There were tears rolling down my cheeks.

“Before you came, I never cried.”

“Morgan.” He edged closer an inch. “Can you . . . can you come down from that ledge? Please.”

I looked at him fully, twisting my body around.

He didn’t get it.

I could jump from the patio and land safely.

I could climb to the top of the barn and sit there as long as I wanted. There were cliff edges I laid on for my naps.

I could walk miles barefoot in the wilderness and not feel a sliver.

I could run amongst pounding hooves and embrace the beat that I felt through my feet.

But more than any of that, I could survive in a land that would kill even the best hunters or campers. They grew up soft, which was why they thought of me as strange.

“You still look at me like that little kid I was when she died.”

That was their mistake.

I was hard in ways they were not.

They just didn’t want to admit it.

I looked back to Brody. “He loves me, but he wants to change me. He wants to tame me.” I could not. I would not. If I did, I would die. “He wants me to go away with him, and he won’t accept that I can never leave.”

Shiloh was like air for me. These lands were like my food.

“He just loves you, Morgan.”

That was the problem.

I said, “He shouldn’t.”

I had suddenly lost my desire to be around these humans. Without a word, I dropped from the patio. One person gasped, but Matthew didn’t say a word. I felt his eyes as I darted around the crowd and slipped through the barn.

Tonight, I wanted to be with Shiloh.

Brody

I spent an hour searching for Morgan.

I tried to keep track of where she was, and the last I saw, she was on the deck with Matthew. The next time I looked, they were both gone. I found him later in his office.

“Have you seen Morgan?”

He looked up over the computer screen to me. The light illuminated his face, but a shadow crossed his eyes. He stared a second and then shook his head. “I haven’t. No.”

My eyes narrowed. “She was talking to you last. You know where she went.”

He rubbed a hand over his face, scooted his chair back, and gestured to one of the chairs across from him. “Would you like to sit?”

“No.”

He sighed. “Brody.”

I relented, giving a grudging grunt. “Fine.”

I sat, and he continued to stare at me.

I inclined my head, lifting a hand. “If you have words of wisdom you’d like to impart on me, have at it.”

“Brody, I—”

“I meant about where your sister is.”

That caught his attention. “So you do think of her as my sister now.”

“I think I have no option. You’re not going anywhere.”

I was testing him, baiting him. I knew he talked to her. I knew she was gone, and I had a feeling he knew why she left. I wanted him to spill it, and to do it as soon as possible. I was tired, and I wanted to feel Morgan underneath me so badly I was almost aching for her.

“Brody.” He bowed his head a second.

No.

I could hear his sympathy.

He was going to say words I didn’t want to hear, not from him. No way in fucking hell.

I started to stand. “I’m not going to hear this. I don’t give a shit what it is. I’m not listening.” I started to go.

He shoved his chair back, and as it crashed into the wall behind him, his fist slammed down on his desk. “You will sit, and you will listen to what I have to say.”

“Why?” I rounded on him, raising my chin in a challenge. “Why the hell should I listen to whatever you have to say? You might’ve known her the longest, but you don’t know her the best. I do. Me. Not you! A few weeks ago, you were the enemy.”

“You will listen to me because I’m the one she opened up to! That’s why!” His chest was heaving.

And from deeper inside the house, we heard someone ask about who was yelling.

His eyes jerked to the door, and a muscle pulsed in his neck. “Can you please shut the door?”

I didn’t move.

“Please!” He spat the word this time.

I folded my arms over my chest.

I was being an asshole and probably looked like a spoiled, selfish brat, but I didn’t care. I loved Morgan. I knew Morgan. I was the one who brought her back to them. She fell for me, and she grew anchored to me. He wouldn’t even have her in his life if it weren’t for me.

“Shut the goddamn door!”

I took two strides, slammed it shut, and then turned around. “Yeah?”

He let out a curse, raking a hand over his face. He pointed to the chair again. “Fuck’s sake, Asher. You’re almost as stubborn as Morgan herself.” He tried to gentle his tone. “Sit.” He righted his own chair and then sat.

I followed suit, but slowly.

My stomach was in knots, and every instinct in me was telling me I didn’t want to hear what he was going to say and it was going to hurt threefold because it was coming from him.

His hand raked through his hair. “Trust me. This is not something I want to be a part of, but she confided in me just now. Not you.”