You were absolutely going to say it.
*I was going to say it very quietly.*
I folded the letter back into the envelope. I put it in my jacket. I sat on the bench and looked at Ashveil — the town, the rooflines, the specific ordinariness of a place that had simply decided to be a place where people could exist without explanation.
My wolf went warm and stayed warm. No smugness. No comment. Just present, the way she'd been present since the break — fully, completely, mine and not mine at once.
I heard footsteps on the gravel.
Ryke.
He sat down beside me. Close enough that our arms touched, the way they always touched when we were sitting — the natural distance between two people who had learned each other's physical language.
He didn't ask what I was reading. He'd wait until I told him
