HINA'

tered as a piercing cry echo

Where a

ew-her golden hair whipping behind her, cheeks flushed from running. Her

's sudden appearance struc

like she was a dream he was scared to wake up from. The raw longing in his eyes was enoug

gged, her voice breaking. When no one

d, cradling her against his chest as my mother and brother descended into the huddle. Their

roat. I'd lost my father to

oment she'd taken her first steps, everyone had watched her,

illed the room, I might as

ith what little dignity remained tha

ead turned as

ing salt tracks on my cheeks. But the hollow ache i

Daniel's room to

ed it open, I found my nine-year-old curled into himself, kn

ice was too sma

f his racecar bed. "Swe

en his teeth. "Something's wro

'd taught him to track deer just last summer was gone? I smoothed his pajam

er held an eerie certaint

the pack bonds severing. Yet here he was, demonstrating the ve

uldn't bear the shame of being the Alpha's defect

ent of maple syrup and childish sweat. However much I regretted that

in my life-the only heart th

t around his shoulders, he turned those so

will always b

fingers through his hair, just like I had whe

ste tonight-like the sun had risen after a decade of darkness-was a look he'd never once given me? That their

to his furrowed brow. "Your daddy and I love you more th

le gutted me.

ed his forehead, lingering a mom

aged through the fridge. Glass bottles clinked-th

Home a

ight at the hospital, comforti

ulders filling the kitchen doorway. Moonlight caught the sharp a

lder. His cedar-and-rain scent enveloped me for one treachero

?" My voice sounded too small in

muscles flexing beneath stubble I'd never been allowed to touc

bowed like Atlas bearing the world. I knew this

I edged towar

aphi

always a shock. Like be

hollows beneath his cheekbones,

ed to

ad through me. His grip on the cou

ng. Just Kieran's bruta

t a di

ars I'd waited fo

still cut lik