Chapter 37

"You're leaving?"

Malachi is shocked, more so than I expected. He stands up abruptly, nearly pulling away the sheets that he had unconsciously scrunched between his fingers, and looks at me with wide eyes. I see a swirl of storms in his blue eyes, more shadow than light in the dim morning dawn that surrounds us, and I might not be imagining the hurt that creeps in the edges and wrinkles his forehead.

It nearly makes me change my mind.

"You're going home...to ForgedHearts pack?" he questions, like he needs to clarify where I call home. Maybe my choice of wards was poor, but this hasn't felt like home, not ever, even in the small moments I'm enveloped in Malachi's embrace. For a flicker in time, being with him feels right, but everything else around us is so wrong.

"Just for a few days."

He visibly relaxes, his shoulders slumping forward and his clenched jaw loosening while he sits on the edge of the bed. I scoot back and pull my knees to my chest.

"It's almost the new moon, and I want