Page 7 of Season of the Wolf

And yet …

“I know what you’re suggesting,” Elise commented, “And … a decision of that caliber would require a lengthy discussion. One I don’t think any of us are prepared to have tonight.”

What could be so bad, so grave as to make her shoot down an idea to bring back my brothers?

“It’s been a long day. I think we’re all a little delirious,” Dallas sighed. “Why don’t we all just get some rest and … revisit everything tomorrow.”

Elise agreed, but didn’t move right away. “You go ahead. I’ll be there in a moment.”

With that, it was just her and Hilda again. Their voices picked up once more and I focused on their conversation when it came full-circle, right back to me.

“Don’t you think it’s time we put a stop to this? She’s not doing herself any good just sitting there, watching him like that,” Elise remarked. “It’s all she does—day in, day out. I worry.”

A short, cynical laugh left Hilda’s mouth before responding. “Sitting with him seems to be the only thing that keeps her out of trouble,” she joked. “But in all seriousness, if you want to try prying her away, you go right ahead. But you know as well as I do, she isn’t going anywhere. As long as he’s confined to that bed, Evangeline may as well be, too.”

My eyes shifted toward Liam.

There was silence outside the door. I leaned my ear that way, realizing the two hadn’t gone anywhere. They were either waiting for signs of life here inside the room, or they’d run out of things to argue about.

For now.

“Have you ever wondered about these two?” It was Hilda who posed the question, causing my brow to quirk when she asked.

“What do you mean?”

There was a brief pause after Elise’s reply while I guessed Hilda gathered her thoughts. Meanwhile, I counted Liam’s breaths, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest beneath a white blanket.

“It’s just a theory I have, that souls exist long before our physical bodies. This theory extends to include the idea that some are even tied to their mates before they meet … before they’re born.”

A light chuckle marked by Elise’s soft, bubbly tone filtered beneath the door. “And on what have you based this theory?”

“Observation,” Hilda quipped. “You’ve never wondered what made Noah lower his sword that day? When he journeyed to Egypt for the cleansing?”

The cleansing … I could only guess she spoke of the mission my father and his soldiers embarked on centuries ago. They were called in to rid Egypt of feral shifters—the result of a rising epidemic at the time. Dragons had gone on a rampage, impregnating hundreds or thousands of women, only to leave them for dead when their frail bodies didn’t survive giving birth. No, the children hadn’t transitioned, but with there being so many, and no Elders to oversee their upbringing, it was handled in the most efficient way possible for those times.

The children were slaughtered.

Except one …Liam.

Hilda’s voice came back. It was softer than usual, quiet as I watched him sleep.

“So, you’re suggesting that Evangeline had something to do with that? Before she was even thought of?”

I noted that some of the sarcasm had left Elise’s tone, signifying the moment she maybe started thinking Hilda’s theory might not be so farfetched.

“Think about it. Noah killed hundreds during that mission. I know because he came back to camp each night, silent, broken. If there’d been another option to clean up the rogue dragons’ mess, he would have gladly taken it. But … on that particular day, when he and his soldiers rode in, something was different. I knew it evenbeforeI noticed the small bundle in his arms.”

I pictured it as Hilda spoke—my father returning that night with Liam tucked against his chest, probably confused as to why that one boy had been spared the fate the others shared.

But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. That’s the story I’ve been told.

“Their bond is special, even beyond being mated, tethered,” Hilda added.

My thumb stroked his forearm as I swiped a tear with the other.

“To me, it’s not so strange to think that, maybe her soul was with Noah that day. Maybe hers was that still, small voice in his subconscious, petitioning for Liam’s life to be spared,” Hilda concluded thoughtfully.

My mind went back to a story I’d heard a few times before, about how Liam retrieved my necklace in the woods that night. How he’d managed to find the stone that held my soul … long after my scent was carried away with the wind, long after the first Liberator made off with what was left of my body.

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