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“Just a bit of a werewolf, I said! He was mostly human, but there may have been an ancestor a while back that was a bit on the wolfy side.”

“Jesus Christ, Mom. Why are you telling me this now?”

“It suddenly seems relevant.”

Fee just stared at her in a dazed sort of horror, waiting for her mother to go on.

“You never exhibited any werewolf tendencies. No animal side, obviously. No need to hunt or run. You’re a vegetarian for goddess’ sake! I thought we were in the clear.”

“Mom,” Phoebe groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. Her headache was worsening, spreading to the space behind her eyes. “What are you trying to say?”

Runa took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, like this whole conversation was more trying on her than it was on her very ill, very confused daughter.

“I’m trying to say that I think maybe the one werewolf trait you have inherited, other than that odd sense of smell of yours, might … possibly be … that you have a Mate.”

If Fee had had the strength, she would have launched herself out of bed and run as far from her mother’s words as possible. But as it was, she was forced to stay and listen.

“I thought maybe if you stayed away from Theo, then all would be fine. You’d never claim each other, and you could live out your life as the dryad you are. But you would never leave the man! And now look at you. Soul-sick.”

Runa shook her head. “I did my best, Fifi. I thought I was protecting you. I didn’t want you to live like that. To rely on someone else like that, to need someone like that.”

“What’s so wrong with needing someone?” Fee said, her voice weak, fading faster than she thought possible.

A tear slipped down Runa’s cheek, still smooth after all these years. “Needing someone just gives them the opportunity to let you down.”

Phoebe swallowed hard, too exhausted to cry.

“Where is your wolf now, Fifi? Why isn’t he here with you? This is what I never wanted for you.”

“I lied to him. I betrayed him.” Fee swallowed again, her throat filled with sharp emotions. “It’s my fault.”

Runa huffed. “If he is your Mate, he should be just as ill without you. He should be suffering. He’ll come,” she said, leaning down to kiss Fee’s forehead. Phoebe closed her eyes, too tired to argue, too tired to be angry with her mother or hopeful that Theo would come for her.

Too tired for everything.

For this world.

For this life without her other half.

Theo raced away from the hunters as fast as he could, but he didn’t end up at home. Of course he didn’t. He ended up at a very familiar oak grove.

He hadn’t thought. He’d just run. Run to the one thing he needed.

He shifted into his human form. Standing in the shade of the giant oaks, he realized he had no way to get in. Without Fee here, the grove remained just a grove. No houses. No little nymph neighborhood. He couldn’t see it and he couldn’t find it unless it was revealed to him.

Goddamn it.

“Fee!” he shouted, his voice desperate, his breath still heaving in and out of his lungs after running here. “Fee, let me in!”

“We’re not the three little pigs.”

A voice from the trees startled the crap out of him.

“Jesus Christ, Daphne. Do you have to do that?”

The dark-haired nymph eyed him from her position leaning against the trunk of one of the great oaks.

“I need to see Phoebe.”