Chapter 6

I woke up in my own room.

Sunlight came in through the floor-to-ceiling window, warm and soft.

My head ached a little. It always did when I woke.

It was a leftover from the accident. I was used to it now.

"Little Wren?"

The door swung open. It was Ronan.

He had a mug of warm milk in his hand, leaning in the doorframe, smiling lazily.

"You up? Your uncle wants you down for breakfast."

I sat up and took the mug.

"You're back again? Weren't you supposed to be traveling for Pack business?"

"Canceled."

"Why?"

He looked at me.

"You have your follow-up today."

My hand froze around the mug.

"I can go by myself."

"I know."

He pulled the curtains open and sunlight flooded the room.

"But I want to come."

I didn't answer. I bent to sip the milk.

The temperature was perfect. Warm.

Ronan was my uncle's adopted son.

Two years older than me.

The first face I'd seen when I woke from the accident.

Back then I couldn't remember anything. I only knew I hurt.

He sat by the bed and held my hand.

Don't be scared. I'm here.

That one line had settled me.

Five years now, and he'd come to every follow-up with me.

Every nightmare I woke from, he was at the door.

Uncle Jasper said Ronan hadn't been like this before.

He used to run wild.

Out of the Pack grounds more than in.

Since I came, he barely left.

"What are you thinking about?"

He leaned closer. His face was inches from mine.

I could count his long lashes. I drew back slightly.

"Nothing."

He smiled.

"Come on. Breakfast."

Uncle was already at the dining table.

He saw Ronan and me come in together, and smiled.

I pretended not to notice.

At the table, Ronan kept putting food on my plate.

"Eat more."

"You're too thin."

"What did the healer say last time?"

I kept my head down and chewed and didn't answer.

Uncle laughed beside me.

"Ronan. Enough."

Ronan ignored him.

Kept loading my plate.

The sun outside was warm.

The flowers in the garden were in full bloom.

Ronan reached over with another helping.

"What are you staring at? Eat."

I bent my head and took a bite.

He smiled, satisfied.

After breakfast I went out to the garden for my usual walk.

The sun was good. The wind was light.

I followed the gravel path slowly, my head empty.

I didn't notice the footsteps behind me.

Ronan was walking a few paces back.

Not too close. Not too far.

Same as every day for five years.

As I walked, I thought of the first stretch after I'd woken up.

I hadn't been able to remember anything.

My head hurt and I was afraid.

Every morning I opened my eyes and asked: Who am I. Where is this.

Uncle sat by my bed in those days.

He told me a lot.

He told me my mother was his younger sister. He'd been looking for us for years.

Only by the time he found her, she was already gone.

He said Mom had been young when she was tricked.

A man had lured her back across the border.

Promised a bond.

She had the pup, and then the man didn't want her anymore.

He'd kept her Pack registration documents. She couldn't leave.

He told me the man had some pull in his own Pack.

Mom couldn't fight him.

She'd stayed and worked as a servant.

Raising her pup, waiting for a chance to run.

Later she saved someone.

A car came out of nowhere. She didn't make it.

That family had taken me in.

I'd grown up there until I was in my early twenties.

Then the harassment online. Then the accident.

By the time Uncle got there, I'd already been wheeled into surgery.

"I looked for you for a long time."

He had my hand in his that day. His eyes were red.

"By the time I found you, your mother was gone."

"I thought you'd been living well."

"I didn't know."

He couldn't finish.

I lay there looking at him.

I couldn't remember.

Couldn't remember anything.

But the tears came anyway.

"And after that?" I asked.

He was quiet for a long time.

"After that I brought you out."

"Those people. Everything that happened."

"It's better if you've forgotten."

I was watching a bird through the window, and a question came up.

"And the child she saved?"

Uncle's hand on my hair paused.

"What?"

"The one my mother died saving."

"I don't know."

He looked away.

"I never cared."

I watched the side of his face.

When he was lying, he pressed his lips together without noticing.

He didn't know he did it.

I did.

Because I did it too.