My eyes meet Orion’s—his pupils dilate—then we’re both bounding up the stairs, taking them two at a time. I scour the nest, tearing sheets and pillows off the massive bed, feeling a hurtful pang when I find some of my clothes hidden amongst the fabric. She was nesting. With my things.
“Some of her clothes are missing,” Orion calls from her room, the sound of drawers yanking open, all her things clattering about. I slip into the bathroom and notice her toothbrush is gone. My stomach twists further. Something tugs in my chest. An errant thought. I head down the hall and into my bedroom. I almost wish I hadn’t known where to look.
But the backpack, with the things we traveled in to get here, is gone.
Ghost stands beside me, shoulder to shoulder.
“She left,” I croak.
He nods succinctly, then exits the room. Orion’s footsteps thunder down the stairs after Ghost. Kendrick’s voice rises from below, urgent, panicked, and planning. But I’m rooted in place.
Stuck, as if someone’s driven a stake through my heart, pinning me to this spot.
Grayson brushes past me. The mattress dips as he sits on its edge. He’s calmer than I am, which is miraculous in itself.
“I heard what you said to Orion,” he breaks the silence. “Earlier. About the five years you went missing.”
I say nothing.
“Silas, I…”
I raise my eyes. Still stuck in place, my muscles coiled tight. “You what?”
“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”
Something raw escapes me, a half-laugh, half-snarl. “I don’t need your fucking apologies, Gray. Besides, we’ve got more important shit to deal with right now.”
“I’m sorry. For letting you down, for not finding you. For believing you’d just leave us.”
“Well, I wasn’t exactly a saint.”
“Don’t. Don’t belittle yourself or justify my actions. I failed you. I should have searched until I found you. I should haveneverstopped.” He shakes his head, dragging his fingers through his dark hair, catching on the small braid Mona wove into it days ago.
I change the subject. “Mona left, Gray. She took her things, packed her bag, and left us. Left me.” My fist clenches so tight my nails shift into claws, breaking skin. The pain helps ground me, like always. “Why would she do that? Was she—” I can’t get the words out. My chest feels like it’s being crushed by concrete. Of course she’d reject me—I’m fucking poison. I’m filth. She finally saw through me, saw what a broken, pathetic mess I am on the inside. The monster hiding under my skin. And she ran. Like anyone with a working brain cell would.
Gray’s eyes snap up. “You think she left you? Silas, Mona is—”
I shake my head, my feet suddenly uprooted. I stumble toward the window, catching myself against the sill. “Don’tgaslight me, brother. Let’s not pretend like I’m the gold fucking star of this pack.”
Gray’s reaction catches me off guard. He throws his head back, a harsh laugh bursting from his throat, forcing me back a step.
“Christ,” he exhales, dragging a palm down his face. “And here I thought I was dense. But you—you take the fucking cake. What’s your theory exactly? That she’s with you out of pity? That Mona’s just tolerating you?”
Gray strides over, his large hands landing heavily on my shoulders. I flinch and try to step back, but his grip tightens, anchoring me in place until I have no choice but to look him in the eye. “Are you blind to how she watches you? Can’t you hear her pulse quicken when you walk into a room? Can’t you scent her perfume every time you touch her—even the slightest touch—at the fuckingbreakfasttable? Brother, I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through. Nothing I say or do could ever erase it, and god I fucking wish there was. But I’ll spend my life showing you what you mean to this pack, to our clan. You’re my best friend, my brother, the one who’s been beside me longer than anyone.”
I try to pull away, my chest constricting with each word, but his grip only tightens.
“But, you must see, Silas… the way Mona looks at you isn’t with pity or disappointment. You aren’t some goddamn albatross. You’ve got that girl’s fucking heart in your hands. You know this is true, you can feel it in the bond. Same as I can feel her love for me. I piss that girl off like nobody’s business, but it only makes her love grow deeper, stronger. She’s fucking fire, and you know that. So, you know that she wouldneverleave you, not unless…”
A beat passes, the moment heavy and silent. His eyes widen with sudden realization.
“What is it?” I rasp.
Before he can answer, voices erupt from below. Gray and I exchange glances, then run out of the room, down the stairs.
We find Orion, the level-headed one, with his face contorted in rage. “You’re telling me she went after them alone?” he roars.
Kendrick restrains Orion as he lunges at Ghost. The façade Ghost has maintained for weeks is finally crumbling. I watch as his composure fractures, control dissolving. It was slow at first, though inevitable. He is analytical and organized, and if not for the measured witch blood inside him, tempering his alpha falcon, he’d have already lost it all completely.
