Chapter 8: Sweet Words

On the fourteenth night, Bram came to the MacClellan gate on foot.

The guards sent word up the hill.

Rowan was already standing in my doorway with his coat on when it arrived.

"You don't have to go down," he said.

"I know."

"Do you want me beside you?"

"Yes," I said. "And no talking."

"I'm very good at no talking," Rowan said.

We walked down together with Lark asleep against my chest.

Bram stood outside the iron gate under the lamp.

He looked like he had not slept in a week.

His coat hung open. His jaw was gray with stubble, and his eyes were brown and red at the rims.

He had come without his Beta, without enforcers, and without Pru.

"Morwen," he said.

My name sounded different in his mouth. Smaller.

When I stepped into the lamplight, a thin ring of gold lit around his pupils.

He saw me see it, and he looked away.

"I came to bring you home," he said.

"I am home."

"Morwen, please. I've been a fool. I know that now."

He gripped the bars.

"My mother went too far. Pru panicked. I let it get away from me, and I'm sorry."

His voice dropped, low and warm.

"Come back, and I'll announce you to the whole pack as Luna Kestrel."

"I swear it on the Moon. Just come home."

I waited.

He had said it so softly. It was exactly how he had practiced it.

"Do you remember what you told your cousins at the naming feast?" I asked.