048 | BIG BLUE

I was about to knock on the door to my parents’ office when I heard voices. I didn’t know what made my fist still a hair’s breadth from the wood, but I froze at the sound of that familiar, deep, honey-and-gravel voice.

Etta had eventually tired and gone home. Needing a distraction and some reassurance, I’d come to find Ares. I couldn’t stop thinking about her going back to her empty house, but she’d insisted – quite bluntly, which had made the knot of emotion in my chest ease ever so slightly – that she wanted to eat dinner alone.

“It’s hard for me, Big Blue,” Ares was saying, and his use of my dad’s nickname sent a jolt of shock through me. It was too familial for a man like Alpha Ares.

“As it is for Haile.” There was a hint of sympathy to Dad’s tone, but not half so much as if Ares were part of Blue Moon. Or even if he hadn’t tried to kill me.

“I know. Of course it is. And I… I haven’t always made things easy for her.”

“I’ll level with you, Ares, from one Alpha to another.” I could