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She snatches her arm out of his grip with her scent spiking hot over her grief. She whirls on Kane and hugs him around the waist. “I love you, Uncle.”

Kane sighs and pats her shoulder before he peels her off to arm’s length. He smells as wrecked as she does. I drop my eyes. A wolf who never shows anyone this much doesn’t need a dragon gawking at him.

“Go, Aya.” His voice wavers, but he catches it. “You are making this difficult for the pack.”

She scrubs at her eyes and turns to me. I pull her in and cup the back of her head. She trembles against me with her tears soaking through my shirt until it sticks to my skin. I bury my nose in her neck. My dragon quits fighting me with her in our arms.

“Go. Now,” Kane says with a glance at the cabins. “The women are coming.”

I follow his gaze. Tami storms off her porch with the others cutting across the clearing. I can smell their fury from here. Micah scrambles to head off Skylar. Gabriel catches Olivia’s arm, but she shakes him off and doesn’t stop.

“Go!” Kane barks.

My wings snap open with a crack. I lock Aya tight against me with her bags still slung over my shoulders and launch us past the tree line.

House of Zorah shrinks under us with every wingbeat until I can’t pick out her parents’ cabin anymore. She sobs into my neck and digs her nails into my skin. I hate each shudder that runs through her. She can draw blood if it helps.

I take us over the pack territory and into the deep forest with my body angled to block the worst of the wind. I can still hear her crying under the roar in my ears. When I spot our cabin on the community lands, I drop us into the yard. I set her down and back off a step.

She swipes the tears away and frowns up at the porch. “Why did you bring me here?” She sniffs. “We’re supposed to go to Ash Clan.”

“We are, Aya,” I say. “But you just made leaving your pack official. I think…”

She glares at me with her fists balled. Her scent flips from grief to a hot fury that stings my nose. She hunches forward with her muscles bunched while her wolf surges toward the surface. Oh shit, I pissed her off.

My wings sag behind me, and my dragon goes dead quiet. Even he knows when to shut up.

“All right, Aya.” I raise my hands. “At least let me put your things away.”

She stares me down and doesn’t say a word. I jog up the porch steps and drop her duffel bags in the front room. I pull the door shut fast, since I don’t trust her to stick around.

I spread my wings and reach for her, but she’s already walking off into the trees. I take a step after her. “Aya.”

“I will meet you there.” She keeps her back to me. “I need to run. It will help me calm down.”

I could argue, or scoop her up and fly us to Ash Clan myself, where Lauren and my mother are waiting. But she’s wound tight, and running is going to do more for her than I can. I don’t stop her, even with my dragon snarling at me for it.

I lift off and stay above the tree line, high enough to follow her without crowding her. She walks fast at first. Then she kicks off her shoes and socks and breaks into a run.

She drives into the underbrush with her dark hair flying out behind her and vaults a fallen log clean. I forget to flap and lose height fast. She hits the ground and pushes harder. She banks off a thick oak to clear a pile of rocks and comes down even faster.

Her bare feet skim the mossy bank as she jumps a narrow stream. She weaves through the trees and catches a low branch to swing. At the top of the arc she drops into a roll and pops up running. Damn, she can move. Bark flies when she kicks off another trunk. She crashes through a thicket of ferns.

I keep pace overhead. My dragon gave up snarling at me when she took off. For a change, he and I are in perfect agreement.

Her wild-berry scent rises through the branches to me. I breathe her in and hunt for the sour note of regret that would mean she wishes she’d stayed. I don’t find any. All I smell on her is sweat and pure stubborn wolf. She’s leaving the only pack she’s ever had behind at full speed.

She takes a ravine in a leap that shouldn’t look that easy and doesn’t slow down on the other side. Patches of sunlight slide across her brown skin through the leaves. Her breathing stays controlled and even. She’s running it off and heading straight for Ash Clan.

I can’t stop grinning up here. My mate tears through the forest like she owns every inch of it. My dragon rumbles low and content under my skin. He wants to drop out of the sky and grab her, and honestly, so do I.

Just when I thought I couldn’t love her more, she stuns me again.

21

AYA

The trees thin out to sun-drenched open ground. I skid to a stop on the grass. Ezra is already here. He tucks his wings against his back as he turns. I scent-check him from where I stand with my lungs still burning from the run. There’s no smoke on him and none of the anger I braced for. He scans me for damage with calm blue-green eyes.