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He laughs, but his eyes are wet.

Mine are too.

I pull my hand back and reach for my coffee.

Reid gives me a minute before he asks, “What’s her name?”

I stare at him. I could keep this from him too—I’ve had plenty of practice. But I’ve done enough hiding.

“Nora Moon.”

“Nora Moon?” His smile returns slowly, and he shakes his head. “Fuck.”

I scowl. “Don’t make it weird.”

Reid laughs properly this time, reminding me how much I’ve missed it. “Is she a wolf?”

“No. Human.”

His expression turns thoughtful. “And your wolf recognizes her.”

“Yes.”

Reid studies me for a moment, but whatever he sees, he keeps it to himself.

He reaches for the coffee Marnie has finally brought him and takes a drink. His face twists. “Still terrible.”

I huff a laugh. “Some things survived.”

Reid looks at me for a moment. “Yeah, brother,” he says quietly. “They did.”

For the first time in years, sitting across from my brother doesn’t feel impossible.

It feels like coming back to something I never stopped missing.

Chapter 13

Nora

Something is wrong with Hewit.

I know it before he tells me, although a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed I could read him well enough to say that.

His truck has been parked beside the house for most of the afternoon, but he hasn’t come outside. Once, through my kitchen window, I catch sight of him standing at his sink with both hands braced against the counter. He stays there for so long that the mug I’m drying goes forgotten in my hands.

I tell myself to leave him alone. I manage it for almost three minutes before crossing the grass to his cottage.

His back door opens before I knock, and Hewit fills the doorway in worn jeans and a dark T-shirt, his white hair still damp, as though he showered when he got home. His shoulders are held too rigidly, and the lines beside his mouth are deeper than usual.

I stop at the bottom of the step. “Bad day?”

He looks at me for a long moment. “Complicated.”

Coming from Hewit, that could mean anything from a broken fence to the collapse of civilization.

“Do you want to be alone?”

The question seems to surprise him. I don’t add anything to it. If he says yes, I’ll go.