"What? He doesn't tell me everything. He's more likely to have sent someone to check on you than come himself."
"So he's been having his people report back on me."
"Probably."
I drop my hands. Kestria's smiling now—not the guilty smile from before. An actual smile, warm and fond and so familiar it makes my chest ache.
"Would I know him? If I saw him? In human form. Have I—have I met him without knowing it?"
"No. He would never come as a human." She hesitates. "But hewillbe coming now. He'll want to—he has to, after what happened. With Theron."
My stomach tightens. The alpha of a werewolf pack is about to show up at my cottage and I'm covered in blood and Ihaven't slept and Nugget has destroyed the garden.
Great.
"Is there anything else? Any other massive life-altering revelations you'd like to drop while I'm sitting here covered in your blood?"
"I think that covers the major points."
"Werewolves are real, you're one of them, your brother runs the pack, the wolves I've been treating are people with names, and my flower paste is apparently the only medicine that works on you."
"That's about it."
"Great.Wonderful. I'm going to finish this bread and then I'm going to check on my chickens and then I'm going to have a very quiet breakdown in the garden."
"Mel."
"What."
"Are we okay?"
I look at her. Blanket. Bandages. Color in her cheeks that wasn't there twelve hours ago.
She lied. She also—
Her blood is under my fingernails.
"You apologized already."
"That's not the same as asking."
"Isn't it?"
"No."
"Mel."
"We're okay." I say it and mean it and my voice cracks on the second word. "We're okay. The wolf thing is—I told you, it's a lot. The lying is worse. But we're okay."
Her eyes go wet again. "I'm going to make it up to you."
"You're going to start by dealing with that deer when you can walk. It's been outside simmering in the sun and I'm not touching it."
"I can do that."
"And you're going to answer every question I have. No more secrets."
"No more secrets."
