Page 37 of Mate Night Snack
Her hand tightened around her glass.
“He’d tracked her. Knew I spared her. He waited. Watched. Then made a point of showing me what happened to wolves who disobeyed.”
The silence stretched.
“That’s when you left,” she said softly.
“I didn’t leave,” he said, voice rough. “I was cast out. My title stripped. My bond revoked.”
“Youchosenot to kill her.”
“And it got her killed.”
Maeve’s voice was quiet, but it cut clean. “You think Ashwin needed your help to hurt her?”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. If I’d acted differently, maybe?—”
“You’d be dead,” she said. “And she still would’ve died.”
He didn’t respond.
She leaned forward, eyes sharp. “You carry guilt like armor, Emmett. But it’srottingyou. You think if you keep your distance from Katniss, you’ll protect her. But all you’re doing is leaving her exposed. Vulnerable.Alone.Just like that girl.”
The words hit harder than he wanted to admit, but the truth was a bitch.
“You can’t outrun who you were,” Maeve said. “But maybe you can stop punishing yourself for it.”
Emmett stared down at his hands, callused and scarred. “I don’t know if I can.”
“Then you better learn,” she said. “Because this isn’t about just you anymore. It hasn’t been for a while.”
He finished the last of the whiskey and pushed the glass toward her.
Maeve refilled it without a word.
She leaned against the bar again, voice softer this time. “What is she to you?”
He closed his eyes for a moment. “Everything,” he finally admitted. It was barely more than a whisper, but it was the most honest thing he’d said in years.
Maeve gave a small nod. “Then act like it.”
Emmett didn’t move, but something in him braced.
He didn’t know how to fix what had broken in her eyes that morning. But maybe he could stop breaking it further and start acting like a man because him pushing her away was a cop-out move.
And he knew it.
15
KATNISS
It started with the hum.
Low, bone-deep. Like the ground beneath her ribs had turned to tuning forks.
In the dream, Hollow Oak looked different. The streets gleamed like wet obsidian, though the sky above was dry. The lanterns flickered, casting long shadows that didn’t belong to anything solid. The town square was silent.
No footsteps. No wind. No life. Just the slow, rhythmic hum pulsing up through the stone. Then, she saw him. Standing at the center of the square. Ashwin.
