Page 82 of Season of the Wolf

Hilda shook her head. “There’s that,” she sighed. “And there’salsothe fact that order has been restored.”

I didn’t understand at first.

“I can only imagine how hard it must have been for him, having roles between the two of you reversed. He took pride in his ability to protect you, his mate, only to find he wasn’t capable of that anymore, and what’s worse, discovering thatyouhad to protecthim.”

She smiled a bit. “But, I suppose all that’s changed now. Based on what you described, Liam can hold his own once again. Perhaps even more so than before.”

I had so many questions. Questions Hilda, and maybe no one else, could answer.

Pressing her hands into the mattress she pushed off my bed. She was set to walk away, to leave me to eat alone, but I stopped her.

“Thank you,” I stated, smiling when she did. “For dinner. For the talk.”

She offered only a gracious nod before leaving me alone with my thoughts.

All one-million of them.

***

Pure exhaustion—emotional, physical—it was the only way I could have possibly fallen asleep, still awaiting a meaningful update from Elise.

However, at the quiet mechanical ticking of the front doorknob being turned, I sat straight up in bed, hearing the sound all the way from my bedroom. I hopped down and rushed for the stairs, counting heads as they filed through the entrance. First Elise, then each of my brothers.

My eyes peered into the darkness just beyond the threshold, searching for one more. Only … there wasn’t one. Elise latched the door behind my brothers and my heart crushed beneath the weight of disappointment.

I didn’t know what to think, what to ask. All I knew to do was sit down before my knees gave way beneath me on the stairs.

“Well?” Hilda greeted them, doing all she could to quell the anxiousness she tried hiding earlier, but it was no use. She cared about Liam as much as she cared about the rest of us.

Elise puffed a fatigued breath between her lips. “It’s been a long, tiring day,” she said first. “But he’ll be okay.”

I stood, finishing my descent down the stairs, blurting a question as soon as I reached the bottom.

“Then … where is he?”

Elise met my frantic question with a smile, and then an embrace.

“Waiting for you outside on the porch,” she answered. “He asked me to send you out, so the two of you could speak in private.”

There was more. I heard the hint of a syllable on Elise’s lips when they parted, but I didn’t wait for what she’d say next. I had one thing on my mind—seeing Liam.

I snatched the door open and rushed out. Glancing right, then left, my gaze landed on him. It was clear he’d thought through all the details, probably had been doing so for weeks, even before knowing for sure he’d follow through with this plan. He even remembered a second change of clothes, seeing as how the others had likely been disintegrated and he currently stood before me in jeans and a tee.

My eyes filled with tears just thinking about it—the pain he endured out there. Alone in the wilderness.

I scanned him again, taking another step in his direction, noting another change I hadn’t picked up on before. When my gaze slipped to his arms, there was only skin. No ink to speak of. The tattoos I now knew every single detail of were missing, had been burned away.

He stared back with so much hidden behind those eyes, saying nothing. Although he hadn’t revealed even a hint of what thoughts ran through his head, I knew; saw right through him.

There was hope, uncertainty.

He was trying to read me, but I gave no indication as to how I felt about this reckless thing he’d done.

But, with the way my heart swelled, I couldn’t keep him guessing for long.

My bare feet moved swiftly across the cool brick beneath them, right until they left it the next second when I leapt on him, sure he’d catch me. From the look he wore just before he went out of focus through a blur of tears, he expected something else.

Fear, anger maybe, but not this.

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