CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:HIS NAME IS ELIO.

       HIS NAME IS ELIO.

Daniel and I left the training field when the sun was starting to drop behind the trees. My arms were still buzzing from the last exercise he made me do, which he called conditioning but felt more like wrestling the air until it won.

He kept glancing at me while we walked back toward the pack house path. Not suspicious, not annoyed, just checking if I was about to faint or something. I kept my steps steady. My breathing even. My face neutral. I had perfected that expression years ago. A calm mask that never cracked, not even when my stomach twisted or my pulse climbed.

“You kept up better than I expected,” Daniel said as he pushed a branch out of my way.

“Oh,” I replied, pretending that was a normal sentence. “Thanks.”

“You learn fast.”

“Training helps,” I said quietly. “Or so people say.”

He frowned like he wanted to ask something but changed his mind. Instead he pointed toward the small stream that cut through the back of the territory. “Let’s soak your hands. It helps with the soreness.”

We stepped toward the stream. The water ran clear and cold. I crouched and dipped my fingers in. A quiet relief spread through my palms. He sat on a rock beside me and tossed pebbles into the water.

After a long minute he said, “You were somewhere else today.”

I kept my eyes on the stream. “Was I?”

“Yeah.”

“I was focusing.”

“That wasn’t focus,” he said. “That looked like you were fighting something we couldn’t see.”

He was too perceptive. My shoulders stiffened slightly before I forced them to relax.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Training brings back memories. Everyone has those.”

He watched me, silent.

“I am fine,” I repeated.

“You always say that.”

“I mean it.”

He let out a short breath. “You can talk, you know.”

I rubbed my thumbs together under the water. “About what.”

“Whatever makes your hands shake before you throw a punch.”

I paused. I hadn’t realized my hands had been shaking earlier. I curled my fingers into the stream until the cold covered everything.

“It’s just old stuff,” I said. “The more I train, the better it gets. That’s how it works, right.”

“Not always.”

“Maybe this time it will.”

Daniel studied the water. Then he said, “We only push people who want to be pushed. If you want to stop for today, you tell me.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to stop.”

He nodded. “Good. Because I already planned tomorrow.”

That earned him a look. “Tomorrow.”

“You thought this was a one day thing?”

“I thought it was an introduction.”

“No,” he said. “It is the beginning.”

I lifted another handful of water and let it drip through my fingers. “Right.”

“Emily,” he said after a moment, “you are not expected to know everything. Most of the warriors trained for years.”

“I know.”

“So stop trying to match people who have ten years on you.”

“I am only trying to stay alive,” I said before I could stop myself.

Silence. A heavy one.

He leaned forward slightly. “Is that how you see it.”

“That’s how I’ve always seen it.”

Daniel did not speak for a long moment. I waited for him to say something comforting or reassuring, but he didn’t. He just sat there with the stream running between us. It was better that way. It let the truth sit without making me feel exposed.

When the sky shifted to darker shades, I stood. “I should head back.”

He rose too. “I’ll walk you.”

“You do not have to.”

“I know.”

He fell into step beside me. Not close enough to crowd me, not far enough to feel like he was escorting a stranger. Just present. Quiet. Solid.

Halfway up the hill, he said, “Your brother asked for you earlier.”

My steps slowed. “He did.”

“Yeah. He showed up near the training ground. He stayed back though. Looked like he was waiting for you to finish.”

“Oh.”

“You two talked yet?”

“We did. Just not properly.” My fingers tightened around my wrist. “There has not been time.”

“He seems decent.”

I didn’t answer.

“You don’t trust him,” Daniel said.

“I don’t know him, plus there are gaps in the stories he tell. I'm not stupid. You all may have known Elio, but I don't.”

"Elio?" Daniel looked at me quizzically, his beautiful face morphing into a frown.

"Yeah. My brother?" I tilted my head at him.

He paused for half a minute staring into space before he nodded his head in a series of yeses. 

I guess he was mind linking someone and speaking to them.

"Yeah ---- E--e--. He's a good guy." He looked away from me.

“That’s fair.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence. My mind kept circling the idea of a brother I had never met. A brother who had grown up with secrets while I grew up with confusion. A brother the pack knew but never spoke of aloud.

When we reached the steps leading to my grandparents’ mansion, Daniel stopped.

“I’ll wait until you get inside.”

“That's unnecessary.” I rolled my eyes at him

“It is the rule,” he said with a shrug.

“What rule?.” I turned to face him, my arms coming to rest in an akimbo motion over my chest.

“The one I made for myself.”

I stared at him. He stared back, unbothered, eyes daring me to counter him. Eventually I opened the door and stepped inside.

He stood there until I closed it.

The hall was quiet. My voice echoed slightly as I called out, “I’m back.”

No one answered.

I walked deeper into the house, heading toward the dining room. When I turned the corner, I stopped.

Elio was sitting at the table, elbows on his knees, hands clasped, eyes fixed on the doorway as if he had waited the entire evening for me to return.

He stood slowly when he saw me.

“Emily,” he called out.

His voice held nervousness. “I wanted

to talk,” he added.

I stayed where I was, heart beating a rhythm I refused to let show.

“Okay,” I said, my tone lightly casual. “Let’s talk.”