Furrowing my brow, I chuckled. “Whataboutme?”
Rowan chuckled, rolling her eyes. “Well, I know nothing about any of you, so tell me something. Granted, you have many more years to cover. I only have memories of six years, but I’m not in a rush. Spill.”
I suddenly felt very put on the spot. I didn’t know what to saythat wouldn’t upset her or seem like I was overstepping. All I wanted to tell her was that I had loved her from the moment I saw her, and when she disappeared, she took a chunk of me with her. But this wasnotthe time.
"Not much to say, really. I was born and raised right here in the horde. I grew up close to Bastian; he was the Alpha's son at the time.” I shrugged again, trying to keep everything informal. “I tend to work on the technology side of things, tracking finances, computers. I was the one who installed security cameras. Bastian’s dad, the old Alpha, thought it was pointless with our senses, but they’ve come in handy.”
“You can never be too safe,” Rowan agreed.
We’d been wandering around the garden aimlessly, but I didn’t mind. It gave me the chance to see her in the bright daylight, to soak in the sight of her after years in the darkness of her absence. Our steps were slow, and we stood nearly shoulder to shoulder as we walked along the narrow stone paths.
“That’s why I pushed for it—I wanted to be useful to the horde. I was young and had no idea what my future role would hold. Given my friendship with Bash, I knew I would be a member of the Alpha’s inner circle, sure. But it felt important to prove myself. Orsen was clearly going to be his second. And then, when we were in our late teens and early twenties, our lives suddenly changed when we realized there were going to befourleaders of the horde.”
“Which is weird, right? I’ve never seen that before.” Rowan cocked her head to the side. “I’ve seen a pair of Alphas with the same mate, but never four.”
“Neither have I. But since we all had the same mate, it was best for the whole clan to work together. It really seemed like it would work, until it didn’t. Nix had only been in our lives for three years—his upbringing was very different from ours, and there were some growing pains. Only, right when we thought we had the future all laid out… well, disaster struck.”
“Because your mate went missing,” Rowan said softly.
“Becauseyouwent missing. We used to go to this cabin in the middle of nowhere to blow offsteam, away from the prying eyes of the horde. Bastian in particular was under a lot of scrutiny as the Alpha’s son. The year we turned nineteen, we went into the local town to grab a coffee…and there you were.”
“What was she like?” Rowan asked, her brows raised. It was strange to talk about Emmy like she wasn’t standing right next to me. But then again, she wasn’t, was she? This was a different person.
Looking at her, I sighed, letting the strangeness just be. “She was wonderful and bright. We met her for a second time because her piece-of-crap truck had broken down near the lake, and Nix decided he had to be her knight in shining armor.”
“That does sound like a veryNixthing to do.” Rowan chuckled.
I nodded, laughing as well. Nix was a bit of a puppy dog, but we fucking loved him, no matter how much he irritated us at times.
I couldn’t help but smile, remembering that day so clearly. “We all knew he just wanted to talk to a pretty girl. So, we followed him, mostly with the intent to make his mission that much harder, because that’s what brothers do with each other. But when we saw her face…fuck. It was like a punch to the gut. I knew right then that nothing would ever be the same again. It was like my very being changed, my center of gravity shifted, and my world now revolved around this tiny little blonde with the most stunning eyes I’d ever seen.
“She was sarcastic and sweet, perfect down to her toes. So, I looked at my brothers, ready to shout with glee that I’d found my mate. How lucky was I? Finding a mate is so rare nowadays. I knew it was a massive blessing. But when I turned to them, I could see it all over their faces, that same thunderstruck expression. Even rarer than finding your own mate, finding a gods’ honestclan mating”—I shook my head, letting out a low whistle—“that’s rarer than a diamond-studded gold nugget.”
At Rowan’sfrown, I paused. “But she was human?” she asked.
“She was. We helped her with her truck and discussed it among ourselves right then and there. Almost immediately, we knew we needed to tell her what we were. So, we decided to show her the next day. And boy did we. Just went and shifted in front of her.” I laughed.
“Oh my God. You just threw her into the deep end? How didthatgo?”
I rolled my lips between my teeth, pausing on the path. Unable to keep the smirk off my face, I bobbed my head, rememberingexactlyhow well that had gone.
“She stabbed Orsen.” I let out a full belly laugh as Rowan gasped. “Orsen claims to this day it was the moment he knew he was in love, confessed while we stitched him up.”
Rowan laughed, putting her hands over her mouth as her eyes glazed over. “I stabbed him? Ha, I can so see that.”
She’d saidIthis time. Did that mean she was coming around? Encouraged, I kept going.
“You’ve always had that fire. I’m sure you’re stronger than the girl we once knew, but there was always a core of steel to you. Gods, that summer was fucking magical. We spent every day swimming, nights at our cabin, mornings in bed, and we fell in love so damn fast. It was beautiful. We called home and told the horde. Everyone was elated at the prospect of a mated group. After the summer, you were supposed to go back to college, but you looked at local universities instead of Duke, where you were at that time.
“Duke?” Rowan asked weakly. “What area of study?”
“Elementary education. You wanted to teach, anything to do with kids, really. We were all ready to see what the future held. Then, one day, you went home to pick up some things and… didn’t come back. We searched for days,weeks,hell, even ayearlater, but we still had nothing. We looked everywhere, hoping to catch a glimpse. You were just… gone.”
Rowan quickly swiped at the tears gathering in her eyes. I wanted to soothe her, to make it better, but how could I?
“Grey…”
I closed my eyes and moaned lightly at her speaking my name. It’d been so long since I had heard that nickname uttered from her lips.
