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What he didn’t know was what they were arguing about. Pausing in the hallway outside of view, he listened to the voices that were raised in both anger and fear.
“—if she wanted us to follow her, she would’ve told us where she was going!”
That was Aidan’s voice. It wasn’t something he’d forget, especially not when he was upset. A sliver of trepidation skated down his spin, giving him the distinct impression that Aidan had threatened him recently. But, like everything else, Remmus couldn’t recall what it was.
Frowning, he shook it off and continued to eavesdrop.
“She left him!” Growled Kaien in response. “Why would she do that? You saw it the same as I; she’s half in love with the man already.”
“And Luna just told her that he’d likely never wake up,” came Nina’s calm reply. “Think about it; what would you do if you just heard you’d likely never speak with your mate again?”
Grimacing, Remmus couldn’t imagine. He had no clue who they were talking about, but it obviously wasn’t him. Steeling himself with a breath, he turned the corner and leaned a shoulder against the doorframe.
“Who’s gone missing now?”
Languid, his lopsided grin twisted into a frown as every inhabitant of the room froze. It was as if the temperature had dropped to subzero.
Suddenly, the casual laziness he’d adopted seemed inappropriate.
Kaien was the first to break their stunned silence. Catching the movement out of the corner of his eye, Remmus turned just in time to brace against the man’s fiercest embrace. Kaien’s open affection, especially from someone who barely kissed his mate in public, was the most startling development.
“Remmus.” An apology deepened Kaien’s voice. “Brother.”
When the healer didn’t let him go, Remmus lost every ounce of joviality. The embrace lasted several more seconds before he intentionally began to pull away. Retreating from the other man, his features tightened while he held Kaien at arm’s length.
“Why are you acting like this? How did I get here?”
His friend’s eyes held his for what seemed an eternity. It was almost as if Kaien was searching for something, but Remmus couldn’t figure out what.
When Kaien’s healer gifts latched onto him with a desperation he could barely entertain, Remmus knew that this wasn’t merely another exercise in frivolity. Pointedly, he took a step back and away from his best friend.
“Kaien, answer me.”
Remmus only caught guilt in his expression. Brow furrowing deeper, he shifted his attention to his sovereign, whose eyes were misted with tears. A jolt of panic tore through him at her display.
“Sovereign?”
Zeke cleared his throat. “Remmus. Welcome back.”
“Welcome back from where?”
Nina stood, and his eyes dropped to the generous curve of her belly, the twins that were yet to be born. The last time he’d seen her, she had barely been showing.
Panic hit, fast and deep, as Nina slowly made her way toward him, all the while sending reassuring vibrations through their sovereign-clansman bond. And when she wrapped her arms around his waist, Remmus froze.
Over her head, he met the eyes of the werewolf alpha who’d shadowed her approach. For the first time ever, Remmus saw compassion.
If Nina’s arms had not coiled protectively around him, he would’ve bolted. No one needed to know his past, and certainly not those he didn’t trust. A quick scan of the room and he located Celeste, Xavier, and Mere.
But Celeste’s eyes weren’t on his face. They were on his neck.
Automatically, Remmus grasped for his transfiguration, endeavoring to haul it like a blanket over his skin, but it failed. A quick glance at his arm revealed the network of self-inflicted tracks against the grey-blue ink.
He was exposed, his past laid bare to the world around him. Everything he hated about himself was offered up to anyone who’d look. Their eyes scoured over him like the dirt he’d always believed himself to be.
He couldn’t stop the abject terror that contorted his expression.
“Why isn’t my transfiguration working?”
