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They were fixing things.

That shouldn't have affected me as much as it did. The Council had sanctioned them, a child was upstairs with stitches because someone had breached their wards, and Alex had spent the previous day calling Alphas to find out how many packs might stand with him if the Council came down on Greywood land. Yet somewhere in the middle of all that, somebody had gotten up that morning, looked at a broken fence, and decided it needed fixing.

I'd been living among shifters long enough to know better, and I still hadn't gotten used to that. Maybe I never would.

River had barely parked before Amber came down the porch steps.

I was still climbing out of the truck when she reached me and pulled me into her arms. There was nothing gentle about it. She held on with the kind of force that made breathing optional, one hand pressed against the back of my head as though she needed to feel for herself that I was standing there and solid.

I hugged her back.

That seemed to make things worse.

When she finally let me go, she only moved far enough to get a good look at my face. Her hands stayed on my arms, fingers tightening once before she seemed to realize what she was doing and loosened them.

"You look terrible." Her voice almost made it through the insult intact. Almost.

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"Then perhaps at some point you should consider believing us." She tried for exasperation, but her eyes were too bright for it, and I loved her enough not to mention that.

"I missed you too."

Something in her face softened. "You scared the hell out of me, Hazel."

There it was.

No joke arrived quickly enough to save me from it. I reached out and squeezed her hand instead, and Amber's fingers closed around mine.

Then her attention shifted over my shoulder.

River had come around the front of the truck and stopped a few feet behind me. Amber looked at him for a moment longer than necessary before her gaze returned to me.

She knew me well enough that I watched the realization happen.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. Not with suspicion. With interest.

Oh, for Hecate's sake.

I had survived Charon, a soul bargain, several demons, and sex with a fallen angel without sustaining any immediately fatal injuries. Apparently, none of that had prepared me for being looked at by a woman who had raised four children and knew exactly what two people looked like the morning after they stopped pretending they didn't want each other.

Amber, mercifully, kept the observation to herself.

"Both of you, inside," she said, turning toward the house. "There's food."

And just like that, I loved her a little more.

"Amber, I need to talk to Alex." I hurried to catch up with her by the porch.

"Yes. He's in the office, and he's been in the office since Thursday, which I'd like you to remember before you say anything sassy to him."

"That feels unnecessary."

"Does it though."

I started toward the porch ignoring her jab, but by the second step I realized River wasn't behind me.

He had stopped at the bottom.