No nervous tells beyond the baseline tension he always carried.
If he was lying, he was terrifyingly good at it. But my gut and my wolf didn’t flag Mason as a threat. When Mason finished, Cooper gave a slow, satisfied nod.
“Thank you,” Cooper said.
Relief flickered across Mason’s face so fast most people would’ve missed it. I didn’t. Before I could think better of it, I reached over and gave his hand a quick squeeze.
Mason blinked at me, clearly startled, then offered a small, uncertain smile.
Something in my chest went dangerously soft. Cooper’s gaze flicked between us, but thankfully he didn’t comment.
“Mason, I’d like you to head back out to the old logging roads with Levi. Sometimes being on site helps jog details that don’t surface in an interview,” Cooper said.
Mason went still. The fear this time was more obvious.
Cooper continued, voice calm. “Levi will be with you the entire time. You’ll have full pack support.”
Mason hesitated, perhaps just a second too long. I leaned forward slightly.
“Don’t worry,” I told Mason.
His eyes snapped to mine, and there it was again. That strange pull in my chest.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I added quietly.
Mason searched my face like he was weighing something heavy. Then, slowly, he nodded.
“Okay,” Mason finally said.
My wolf settled immediately, pleased in a way that made absolutely no sense. Yeah. This was getting complicated fast.
* * *
The logging roads gave us nothing.
There wasn’t a scent trail worth chasing, not a footprint that hadn’t already been catalogued and discussed to death by Gino and the other trackers yesterday.
The forest sat around us in that watchful, too-quiet way that always made my wolf restless. Pine needles whispered under the breeze. Somewhere far off, a crow complained.
But the ground where the deer shifters had vanished was cold.
Mason stood a few feet away from me, arms folded tight across his middle like he was holding himself together by sheer will.
His gaze moved over the clearing, but not in the focused way of someone searching. More like someone remembering. My chest tightened.
He looked pale too, but also a little shaken. Hell. I’d thought yesterday had just rattled him a little.
Now, watching the way his shoulders hunched and his fingers kept flexing like he couldn’t settle in his own skin, I started to think I’d underestimated just how hard this had hit him.
Mason was staring intently at the edge of the clearing. I scented the air again out of habit, but couldn’t find anything new.
“They didn’t even have a chance,” he whispered.
My jaw tightened. Silence stretched between us, heavy and thick as tree sap. Mason swallowed hard, eyes still fixed on the empty ground.
My wolf paced under my skin.Protect. The instinct rose fast and sharp, surprising even me. Mason wasn’t pack, and he certainly wasn’t mine.
So why did every nerve in my body sit up and snarl at the way his shoulders trembled?
