Chapter 146
ELENA
The drive back to Moonstone was quiet, but not uncomfortable.
The sun was dipping behind the trees, casting long streaks of gold across the windshield. Pine shadows flickered over the hood as we followed the winding road north, back toward our father, our pack, and the very carefully maintained illusion that everything was fine.
Mason drummed his fingers lightly on the steering wheel, glancing at me between turns. I could feel the questions rolling through his head like marbles in a glass jar.
“You’re staring.” I said without looking at him.
“I’m thinking,” he replied,
“Same thing.”
He smirked but didn’t argue. “You gonna tell me how the latest memory treatment went, or do I have to guess?”
I sighed, tilting my head against the headrest. “They’re not really like treatments anymore. More like… guided sessions.”
“Does it help?”
“Yes and no.” I hesitated. “Some things come back sharp. Like a picture with the contrast turned all the way up. But then other things–people, places–still feel like I’m watching someone else’s life. Like I’m trespassing in my own past.”
“Sounds exhausting.”
“It is.”
Mason didn’t say anything for a while. The trees thinned out briefly, and we passed a field glowing gold in the late light. I let the silence settle before nudging his arm.
“What about you?”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You and Erin. How’s it going?
His grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly, but not in distress. More like restraint.
“She misses me,” he said. “I miss her.”
“I figured.”
He gave a tight nod. “It’s hard. Not being able to have her here. Not knowing when I’ll see her next. I trust her, but that doesn’t make it easier. There’s no routine to this. No plan.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “You deserve more than stolen weekends and vague excuses.”
“So do you,” he said, glancing over.
I gave him a wry smile. “We’re not talking about me.”
Chapter 146
“We never are,” he muttered. “But seriously, Lena… when do we get to be happy?”
It wasn’t a real question. Not one I could answer, anyway.
Still, I reached over and touched his wrist.
+26 BONUS
“We’ll figure it out. You and Erin, me and… whatever I’m supposed to do next. But you’re not alone, Mason. You
never were.”
ד
He didn’t look at me, but I saw the comer of his mouth twitch.
“I know,” he said.
The estate came into view just after that. Famillar stone walls, tall hedges, the wrought iron gates that always made the place feel more like a fortress than a home.
But it wasn’t the gates that inade my stomach twist.
It was the man waiting in front of them.
Arms crossed. Jaw locked.
Father.
Mason let out a breath through his nose. “It appears,” he said. “As though Father is in something of a mood.”
“Yep, “I snorted.
“Maybe it’s a good mood.”
“Yes,” I said sarcastically. “It certainly looks like it.”
We exchanged a glance.
We were barely out of the car before Father ordered us inside.
We hadn’t even made it past the foyer when the scent of rage hit–thick with cedar and old smoke. Our father turned to us in the middle of the dining room, the long oak table cleared of everything but a single sheet of paper.
He didn’t speak as we entered.
He didn’t have to.
He picked up the paper, stepped forward, and slammed it onto the table between us.
The photograph skidded across the polished surface and landed face–up.
It was grainy. Taken from a distance. Probably a surveillance drone or an old–fashioned zoom lens. But the figures in the image were clear enough.
Me. And Mason.
In a car.
In the roguelands.
I sucked in a breath.
“What is the meaning of this?” my father said, his voice like ice cracking under pressure.
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Mason’s jaw tensed. He looked at me, silently asking what
- US.
And I almost did.
But my brother had done so much for me lately. Protected. let him burn alone.
Chapter 147
Chapter 147
