Chapter 14

IRIS POV:

I stood frozen on the porch for a moment longer than I should have.

Sarah nudged me gently from behind.

"Iris," she whispered. "He came back for you."

I stepped down from the porch slowly, my bare feet meeting the cool pavement of the path. I stopped a few feet from the gate where Aurelian still stood, one hand resting lightly on the iron bar, watching me with that same unreadable expression.

"You didn't have to come," I said.

"I know," he replied.

"Then why did you?"

He was quiet for a moment. His eyes moved over my face slowly, like he was looking for something specific.

"Because I sent you away in my car," he said finally. "And my driver called to tell me you were crying before you even reached the end of the road."

I felt heat rush to my face.

"I wasn't…"

"Iris."

I stopped.

"You were," he said simply. No judgment. No mockery.

Sarah appeared beside me, arms crossed, looking between the two of us with wide eyes and an expression she was trying very hard to keep neutral. She was failing.

Aurelian's gaze moved to her briefly.

"You must be Sarah," he said.

Sarah blinked. "I… yes. How do you…"

"She mentioned you," he said, which wasn't entirely an answer, but somehow closed the question anyway.

Sarah looked at me. I looked at her. She raised her eyebrows approximately three inches up her forehead.

I ignored her.

"My father will come back," I said, turning back to Aurelian. "Whatever just happened here, whatever made him leave, it won't last. He doesn't give up. Neither does Nicholas."

"I know," Aurelian said.

"So what was the point of all this? They'll regroup and come back with more."

"Let them."

I stared at him. "You say that like it's nothing."

"To me it is," he said plainly.

I searched his face for arrogance and couldn't find it. It wasn't arrogance. It was something quieter and more absolute than that. A man who had simply never encountered a situation he couldn't handle and saw no reason to start worrying now.

My wolf stirred inside me, pressing forward with quiet urgency.

"Why do you care what happens to me?" I asked. "You don't know me. I nearly dented your car. You drove me north, poured me wine that costs more than most people's houses, and now you're standing outside my friend's house at 3:00 a.m., or whatever hour this is. Why?"

He looked at me for a long moment.

The street was completely silent now. The wind moved through the trees lining Sarah's road, carrying that same cedar scent that had surrounded me in his car, in his room, and that I had been trying not to think about ever since.

"I don't have an answer for you yet," he said quietly.

"That's not good enough," I said.

"I know," he said again. "But it's the truth."

Something about the honesty of it disarmed me more than any smooth answer could have.

Sarah cleared her throat softly beside me.

"Iris," she said carefully. "Maybe… you should hear him out. Inside. Like a normal person. With tea."

I looked at her.

She shrugged with her whole body. "I'm just saying. It's cold. And he came all this way."

I turned back to Aurelian.

He waited. He didn't push. Didn't lean forward or use that quiet commanding energy I had felt rolling off him since the highway. He just stood at the gate and waited like the decision was entirely mine and he would respect whichever way it went.

That was what made me step forward and push the gate open.

"One hour," I said as I passed him.

I felt more than heard the quiet exhale that left him.

"One hour," he agreed.

Sarah spun on her heel and marched back toward the house ahead of us, and I caught her mouthing something to herself that looked very much like “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god” as she pushed the front door open.

I almost smiled.

Almost.