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“Your wife left me a building, Damian,” I said.

He nodded, jamming his hands in his pockets. “The, uh, the river walk?”

It was a little wooden foot bridge built at the edge of the cliff here. It had tall railings for safety. You could walk along it and look down on the river. Downtown Riverside was on the high ground.

“Okay,” I said again.

He nodded and took off, walking two steps ahead of me.

I went behind him.

We didn’t say anything until we got to the river walk.

Then, stepping onto the small wooden path, we walked a few feet together, and he said, “I saw you and Vincent.”

I stopped short.

He kept going. “You think I wasn’t worried? Your heat hadn’t broken, and I was checking in with you, trying to stay far enough away I didn’t get triggered by your scent, of course, but I had to know if you would be okay. I had to be there if you needed me. And so, I saw it. I saw the whole thing.” His voice cracked.

I waited. The fact that he was upset about it, it settled oddly against me.

“You don’t have anything to say for yourself?” There was a barb in his tone.

I wrapped my arms around my waist. I was embarrassed, I supposed, mostly about the wolf-on-human aspect of it. It was unnatural. But I hadn’t harmed an innocent animal. I had not taken something from another being without consent. I didn’t think I’d done something actually wrong. “It’s not as if that wolf wasn’t Vincent. It was consensual.”

He gave me a funny look. “That’s what you go to?”

“What should I go to?”

“How do you think it made me feel?” he said, spreading his hands. “How do you think I’ve been feeling for all these weeks afterward? I can still picture it, you and him, together. My scent match and my brother. And you know what he did with Opal, so, how could you?”

I was completely thrown by this. “You can’t be serious.”

“Serious as the grave,” he said. “When I saw it, it felt like something had stabbed me right in the gut. Nothing has ever hurt that much, you with him. And every time I remember it, it twists in me again. It’s the worst sort of betrayal. I might expect it from him, Leo, but you? How could you? You were always my—”

“You trusted me?” I said, heat rising in my tone. “You thought I was always going to be yours, that I’d never want anyone but you, that we belonged together?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s really, really rich, coming from you.” I was disgusted with this man. How self-centered could he really be? I turned on my heel and stalked back down the river walk, away from him. He didn’t deserve to talk to me.

He caught up with me and took me by the arm. “Why are you being like that about it?”

I gaped at him. “You know why.”

He let go of me. “You mean because of Opal.”

“You know what I think, Damian?” I said. “I think that you’ve always just resented me. You never wanted me. You always wanted her. But you would never let yourself want her. So, you had her for all those years, and you never even let yourself enjoy having her, even though you got exactly what you wanted. Through all of that, though, you somehow thought you were entitled to me. But I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I can’t forgive you.”

He opened his mouth to say something, and then he closed it. He looked away. “You did it to hurt me. You wanted revenge.”

“No,” I said. “I was in heat, and I wanted it to break, and Vincent helped me. It actually had nothing to do with you.” I turned my back on him again and started to walk.

“Wait, Leo!” he cried.

I stopped, but I didn’t look at him.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was chagrined. “You’re right. I was being really selfish. I know how badly it hurt you when I bit Opal. But I didn’t treat you like this afterward. I didn’t cut you off and I didn’t act as if I didn’t still want you.”