Chapter 16

IRIS POV:

I folded his jacket carefully and tucked the card into the pocket of the sweatpants.

I wasn't leaving it behind.

Sarah stirred as I stood up, blinking slowly at the morning light.

"You're leaving?" she asked, her voice rough with sleep.

"I have to go home eventually," I said. "The longer I wait, the worse it gets."

She sat up immediately. "Then I'm coming with you."

I opened my mouth to argue.

"Don't," she said firmly, already reaching for her jacket hanging on the hook by the door. "I'm coming, and that's final."

“Let me get prepared.”

—·—·—·—·—·—·—

We took her car, and the ride home felt longer than it actually was.

Neither of us spoke much.

I was still in Aurelian's white shirt and sweatpants.

I hadn't thought about that until we turned onto my street and I saw the cars parked outside our mansion. Three of them. Black. Familiar.

Pack elders.

She stopped the car at the gate, and we both got out to walk.

My steps slowed.

Sarah noticed. "Keep walking," she said under her breath. "Head up."

I lifted my chin and kept moving.

The front door opened before I even reached it.

My mother appeared first.

She looked like she hadn't slept at all. Her hair was loose, her eyes red-rimmed, her hands clasped together at her chest like she had been holding them there in prayer all night. The moment she saw me, her face crumpled completely.

"Iris," she breathed.

She came down the steps faster than I had ever seen her move and wrapped both arms around me so tightly I felt my ribs compress.

I didn't realize how much I had needed that until I was standing inside it.

"I'm okay," I whispered into her shoulder. "Mum, I'm okay."

She pulled back and held my face in both hands, studying every inch of me like she was checking for damage.

"Where were you?" she asked. "Your father had the whole pack looking…"

"Margaret." My father's voice came from the doorway.

My mother stiffened slightly. She released my face but kept one hand on my arm as she turned.

My father stood at the top of the steps. Behind him, I could see two pack elders in the hallway. Watching.

He came down the steps slowly.

His eyes moved over me once. The oversized white shirt. The sweatpants bunched at my ankles. Then he did something I did not expect.

He opened his arms.

I stood there for a moment, too surprised to move.

"Come here, Iris," he said quietly.

Something in his voice was different. Stripped of the command.

I walked forward slowly and let him fold me into a hug that felt nothing like the embrace he had given me the night before the ceremony. This one was tight and real in a way that confused me more than anything else that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

He released me quickly. Stepped back. Straightened his jacket. The mask slid back into place like it had never left.

"Inside," he said. "Both of you."

Sarah followed without being asked.

—·—·—·—·—·—·—

The sitting room felt formal despite the familiar furniture. The two pack elders sat across from us, their grey heads bent together in quiet conversation that stopped the moment we entered. My mother sat beside me on the sofa, her hand finding mine immediately.

My father stood by the fireplace. He didn't sit.

"You're going to tell me where you were," he said. Not a question.

"I was at Sarah's," I said.

He looked at Sarah briefly. She held his gaze without flinching. I had always loved that about her.

"And before that?" he asked.

The room was very quiet.

"I got into a car," I said carefully. "On the highway. After I ran."

My father's expression didn't change, but something behind his eyes sharpened.

"Whose car?" he asked.

Before I could answer, Sarah leaned forward slightly.

"She got straight into it from outside the wedding venue," Sarah said. "She didn't know whose it was at first."

My father looked at her slowly.

"But you know now," he said. It wasn't directed at Sarah anymore.

The two elders had gone very still.

I met my father's eyes.

"His name is Aurelian," I said.

The silence that followed was a different kind of silence from any that had come before it.

One of the elders, the older one with the white beard and the deep-set eyes, set his cup down on the table very carefully.

The other one looked at my father.

My father looked at me with an expression I had never seen on his face before in my entire life.

Fear.

Real fear. Dressed up quickly in composure.

"Say that again," he said quietly.

"Aurelian," I repeated. "He stopped his car on the highway. He took me somewhere safe for the night. And then he sent me back this morning."

My mother's hand tightened around mine.

Sarah was watching my father's face with narrowed eyes.

The elder with the white beard cleared his throat.

"Child," he said, addressing me directly for the first time. "This man. Did he tell you what he was?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

The elder exchanged a look with my father.

"Did he tell you," the elder repeated slowly, "what he was?"

"He said there was only a little he didn't know," I said. "He never explained what he was exactly. He asked me how I was able to resist him, and when I couldn't answer, he just…"

"You resisted him?" The elder's voice came out sharp. Both elders were fully upright.

My father turned away from us. His hand came up to his mouth. He stood facing the fireplace for a long moment, his back to the room.

"Dad," I said slowly. "What's happening? Who is he? What is he?"

My father turned back around.

He looked at me with the kind of expression a man wears when he is about to say something that changes everything.

"Iris," he said. "The man whose car you got into…" He paused. "Aurelian Virex is not a wolf."

I stared at him.

"Then what is he?" I asked.

My father glanced at the elders. The elder with the white beard gave a single slow nod.

"He is a LYCAN," my father said.

The word landed in the room like a stone dropped into still water.

I heard Sarah pull in a sharp breath beside me.

"A Lycan," I repeated. The word felt strange in my mouth. Heavy. Ancient.

"The last time a Lycan walked openly in pack territory," the elder said quietly, "was over forty years ago. They do not mix with wolves, Iris. They do not stop their cars for runaway brides. They do not spend nights outside the houses of strangers." He leaned forward. "They do not involve themselves in the affairs of wolves unless…"

He stopped.

"Unless what?" I pressed.

The elder looked at my father again.

My father straightened slowly.

"Unless the matter concerns them directly," he said.

The room fell into a silence so complete I could hear my own heartbeat.

My wolf stirred inside me. Not in confusion this time.

In recognition.

Like she had known all along and had simply been waiting for the rest of me to catch up.

Sarah turned to me slowly. Her face was pale, but her eyes were wide and burning in awe.

"Iris," she whispered. "Do you understand what this means?"