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Theo wasn’t a complete idiot. He knew the nymphs were saying way more behind his back than they were saying to his face. But he figured Phoebe would fill him in on anything important. Except, right now she was dozing with her head pressed against the window. It would have been cute if it hadn’t left him alone with her mother.

He could feel Runa’s shrug. When he glanced at her again, she was twirling a strand of hair around her finger. “They seemed to think the wolf doing the attacks is a Highlander.”

Shit.

“Oh, yeah? And do any of your girls know why the fuck the Highlander pack would be attacking humans.”

Runa’s laugh was low and throaty like Fee’s. “I think you already know why, Theo. Did your brother really think he could kill three wolves and not face any punishment?”

Theo sputtered. “But why kill humans?! My brother doesn’t even know these people. It doesn’t make sense.”

The nymph shrugged again and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I can’t pretend to understand the primitive mind of a werewolf.”

A growl started low in his throat.

“What are you two talking about?” Phoebe asked with a sleepy sigh. “I must have dozed off for a few minutes.”

“Nothing,” Theo muttered.

Runa leaned closer to Phoebe, wrapped her arm around her and said, “Don’t worry about it, Fifi. You can rest your head on me and take a nap.”

Phoebe snuggled into her mother’s side and Theo’s resentment grew. This was what Runa did. She swept into Phoebe’s life, all vivid colors and wild tales, and then swept right back out again. It didn’t seem to bother Phoebe as much as it bothered him. It was so counter to being part of a pack. Nymphs were transient, ethereal, hard to capture.

And here he was thinking he could claim Phoebe for the rest of eternity.

Maybe he didn’t hate Runa for the way she treated her daughter, but only for the way she reminded him how opposite he and Phoebe were. They were two fundamentally different creatures.

Leaving his pack had nearly killed him, and without Fee, it probably would have. But dryads came and went from each other’s lives all the time. What would keep Fee with him? Maybe he had been wrong all along. Maybe he’d just replaced his pack with Phoebe over the past year. He’d clung to her because he’d never really wanted to be alone.

Maybe there was nothing keeping Fee with him, and one day, she’d walk right out of his life for good.

His heart clenched painfully in his chest at the thought, like it was warning him it would refuse to beat without her. He knew that. But nymphs weren’t werewolves. They didn’t have fated Mates. Fee didn’t have to stay.

And if a mother couldn’t even stick around for her daughter, what the hell made Theo think that Phoebe would stick around for him?

He shook his head, his curls brushing over his forehead. This line of thinking wasn’t getting him anywhere.

He had a seer to find.

He would have to sort out his issues with Fee after Lena was safe.

He just really wished Runa wasn’t here complicating things even more. She’d never done anything but come between them.

Wedging herself into the middle seat was just the latest version.

Chapter Twelve

Five Years Ago

“Maybe I should just go.”

“But you promised you would help!”

They were standing in Fee’s bedroom with a can of pale green paint between them. Fee had her hands on her hips and Theo looked like he was searching for an escape route. The afternoon sun streamed through her bedroom window.

“I didn’t realize your mom was back in town.”

“Are you scared of her, Theo? She’s out for the day, if that makes you feel better,” she teased. He’d started acting cagey as soon as she mentioned that her mom was staying with her. Not that Fee was eager to introduce her mother to her … werewolf, but she didn’t think it would be a big deal. Runa had a hands-off approach to mothering that Fee appreciated. She doubted she would make a big deal about Theo being here.