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I let go of the wall. “My family!”

“You led them here!”

I turn my back on him and start down the passage. “You carried me to their field!”

He follows me through the bends, close enough that I hear each breath. The coals are dark in the hearth when we reach it, but there’s still a little evening light through the vent above.

He’s right behind me. “You know how wolves track.”

I turn to face him. “Yes. I’ve been one of them.”

He stops beside the hearthstone and plants both feet, his chest still working. “Then you knew what you were doing.”

“I was trying to warn them. You were going to burn Mel’s field!”

His lip lifts off his fangs. “They can get it from there. The ones who shot you.”

“So does Mel. You keep leaving that out.”

He takes a step toward the outer passage, then stops and faces me again. “They’ll search my ground.”

“They’ll be searching for me!” It tears my throat coming out, and swallowing doesn’t help.

“I saw them, Rauk. All five of them. Mel was standing there with the children, and Keer only had to turn around.”

He doesn’t move. “You’d have called him.”

“Yes.”

His claws press against his palms, and he opens his hands again.

I’m not done. “I had his name half out and you shut my mouth.”

“He would’ve attacked.”

“I know. That’s why I came back with you.”

I have to swallow before I can get the rest out, and he stands there and watches me do it.

“I wanted to go to them. I still do.”

He turns his head toward the passage again, so I step into his view. “Look at me.”

His eyes come back to mine.

Good. “You were going to destroy our medicine, and you wouldn’t even tell me where you were taking me. Then you puff up that chest and act like a bastard about it.” I drop my voice as low as it’ll go. “I’m in charge, Kestria. You do what I say, when I say it. Grah grah grah.”

He stares at me. “I did not say that. And my voice doesn’t sound like that.”

“It does. And you keep deciding what I get to know, where I get to go, whether I get to talk to my own brother.”

“This is the last place I have.”

I know that.

“Then give me something I can understand. You told me my people let yours die, and every time I ask what happened, you stop talking. You won’t tell me anything, but I’m supposed to let you do all of this.”

His hands aren’t open anymore. The claws are digging into his palms, his ears have gone flat, and I can hear him growling from here.