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“The Alpha. He’s dying. He wants a winner. Now.”

Fee wanted to scream. She told him. She’d fucking asked Theo to leave and he hadn’t. He wouldn’t. She wanted to cry thinking about what he was facing at the hands of his own family. She wanted to strangle his fucking father.

But most of all she needed to get to Theo.

“Let’s go,” she said, and they took off, racing through the trees to get to the love of her life before it was too late.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“What the fuck?” Theo groaned as he rolled onto his back in the snow. A face from the past hovered over him.

“Your reflexes aren’t what they used to be.” A finger poked him in the gut and Theo winced. “You’ve gone soft.”

“Ryder?”

“Hey, man, long time no see.” Ryder’s mouth spread into a wolfish grin. He reached out a hand, pulled Theo up from the snow and clapped him hard on the back, eliciting an embarrassing huff from Theo’s lungs. “First Rafe, and now you. Wild.”

“Uh … yeah. Wild.” Theo brushed the snow off his back, trying to get his thoughts back on track. One minute he was on the trail hiking into the pack lands and the next he was being tackled into the snow.

Fee stood beside him, eyes wide. Just as surprised by the greeting as he was.

“Fee, hey!” Ryder said, giving her a nod instead of a full-body pounce.

“Hi, Ryder. Good to see you.

“Hey, Rafe. Hey, Ruby.”

Rafe nodded and Ruby gave a little wave from her place on Rafe’s back.

Ryder smiled like they were all having a wonderful time standing around in this damp forest waiting for someone to do something.

“Let’s go,” Rafe growled, breaking the awkward silence for all of them.

“Sure, man. Everyone will be so excited to see you,” Ryder said with another pat on Theo’s back before he turned to lead them the rest of the way to the wolf camp.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Theo mumbled. His head was still reeling from the fall, the impact of the ground and the utter shock of Ryder’s greeting.

Ryder was like the laid-back brother Theo had never had. The one he joked with and the only one who knew about his little visits to Fee’s grove. He used to say he liked to hang out with Theo because the women of the pack loved him and he couldn’t possibly handle them all at once.

It had been good for a while. Before it got terrible, things were good. He’d somehow managed to forget the bright spots in the darkness.

But now, the memories hit him harder than Ryder’s body had. Each one pummeling his heart as they walked toward home. His friends. His mother. His pack.

They’d been a part of him for so long.

Phoebe wrapped her fingers in his. She was a part of him, too.

He glanced down at her, and she raised an eyebrow in question, a smirk playing around her lips like she wasn’t at all surprised with the greeting. He shrugged, not knowing what to say, or think for that matter.

“Of course they’ll be excited, man. We’ve been wanting you to come back for months,” Ryder went on, traipsing ahead of them like his words weren’t shaking Theo’s entire reality. “Your Ma said you weren’t ready yet.”

Theo blinked. What?

“She said what?”

“She said you weren’t ready to come back. Said you were still too hurt about the whole thing.”

“The whole thing?” Theo’s voice rose. “The whole thing where you all stood around and nearly let me get killed by my fucking brothers? That whole thing?”