The words hung in the air between them.
Iva wanted to argue. Wanted to tell Lori that she was wrong, that love didn't care about status or bloodlines or pack names. But she remembered her own doubts. Her own fears. The way she had looked at Caleb in the beginning and thought *someone like him could never want someone like me.*
She understood.
"What's his name?" Iva asked softly.
Lori was silent for a long moment.
"I don't know," she finally said. "I've never spoken to him. I just... watch him. From across the room. Like a weirdo."
"You're not a weirdo."
"I'm a little bit of a weirdo."
"A little bit," Iva conceded. "But you're my weirdo."
Lori laughed, and some of the tension in her shoulders released.
They walked in silence for a while, passing beneath the archway that led to the
