Home.
Not the place I had run from. Not the place I had been hidden in. Not a cage dressed as duty or a packhouse full of whispers.
This.
Messy drawings on the walls.
Owen’s shoes abandoned exactly where Alaric had told him not to leave them.
Ella’s little purple cardigan over the banister.
The faint smell of dinner still clinging to the air.
And below it, my mate.
Angry.
I felt him before I heard him.
The bond between us tightened, a hot thread pulling through my chest, carrying the edge of his temper before his voice reached me from the living room.
“No,” Alaric growled.
Ah.
That kind of phone call.
I descended slowly, one step at a time, while Kara lifted her head inside me.
Drake was close to the surface.
Very close.
I could feel him pacing beneath Alaric’s skin, all t
