pack compound. Not a containment facility. We don’t have reinforced rooms or specialized staff. We have families. We have children.”
“I know.” My voice is hoarse.
“Then you know what I’m about to say.”
“Brenna, I—”
“He has to move.”
“But maybe…” I trail off. I can’t defend this point.
“I’m sorry, Sable, but there’s no other way.”
My hands curl at my sides. “Where?”
“Aurora is better equipped to handle him,” Brenna says. “Their headquarters are up in the Cascades, outside Seattle. Remote, reinforced, and staffed by people who’ve worked with cases like this before.”
“Cases like this?” I repeat. “You mean wolves who’ve been tortured and experimented on and had their identities stolen.” I can’t keep the bitterness from my voice, even though I know it isn’t Brenna’s fault we’re in this predicament.
“I mean wolves who are too dangerous to be managed in a civilian setting.”
“He isn’t only dangerous,” I say. “He’s traumatized.”
“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.” Brenna’s voice softens slightly. “I know you care about him, Sable. I know you see the man underneath the damage. But he broke through a locked door while sedated and pushed some kind of force through the corridor hard enough to drop a grown woman to her knees. Imagine what he would have done to that child.”
“I don’t have to imagine.” My throat tightens. “I was there. I saw his hand lift. I saw the claws. I saw exactly how bad it could have been.”
Brenna doesn’t move.
“And then I saw him stop.”
The words come out quieter than I mean them to.
“He heard me. Not as another threat in the room. He heard me, Brenna. He pulled whatever that was back before Dane fired. That has to matter.”
“I know it does. I see the man underneath, too. But seeing him doesn’t make the people in this compound safe, and they are my responsibility first.”
I can’t argue with that. I want to, and I can’t.
“I’m going with him,” I say before I can consider the implications.
“No.” She shakes her head. “You’re needed here. There’s been too much going on to lose you.”
“Hazel will be here. And Greta can step in if needed. And I know Merric can bring in more help from Frostbourne.” I set my shoulders, preparing for her to counter. She does.
“We can’t lose our best healer for one wolf, Sable.”
“He isn’t just one wolf. He’s different; we both know that. And he responds to me. I’m the only one who can reach him. You saw that in the corridor.”
