Chapter 16
Gracie
I couldn’t believe I was sitting across from Owen.
On the jet, half-conscious, I had heard my mates say his name—had heard them talk about finding him here. It had felt like a dream then, and it still felt like one now. I couldn’t stop staring at him.
Both Owen and Nori looked exactly as I remembered, just older.
My brother was much larger than he’d been at fourteen, and his once neat black hair now sat on top of his head in messy waves.
His green gaze was the same, reminding me so much of my mom’s, but now there was a scar through his left eye.
His hand rested protectively around Nori’s shoulder as she leaned into him.
I could tell she was examining the four of us in the same way I was looking at them.
Nori’s hair, once filled with leaves from playing outside, was now a silky straight veil of blonde.
She was even more beautiful than when we were younger.
And seeing them together? I suddenly understood why my mom had always hoped they would end up being mates.
They fit each other perfectly. I wished she had lived to see it.
“I don’t know what to say.” My voice was a hoarse whisper, my eyes burning. “I can’t believe I’m sitting across from either of you.”
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure I would have made it out of the apothecary at all if it hadn’t been for my mates.
Ravik’s hand was warm and steady on my shoulder, and I was acutely aware of Thornar and Basir on either side, grounding me.
It had been their quiet suggestion that moved our reunion three doors down to this cottage, because I had been entirely incapable of doing anything but staring.
My hands were folded tightly in my lap, and I hadn’t released them since we sat down.
“You escaped.” Owen’s voice was rough with grief and guilt. “You escaped that bastard’s territory.”
“Yes. But I wouldn’t have been able to without my mates.” I gestured between them. “Ravik, Thornar, and Basir.” I didn’t tell my brother yet that escaping Ivan had become the least of our worries.
“Ravik Gentry.” Owen’s gaze moved over my mates, something cautious shifting in his expression. “Future Alpha of Ironsun territory. We heard you’d come into town.”
“Word travels fast,” Thornar mused.
I watched Owen take them in—really take them in—and felt a strange nervous jitter invade my system. Whatever he saw, I hoped it was what I knew and saw in these men. I had learned not to care for the opinions of others, but this was my brother.
“We’ve been searching for you since Gracie told us you’d been separated since that night,” Ravik said. Owen’s face fell, his gaze shifting back to me.
“I assumed…” Owen looked down at Nori for a long second, something passing between them that felt private, before he seemed to bolster himself. “I never thought I would see you again, Gracie. I didn’t want to consider…”
“That you and your parents had passed away,” Nori finished softly. She reached across the table and briefly touched my hand. “Gracie, I am so glad you’re here. I thought I was seeing a ghost at first.”
Hadn’t there been a time in the Cold Moon Pack when I had looked at my own reflection and felt the same? So much had changed since then.
“I’m so happy to see both of you safe.” I let out a small exhale. “But you aren’t wrong about Mom and Dad.”
My words constricted the air around us. Owen’s jaw tightened and his eyes closed, and I could feel the pain radiating off of him. Nori immediately moved closer, her hand finding his without looking.
Guilt flooded me. I’d had years to deal with this—years to grieve, to adjust, to survive. He was hearing it for the first time. Should I have softened it? Hidden it longer?
Basir’s hand settled on my leg and I felt reassurance pushing through the bond from all three of my mates, quiet and constant. It kept from unraveling entirely.
“When?” Owen asked, his eyes still closed. “From the start?”
“Dad, yes,” I whispered. “Mom was with me for a few years.”
Owen’s eyes opened, bright with unshed tears, as he leaned forward and crossed his arms on the worn wooden table. “I should have done more. I should have tried to break back in. Done something.”
“What exactly happened that night?” Thornar asked him the question I couldn’t manage myself. I glanced at him, grateful for his ability to step in when it was needed most. It also allowed me to find my voice.
“You two escaped together, I assume?” My question was steadier than I expected. “How did that happen? Have you been here the entire time?”
The two of them exchanged a look before Nori began.
“We were together the night of the attack. Back then, we used to sneak out to the creek to talk and just…be.” A faint smile crossed her face at the memory, but it faded quickly.
“We could see the village from where we were. We saw the trucks approaching.”
“We saw the flames,” Owen continued, his voice tight. “I saw how many soldiers there were. I heard the guns. I saw our house burning.” He paused, his face contorting in pain. “I tried to convince Nori to run—that I would catch up with her.”
“I wouldn’t let him.” Nori’s eyes closed briefly. “I wasn’t being brave. I was selfish. I knew if he went back home, he wouldn’t come back to me.”
A sensation moved through me that I didn’t have a good name for. Relief, maybe. Gratitude that Nori had held on to him when he was willing to throw himself into harm’s way.
But underneath that, quieter and less comfortable, the awareness that while I had been in that compound, Owen had been living. Building this life of freedom with someone he loved. I kept my face expressionless, although it was difficult.
Through the bond I could feel my mates’ reactions to not only the recounting of what happened but also the wave of feeling it inspired in me. A low, controlled fury from Ravik. Something darker and silent from Basir. And from Thornar, something more raw, closer to the surface and volatile.
I took a moment to sit with it all, then to let it go so I could truly mean what I said next.
“I’m glad she didn’t let you,” I said softly. “I’m glad you ran.”
“I should have come back,” Owen said. “Should have gotten help, called on others—”
“You were fourteen,” I interrupted gently. “You’re alive because you ran, Owen.”
“Maybe.” He dragged a hand through his hair and looked away. The word sat in the air between us, and I didn’t try to fill the space. The guilt wasn’t mine to take from him, no matter how much I wanted to.
“What happened after that?” Thornar prompted.
“The night we left, we had nothing. We had to travel town by town for a while, slowly moving toward Scarlet Sloth territory. We didn’t risk crossing any borders until we had to—it felt like we were constantly a town or two away from Ivan’s reach through the territory,” Nori said, a slight shiver running through her.
“It took months, going through the mountains and near the waterfront.”
“Hardest path you could have taken, but probably the best to stay undetected,” Basir noted quietly.
Pain lanced through me imagining it. Two teenagers, no money, no pack, no one to call on. They must have been so scared.
“We reached Scarlet Sloth territory after a year of traveling, staying in places as long as we could and working small jobs,” Owen explained.
“But we didn’t last more than two years there,” Nori added. “The number of diplomats coming and going made us nervous we’d be caught. Ridiculous, in retrospect. They weren’t looking for us, but at the time…we were young.”
I thought of myself at seventeen. What I had been doing while they were deciding where to live. The comparison sat uncomfortably in my stomach before I pushed it aside.
“After that, we made our way into Bloodrose Sloth territory,” Owen continued. “The quiet was nice after everything we’d been through.”
“And they didn’t question where we came from,” Nori said. “They even let us purchase land and build a home.”
My gaze moved around the cottage. Their home was comfortable and lived in, filled with hand carved wooden furniture, a glowing hearth, and quilts covering every surface. Three doors led deeper into the house from the main living area, and a humid breeze drifted in through the open window.
“So we’ve been here ever since,” Owen said. “And by the time I worked up the courage to go back and find you, to find our parents…”
“I was pregnant,” Nori said gently. “Five years after we escaped, we started a family. I didn’t want him going anywhere.” She paused, holding my gaze. “It was selfish.”
The words landed differently than she meant them to. Kids. They had kids.
Owen had stayed because there were children here…children who needed their father. Suddenly, underneath the complicated tangle of everything I hadn’t let myself feel, my chest loosened.
If he had gone back—if Nori had let him—he would have died. I knew that with certainty. Whatever I had lost in those years, I hadn’t lost him. He was here. He was safe. That was enough.
“Kids?”
“Yes,” Nori said, unable to help the smile that pulled at her lips. “Two of them. They should be back soon—they’re part of a small school collective that takes them out during the day.”
“You’re an aunt,” Owen added, pride slipping into his voice.
The words didn’t make sense at first. I turned them over in my mind, waiting for them to land.
An aunt. I was an aunt.
I blinked as tears filled my eyes. I’d thought I’d lost all of my family, and now I found that Owen and Nori were alive and that there were two small people in the world who were so incredibly important to me, who already mattered more than they could possibly know.
My wolf stirred inside me, something instinctive and protective moving through her at the idea of our pack. I hadn’t felt that pull in so long that the force of it nearly stole my breath. I pressed a hand to my sternum just to steady myself.
“What are their names?”