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The Inter-Pack Medical Summit, Pack territory.
Mara stood in a fitted blazer, hair up. She walked through her research clearly — precise, detailed, her conclusions original enough to make people sit up. The room followed her through every slide.
When she finished, the applause was loud. Senior healers lined up to exchange contacts, to schedule follow-up conversations. She smiled at each of them, steady and calm.
From the back of the room, a man hadn't moved.
He stood like he'd been rooted to the floor. That face — the one he'd been seeing everywhere for months — was right there. She was standing in the light and nothing about her was the way she'd been in his memory. The woman he'd last seen broken and bleeding on a cliff's edge was somewhere he couldn't reach.
"Ma—" His throat worked. "Mara?"
"Mara!"
Cade pushed through the crowd and grabbed her arm.
"You're alive. You're alive and you never told me — why didn't you tell me—"
She stepped back. Her face was all shock and blankness.
"Who are you?"
Three words. They went through him like cold water.
His mouth moved. He found his voice eventually.
"Who am I?" He was shaking. "I'm your husband."
Husband.
Mara looked at this man — eyes raw, face wrecked, holding on to her like she might dissolve — and dug through her memory and found nothing. Just a wave of dizziness and pain.
She pulled back.
"Let go of me. I don't know you."
A hand appeared at her back and guided her away. Into a familiar, steady hold.
Riven stepped in front of her. His voice was flat.
"Back off, Cade."
Cade's eyes dropped to Riven's arm around her shoulders. His pupils shrank.
Riven.
He'd known this man since they were boys. He'd watched Riven yank Mara's hair and shove things in her bag, trying to get her to look at him. And he'd seen — even then — exactly what that meant.
"It was you," Cade said. "You hid her."
Riven said nothing. He moved Mara back a step. Two of his security stepped up between them.
"Riven!" Cade fought the hold. "You're a liar. Tell her who you really are. Tell her who I am. I'm her husband—"
The words reached Mara. She turned to look back. She felt Riven's arm tighten — just slightly.
She looked down. Didn't speak.