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God, I hoped her trust wasn’t misplaced. I stood, kissing the top of her head, and walked out of the kitchen, my belly in knots, and rushed upstairs to change. The sound of murmured voices drifted down from Rose’s room. I assumed Mags and Bram were with her. But I was wrong.

Not Mags.

Ronan.

He sat behind Rose and brushed her hair. “Like this?” he asked in his low, smooth voice.

Roe’s cheeks were flaming. “You don’t have to… Oh l-look, Iris is here now. She can do it.”

Ronan’s gaze lifted to me. “Iris.”

“Hey, Ronan. You’re here again.” There was a box of Turkish delight on the bedside table and a little powdered sugar on Roe’s chin. He’d been trying to feed her again.

He nodded, highly focused on slowly dragging the brush through my sister’s blond hair. “Yes.”

Ronan always looked the same, but today he looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes. “Is there…something you need?” I asked him.

“No.”

Rose was looking at me with pleading eyes. “Um…I was just going to help Rose with her bath, so I can take over.”

Ronan glanced up at me. “I can bathe Rose.”

The guy seriously had no idea. Rose looked utterly horrified. “Thanks for the offer, but Rose would probably feel unconformable with that.” Sometimes you just had to speak plainly to the guy or he’d never get it. “Most females try not to get naked with guys they aren’t in a relationship with, you know?”

Ronan froze, then blinked those purple eyes at me. “Of course. My apologies, Rose, if I was inappropriate.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered.

Ronan slid out from behind her, handed me the brush, and walked out. We both stared after him.

“What’s going on with him?” I asked, turning back to my sister.

Her eyes were wide, huge in her thin face. “I don’t know. He…he just keeps coming back. I’m not sure why.”

I wasn’t either. He didn’t feel love or lust or even affection. Yes, he had a bond with his sister, but he never showed Luna affection. The times I’d seen her hug her brother, he’d looked baffled. He was loyal, though, to those that he deemed worthy.

“Do you want me to ask him to stop coming over? I don’t want you feeling uncomfortable. The guy’s intense. I’d understand if you didn’t want him to visit so often.”

Her hands fluttered over the covers, and Nia carefully climbed up beside Rose, laying against her side and butting her nose against Roe’s hand for a pat. “No…I-I like it. He…” She chewed her lip and gave Nia what she wanted.

“What?” I sat on the edge of her bed. I needed to take care of the remains, but I would always make time for my sister, no matter what. While I still had her, she came first, always.

“He doesn’t tiptoe around me. He’s blunt, and he doesn’t seem to care about my…m-my back, and he makes me laugh, obviously without meaning to, and…” Her cheeks went pink again. “He’s…he’s seriously hot. I-I deserve some eye candy, right?”

I laughed, and her soft giggle had my heart squeezing painfully tight. Tears stung my eyes, for all the things Rose would miss out on, that she’d already missed out on, and for us. Because I wasn’t sure how we were going to go on without her.

I swallowed the tears away and soaked in the joy on her face. “Uh, yeah, girl, you so do. I promise not to kick him out next time he comes by. But when he does something that you don’t like, you have to say so. He’s blunt, you can be as well.”

I stayed with Roe until she fell asleep. I needed to get to the cemetery, but these moments with my sister were too precious to pass up. I kissed her hand when Mom walked in, taking her seat beside the bed.

“Nia, stay with Mom and Rose. I’ll be back soon.”

Nia did as I asked, and I rushed to my room to change.

It was drizzling outside, so I pulled on some tights and a sweater, grabbed my raincoat, shoved on my boots, and headed back outside. As I walked down the path to the cemetery, I reached out with my magic, my wolf spirit, she was how I sensed Draven, I was sure of it. What else could it be? But I didn’t feel him anymore.

He must have assumed I was staying in and gone back to his pack. Good.