Page 85 of To Challenge a Wolf

“And my surname is in there. He knew who did it to him.Helveringis written alongside the account of that wolf’s suffering.”

“It is.”

The other three all drew quiet gasps. Horror, shock. But Rhett felt none of that. Well, he felt nothing at all, though he ought to for a wolf that had been used, programmed, tortured by his blood kin. Maybe his mind wasn’t as free as Malachi thought.

“There,” Trevor said. “That’s what we’re talking about, Rhett.”

He opened his eyes. Trevor’s were fixed on him, blue and wide. “Talking about what?”

“Your moods are in your scent now, just like—well, no, not like the rest of us. I don’t think it’s all there yet. Just some of it. Wafts of things.”

“Wafts of things?” Rhett nearly choked on a laugh.

“Yeah, like right now. Your sadness for that wolf.”

He waved a dismissing hand. “Must still be glitching then. I’m not sad.”

As the last three words left his mouth, his throat closed around them, gave his voice a strangled sound. Tears surged into his eyes. Actual tears. He hadn’t cried since…since…and Stone had said,“You want to cry? I’ll give you something to cry about,”and he’d done exactly that, so Rhett’s tears had dried up. All of them. For twenty years.

A single tear escaped from under his right eyelid. First in twenty years. He let it. Or maybe he didn’t have a choice. Anyway it was the only one, which was a relief. If he had to learn to cry again, he’d do it without witnesses. Or with…his mate. She needed a wolf who could cry when life brought sorrow.

“I need to make amends,” he whispered. “With Vivian.”

“You will,” Trevor said.

Rhett opened his mouth to throw snark at Trevor’s simple certainty, then shut it. Trevor leaned against the wall, right hand wrapped in ice wrapped in a washcloth, his left hand propping his right elbow. The scent of pain in his essence was dull, but it was there, and it was Rhett’s fault.

“Forget it,” Trevor said as if…as if he’d smelled Rhett’s guilt. “You didn’t mean to. And if I had to break a bone, four days from the full moon’s not a bad time to do it.”

“About that, Trevor,” Malachi said. “No reason to wait four days.”

Trevor rocked back on his heels. “Are you serious? You’ll let me change form? It’s not a life-threatening situation, though.”

“I don’t see why it has to be.”

Trevor gave an excited bark. “Then let’s do it!”

They decided to conduct the test at a distance from Rhett’s cabin. Before they headed for the woods, Kelsey stood in frontof her wolf and crossed her arms, and the pose sent a pang through Rhett’s chest. When Vivian looked like that, her melted-chocolate eyes stopped him in his tracks. When Kelsey did it, the effect was so harmless he could have laughed.

Trevor didn’t discount her, though. Maybe because his personality was equally harmless. He set his left hand on her shoulder, his right now unwrapped, noticeably bruised and swollen. “If it goes fine, we’ll come up to the house. Okay?”

“You’d better. I want to see you.”

They kissed, and then Malachi and Trevor left the cabin.

“Rhett, can we get you anything else?” April said.

“Nah. Just need to lie here uselessly for a while.”

It sucked, but it couldn’t be helped. The headache was beginning to lift, but not enough for him to function yet. The women stepped out onto the porch, and the slight muting of their voices though the cabin wall was a welcome relief. He tried to still his thoughts. He tried to fall asleep.

“Oh, Trev!”

From outside came a happy commotion—April and Kelsey hurrying into the yard, Kelsey laughing, and a wolf’s boisterous barking.

Rhett growled. “Shut up, Trevor.”

The barking continued.

---