The Familiar Stranger

By the time I had made my way back to Bone’s hut, most of the excitement from the far-hunters’ return was finally starting to die down.

The sun had already slipped behind the mountains, casting the village in a blue hue that seemed to grow darker with each passing minute. Fires burned brightly between the huts now, filling the air with the heavy smell of smoke and cooked meat. Most of the crowd that had gathered earlier had now dispersed, but the village was far from quiet. There was still plenty of work around that needed to be done.

A few of the hunters remained near the center of the village, cleaning their weapons and sorting through whatever they’d carried back with them. Others had already retired to their huts to rest. Everyone else around them seemed to have found one job or another to occupy themselves with – hauling meat away to be butchered, carrying off hides to be scraped and stretched, gathering up discarded antlers and bones, or simply cleaning up whatever mess was left behind.

I’d stayed until there wasn’t much left for me to do, and even after that, there was still the work Bone and I had abandoned when the horn first sounded.

I found him sitting exactly where he had been before, seated beside the low workbench outside of his hut with the netting he had dropped gathered back up into his hands.

His eyes glanced up at me, and I caught him smirking slightly as I approached.

“I was starting to think you might have forgotten about me,” he remarked.

I gave him a look, “When have I ever forgotten about work?”

Bone’s smirk threatened to break into a smile, “You never know…”

I settled back in my place beside him and picked up where I had left off with the leather strap.

Or, at least, I tried to.

For the first few minutes, I managed to remain focused. There was something comforting about being able to get my hands moving again. Bone’s tasks were simple enough, once I’d found a rhythm for it, and after spending most of the afternoon running from one urgent situation to another, sitting down felt like a blessing all on its own.

But every time things would get quiet, my mind would begin to wander.

Back to the hunting party.

Back to the crowd.

Back to her.

Raven.

I tightened my grip on the piece of leather in my hands.

I had only spoken to her for a few moments. Hardly enough to call it a conversation. But I still couldn’t stop thinking about it.

In the moment, there hadn’t exactly been much room for me to be able to process who she was. The far-hunters had returned, the whole village was moving at once, and I’d been too busy trying to help to think about anything beyond the next thing that needed doing.

Now, everything had settled down, and one particular detail was starting to become considerably hard to ignore.

Raven was Thorn’s wife…

Which, as far as everyone else was concerned, made her my wife…

I grimaced.

That was going to be a problem.

“You planning on doing something with that?”

I blinked as Bone’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“What?” I asked.

He gestured to the leather strap in my hands that I had been fidgeting with for who-knew-how-long.

I made a small noise of acknowledgement before quickly going back to work on it.

Bone watched me for another moment before returning his attention to the netting.

“You’re distracted,” he stated.

“I’m fine,” I countered.

“I didn’t say you weren’t.”

I tossed him a sideways glance.

He didn’t look back.

I let out a sigh through my nose, trying to focus. It only worked for another minute.

There were still so many things about this life that I didn’t know. Every time it seemed like I was starting to get a foothold in this world, something else would come along that reminded me that I had been dropped into a life that had already been playing out long before I had arrived.

Shade’s presence had been a pretty big reminder.

Raven’s arrival had made it that much bigger.

I began working a little faster.

Raven hadn’t seemed particularly happy to see me earlier. She likely wouldn’t want anything to do with me. That wasn’t exactly a comforting thought, considering what it implied about Thorn, but selfishly, I figured it would make things a lot easier.

“Thorn.”

I looked up. Once again, Bone was staring at me.

“What?” I asked again.

I followed Bone’s finger as he pointed to one of the piles of repaired supplies sitting beside me. The leather strap that I’d been working on had been tossed into the wrong pile.

I stared at it for a second before quietly moving it over.

Bone snorted, “Fine, huh?”

“I was thinking,” I argued.

“Mhm, clearly…”

I gave him another look as Bone returned to his work, completely unbothered.

For a while, neither of us said anything.

I forced myself to concentrate this time. I picked something up from one of the baskets of miscellaneous items Bone had lying around, checked it, set it where it belonged, then moved on to the next one.

No Raven.

No Thorn.

No wondering what sort of life the two of them had shared before I had been dropped in the middle of it.

Just work.

I could handle work.

I'd almost seemed to find my rhythm again….

Then Bone stopped, his hands going still as he lifted his head. His eyes focused on something over my shoulder.

I noticed a second later.

“What?” I groaned, expecting another deadpan remark.

This time, though, Bone didn’t answer.

I turned, following his gaze.

Raven was crossing the village, marching steadily up to Bone’s hut, and judging by the look on her face, she knew exactly where she was going and who she was looking for.

She was still glaring, her steely gaze no less dull from when I had last seen it.

She had managed to clean herself up a little since I’d last seen her, but not by much. Her stained travel clothes were still on, and exhaustion still sat plainly in the way she carried herself. Whatever journey she’d just returned from with the other far-hunters, it had clearly taken its toll.

People moved out of her way as she passed them by.

I swallowed, “Is she always like this?”

“No.” Bone replied curtly.

Somehow, that was worse.

My stomach dropped as Raven stopped directly in front of me. She grabbed one of my wrists and pointed towards the path behind her.

“You. Come home. Now!”

I was only given a moment to process what exactly she had just said before I was being hauled out of my seat. I looked back at Bone, my feet scrambling as Raven pulled me forward.

There wasn’t a shred of sympathy on his face.

“Good luck,” I heard him call out from behind me.

Thanks… Thanks, Bone… Real supportive…

I had a feeling I was going to need a lot more than just luck.

Much like a child that was in deep trouble with his mother, I was dragged all the way through the village back to the hut.

Raven dumped me off inside of the doorway, practically throwing my wrist out of her hand as she marched inside. She stopped beside the firepit and wheeled around to face me.

“What’s all this?”

My brow furrowed as Raven gestured broadly around the hut.

I glanced around.

Raven’s travel pack had been dropped onto the floor at the foot of the bed, but aside from that, everything else was the same state that I had left it in earlier that day. The wood was stacked neatly against the wall. The ash inside of the pit had been swept and discarded. The bowls Shade and I had been eating from had been cleaned out and put away on a nearby shelf. All of the pelts and hides were still neat and organized.

What was Raven talking about?

Then it hit me.

When Raven had left, the hut had practically looked abandoned – old hides, drafty walls, broken bowls, no wood for the firepit.

Now?

My eyes shifted back over to Raven, who stood in front of me with her arms crossed, scowling.

I shrugged, “Apparently, I nested.”

Raven spat out a laugh as she took a step back. A hand came up to cover her mouth as she began nodding. But she wasn’t laughing because she found any of this humorous, and she most certainly wasn’t agreeing with my statement.

If anything, she behaved like someone who had seen and heard it all a million times before.

“Right…” she sneered, turning away from me.

Raven wandered over towards the shelf and picked up one of the bowls.

“These are new,” she commented, examining it in her hands, “Where did they come from?”

“Bone brought them for me,” I replied.

“Mhm… And the bedding?”

“There were a lot of pelts that needed to be tossed out. I got rid of what I felt needed to go, and traded for some new ones.”

Raven shot me a look, “You traded for them? Traded what?”

“I worked.”

Raven scoffed, “I don’t believe you.”

She began pacing around the hut, her anger and frustration seeming to build with every step.

“You stole them, didn’t you?” she fired at me, “Who did you take them from? How many people am I going to have to apologize to because of you?”

I raised my hands slowly and took a step back.

“I’m telling the truth,” I said calmly, “Bone brought the bowls, I traded for the pelts, I fixed the stool because it was wobbling pretty bad–”

Raven whipped her head around to the stool in the corner. She picked it up and tested it, tapping its legs against the floor and giving it a few twists before taking a seat on it.

She paused as she sat there, arms spread out like she expected it to give at any moment. She shifted her weight on it, and after a couple of seconds, she let her arms come to rest on her lap.

“What else did you do?” she asked.

I scratched the back of my head.

“I patched the holes in the walls to block out that draft that was coming in, created a proper set up for cooking, and organized the baskets so we know where everything is. Aside from that… I’ve been cleaning and repairing the place as needed to keep up on it.”

“Uh-huh…” Raven droned, clicking her tongue as she stood up, “Well, I must say, this has got to be your most elaborate scheme yet.”

I frowned, giving her a confused look, “What scheme?”

“Oh, please! You think I haven’t learned by now? I know you’re just doing all of this to trick me into forgiving you.”

My confusion deepened, “Doing all of… what?”

“ This! ” Raven gestured around the hut again, “Cleaning yourself up, cleaning the hut, gathering nice things, working, and pretending that you are kind so that I’ll feel more inclined to stay!”

And that’s when it clicked.

She thought everything I was doing was for her .

I took a few steps forward.

“Raven…” I started, “I didn’t even know when you’d be coming back home.”

The anger on Raven’s face faltered slightly as she looked up at me. She didn’t seem to have a response for that one as she turned away and slowly settled herself onto the bed.

I stepped over towards the woodpile and grabbed an armful of logs.

“Have you eaten anything yet?” I asked her, setting the wood inside of the firepit.

Raven’s scowl returned, “What does that matter?”

I frowned again.

“Whatever happened out there, you look like you’ve been going through it. And I know you won’t have access to the grooming den until morning. Take some time to just sit down and relax. I can cook something.”

Raven barked out another laugh.

This one had just a little bit more humor to it, though.

“You… Cook something…” she said in mock disbelief, “Why not just poison me and get it over with?”

I let out a chuckle, even though nothing about her question was funny.

“I don’t want to poison you,” I said as I worked on creating a flame, “I want to help.”

Raven narrowed her eyes at me, “Don’t you think you’ve helped enough already?”

I laughed, “Never. Just ask Rain.”

Reaching into a basket, I pulled out a grouse that I had managed to hunt earlier that morning. The hunt had been quick, and I was sure that it’d been the same grouse that I’d failed to catch on my first hunting trip a few days ago.

Raven swallowed as she looked at it, then back to me.

“Do you want some?” I asked.

Raven eyed the grouse for several more seconds before she finally answered.

“Fine.”

I nodded. That was probably the closest thing to enthusiasm that I was going to get out of her.

The fire had begun to catch by then, the kindling crackling beneath the larger pieces of wood as small flames started to work their way along the bark. I shifted one of the logs to give them a bit more room before reaching for a flat cooking stone that I had traded for a few days earlier.

Once it had settled near the hottest part of the fire, I grabbed my knife and started working on the bird.

“What are you doing?” I heard Raven ask from over my shoulder.

“Breaking it down,” I explained, “It’ll cook faster that way.”

A quiet hum rumbled in the back of her throat. Whether it was one of approval or not, I couldn’t tell.

I had cleaned the grouse earlier that morning, so there wasn’t much left for me to do but to separate it into pieces. I worked the legs free first, then carefully sliced away at the breast meat. It wasn’t a particularly large bird, but I knew there’d at least be enough for the two of us. Judging by how quickly her attention shifted over towards the meat whenever she thought I wasn’t looking, I suspected she needed the dinner more than I did.

Once the cooking stone was hot, I laid the first few pieces across it, filling the hut with a sharp hiss. I added a little bit of rendered fat to keep the meat from drying out and reached for a few bundles of dried herbs I'd been gifted from Flower.

I held each bundle up to my nose, taking a few sniffs from each as I juggled them in my hands.

“What are you doing now?” Raven asked again.

“Trying to figure out which of these will pair best with our meal,” I replied.

Another quiet hum came from her throat as she crossed her arms loosely over her chest. I’d concluded then that it wasn’t a sign of approval, necessarily, but simply an acknowledgement.

I could work with that.

I eventually decided on one of the bundles, cutting off a portion of the leaves before setting the rest aside. A pinch of herbs was about as fancy as I could manage with what I had, but that was fine.

Grandma had never needed much to make a good meal, either.

For a while, there was nothing to fill the space of the hut but the crackling of the fire and the occasional hiss from the cooking stone.

It was strange how much easier that silence felt.

Raven had practically torn through me when she first dragged me through the door, and I had spent most of her interrogation trying to figure out what I was even being accused of.

Now that it seemed like she had run out of things to yell about, I could finally concentrate on what I actually understood.

Fire.

Food.

Work.

Simple things.

I turned over one of the pieces and checked the underside. The meat had started to brown nicely, and the herbs mixing in with the fat filled the hut with a warm, savory smell.

From behind me, I could hear Raven quietly inhale.

I smiled to myself.

“You know, you’re allowed to say that it smells good,” I pointed out.

There was a pause.

“It smells edible,” Raven said flatly.

I glanced over my shoulder, “Such high praise.”

Raven gave me a dry look, one with less venom behind it than there had been before.

I turned my attention back to our meal, deciding not to push my luck.

Cutting into one of the thicker pieces of meat, I made sure that it was cooked through before stepping aside to pull two bowls down from the shelf.

Dividing the grouse evenly proved to be harder than I was expecting. One of the breast pieces was noticeably larger than the other, and the legs didn’t give me much room to compensate. I considered the portions for a moment before placing the larger piece into Raven’s bowl along with one of the legs.

She was exhausted. She was hungry. She needed it more than me right now.

I carried the bowl over to her.

Raven accepted it cautiously. Her eyes examined the food first before briefly shifting over to what remained beside the fire.

I pretended not to notice.

After fixing my own portion, I grabbed the stool and carried it closer to the fire. The arrangement felt strange as I sat down across from her. Raven was technically my wife, at least as far as everyone in the tribe was concerned, and yet sitting there across from her felt more like sharing dinner with someone who was almost entirely a stranger.

Which, in my case, I guess she was.

I broke off a piece of meat from my bowl and began eating.

Even as she sat there watching me, Raven still refused to touch her food.

“You know,” I said after a few seconds, “It’s going to get cold.”

“I know that.”

Her response came so sharply that I decided that’d be the last bit of encouragement I was going to offer, and focused on my own dinner instead.

Eventually, I heard Raven shift as she picked up a small piece of meat. She inspected it for a moment before finally taking a bite.

A tension that I hadn’t noticed before eased from my gut as she took another.

For the first time that evening, the two of us managed to coexist without arguing.

Raven ate slowly, at first, taking cautious bites and chewing carefully as her eyes seemed to search for something. Eventually, though, her hunger seemed to win out over whatever reservations she still had. The tension eased out of her as the warmth settled into the hut and the food disappeared from her bowl. Her shoulders weren’t quite as rigid as before, and she’d stopped looking like she could jump to her feet at any moment to tear into me again.

I knew that didn’t mean she trusted me. I wasn’t that naive.

If anything, the occasional wrinkle of her brow suggested that I’d only given her more to think about.

Raven stopped when she reached the larger piece of breast meat, looking back and forth between her bowl and mine.

“You gave me more…”

I glanced down at my bowl, then looked at hers.

“Huh,” I shrugged, “I guess I did.”

“You guess ?”

There was an edge to her voice, but it was less accusatory this time. It sounded more like she was trying to understand why I would have done it in the first place.

“You looked hungry,” I said.

“Well, I wasn’t,” Raven growled.

I chanced giving her a half smile as I lifted a brow.

The corner of her mouth twitched. I couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or fighting the urge to laugh.

She picked up the larger piece from her bowl and ate it, almost smugly ripping a chunk off of it with her teeth, as her eyes focused on me.

I simply went back to eating mine.

Another stretch of silence settled between us, but this one had a different weight to it. Raven seemed to take an interest in more than just the food now. Every so often, she’d change her posture slightly. Tilting her head as I added another piece of wood to the fire, pausing when I set my bowl aside to pick up something that had fallen beside the cooking stone. Her attention would remain on me briefly before she’d return to her dinner as though nothing had happened.

Something was bothering her.

That much I could tell.

I just had no idea what.

And to avoid running the risk of poking the bear – or the wolf, rather – I kept on pretending like I didn’t notice.

By the time Raven had finished eating, she seemed to be considerably more composed than she had when we’d first returned to the hut. Exhaustion still showed in the heaviness around her eyes, but the anger that had carried her here from Bone’s had cooled into something quieter.

She set her bowl aside and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

I was just finishing off the last of my portion when I saw her expression change again.

Not angry, not quite suspicious, but thoughtful.

One thumb slowly ran along the edge of her palm as she seemed to consider something. Whatever thoughts she had going on inside her head, they must have reached some sort of a conclusion.

She looked back towards me. There was something different in her expression now. Something deliberate.

It reminded me of when Echo had first led me into her hut.

I lowered my bowl slightly.

“What?” I asked her.

Raven shook her head, “Nothing.”

That answer wasn’t reassuring in the slightest.

I waited, expecting her to add something else. Instead, she picked up her empty bowl, and turned it idly in her hands.

Then, almost casually, she spoke.

“So…”

The way she drew out that word immediately put me on edge.

I shifted in my seat.

“So… what?” I asked.

Raven’s eyes dropped down to the bowl in her hands.

“You said Bone brought you these?”

I couldn’t help the small sigh that escaped me as I felt some of my apprehension leave me.

“Yeah,” I replied, “They were part of a repayment for helping him clean and organize his storage den.”

Raven raised a brow at that, “ Bone let you into his storage den?”

“Well, it took some convincing, but yes.”

Raven blinked, then nodded.

“I’m surprised Bone would even let you come anywhere near his hut after what happened last time,” she commented.

I did my best to keep my brow from furrowing.

What happened the last time again?

I tried to think, sorting through my memory through all of the many grievances people had with Thorn. He’d stolen from Bone, I knew that much, but it felt like Raven was hinting at more than just that. What else had happened?

I could only shrug, “Yes, well, as you probably saw when you found me, we managed to smooth things over. Still not one for conversation much, but he’s found ways of keeping me busy.”

Raven nodded again, “Well, I suppose stealing a few strips of dried meat from him wasn’t the worst thing you’d ever done.”

My gut clenched slightly, but did my best to ignore it. “Apparently not.”

Raven sat there quietly for several seconds before she set her bowl aside again and stood. She strolled around the hut taking everything in again until she eventually came to a stop beside the cooking stone. She picked up the bundles of herbs I’d handled earlier and shuffled through them.

“Who gave you these?” she asked.

“Flower,” I responded.

“For doing what?”

I shrugged again, “Nothing in particular, really. She just said she had some extra and thought that I could use them.”

To my surprise, Raven actually let out a soft laugh.

“Yes, well, I suppose she’s always had a soft spot for you, hasn't she?"

I smiled, “Yeah. She’s been really good to me lately.”

Raven lifted her head and shot me a look.

My stomach clenched again as I palmed my face.

“Okay, I know how that sounded,” I said, “On my life, I swear we haven’t been doing anything!”

The laugh that escaped Raven came a little easier this time, “I didn’t think that you were.”

I shrank in my seat on the stool as I felt my cheeks burn. This didn’t feel like the game of Truth or Chatter that Echo had subjected me to. Even so, some part of me still felt like this was part of an interrogation.

I guess I couldn’t exactly blame Raven for that though. She had left the village for several days, maybe over a week, and had come home to a doting husband and a hut that was clean and full of new things. Of course she was going to want to know what the person wearing Thorn’s face had been up to while she was gone.

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

I pushed my embarrassment aside as I looked up.

Raven had moved back to the edge of the bed, holding her travel pack in her hands. Her fingers fiddled with the buckles on it as she glanced up from it to me.

My brow furrowed, “Ask what?”

Raven’s fingers stopped as her stare went blank. She seemed to point with her eyes down at the pack.

“Aren’t you itching to know what I brought back?” she asked.

Honestly, the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. Raven had looked so tired and worn out this whole time that whatever she’d managed to bring back with her from the far-hunt was the least of my concerns. I’d just wanted to make sure that she was comfortable and that she'd had something to eat.

I guess she had expected me to be curious.

“Oh, right,” I said, “Get anything good?”

Raven's eyes narrowed and she frowned, but the sharpness that had been in her gaze earlier hadn’t returned.

“I hunted for more pelts, because I thought we could use them,” she explained, working at the buckles again, “Had I known you were going to get more yourself, I would have focused more on hunting for what we could have used for food.”

The top of Raven’s pack flipped open, revealing a rolled bundle of lynx and wolf pelts. She also pulled out several large pouches of dried meat, as well as a few bones and antlers that I assumed were intended to be made into tools.

I smiled as I looked at the haul and nodded to her approvingly.

“Impressive,” I stated, “Looks like you did a great job.”

Raven was silent for several seconds, her eyes shifting from me to the items from her pack, then back to me.

My smile fell slightly as I looked back at her, “What?”

Raven inhaled sharply, shaking her head, “Nothing.”

I could tell that it wasn’t nothing. She’d clearly been expecting me to say something else about it. What that something was, I didn’t know. In my mind, it was impressive, especially for a hunting trip that she was forced to come home early from. I felt like she deserved at least a little recognition for that.

“It sounds like you’ve been working pretty hard yourself,” Raven stated, lowering her pack back down to the floor, “Cleaning, nesting, fixing things… You certainly made yourself useful today, helping Bone and the far-hunters, and all.”

My posture straightened, “You saw?”

Raven shrugged, “Saw, heard… Difficult not to, really, with how you were running all over the village.”

I blinked again. She’d been watching? For how long? How much had she seen?

I shrugged once more, “People needed help. There was a lot that needed doing.”

Raven’s mouth pressed into a thin line as she let her gaze fall to the floor. She shifted on the edge of the bed restlessly for several more seconds before she looked back up at me.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking,” she eventually spoke up, “About what you said before I left…”

My stomach dropped.

Oh, no…

“Maybe you were right,” Raven continued, “Perhaps you are perfectly suited for this tribe after all.”

I sat there, thoroughly confused. Was that what the argument was about? Had Raven tried to push Thorn out of the village because of his behavior, and he refused?

I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if that were the case.

Then again, from what I knew about him and how everyone had treated me during my first days living as him, those pieces didn’t seem to connect.

But Raven would know better than I would, wouldn’t she?

“I mean all of this here just proves it,” she added, “The Tribe of the High Mountains could never compete with anything like this.”

I swallowed as I forced a smile.

“Uh, yeah… Definitely.”

At that moment, Raven went still. A second later, her deep grey eyes darkened, her irises turning an ominous shade of black as she frowned.

Judging from her expression, I had just stepped directly on top of a landmine.

However she’d expected me to respond to her statement, it wasn’t supposed to be that. And that’s when I understood.

This whole conversation we’d been having was a test. And I had failed.

Without looking at me, Raven slowly stood up and grabbed her travel pack.

“I will stay at Echo’s for the night,” she stated as she began packing up the items that were still scattered across the bed.

I shook my head, still rattled by my realization.

“You don’t have to do that,” I told her, standing up from the stool, “You just returned home after a long trip. You shouldn’t have to haul yourself across the village just because I’m here. If you’re still looking for some space, I will go.”

Raven whipped her head towards me, “And where will you go?”

I thought about it for a second, “Probably either to Bone’s hut or Rain’s.”

Raven’s brows lifted, “ Bone would let you stay with him?”

“I don’t know. Probably.”

“And Rain?”

“He might.”

Raven stared me down for several seconds before she slowly turned to face me.

“Thorn…” the name didn’t come off her tongue as easily as it had before, “I appreciate your consideration, but I’m not ready to settle back into this hut just yet. Right now, I want to see Shade and make sure that he’s been doing alright.”

I thought about it for a moment. I considered telling her that we could just allow Shade to come back to the hut, then I realized how that could have been a bad idea.

Shade had managed to come out of his shell a lot while his mother had been away. He smiled often, asked questions, and wanted to be involved in whatever was going on in any way that he could. The last thing this situation needed was the excitement of a four-year-old loaded with a dozen questions added onto it.

I reluctantly nodded, “Alright…But if you decide you want to come back tomorrow, the bed is yours. Whether it’s at Rain’s or Bone’s, I’ve slept in worse places.”

Raven’s face fell slightly into a look that I had yet to see from her.

Sadness.

“I’m sure you have,” she said quietly.

She stood there for a moment before she leaned over and grabbed one of the packs of dried meat.

Gently, almost thoughtfully, she passed it over to me.

“Here. So you’ll have something to eat when you wake up.”

I accepted the large bundle of rawhide with a nod, “Deer?”

“Rabbit.”

“I’ll take it, either way.”

A small, hesitant smile crossed Raven’s lips, one that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

With that, she packed up the last of her things and vanished out of the hut, the hide hanging in the doorway flapping shut softly behind her.

For several minutes, I just stood there, holding the package of meat in my hands, with nothing to fill the silence that had settled back in but the sound of the fire.

A weird feeling started to work its way into my chest, one that I wasn’t all that familiar with.

Just a couple short hours ago, I probably would have been relieved if she had told me she wasn’t ready to return to the hut. That she didn’t want to stay here. It would have made the rest of my night a lot easier.

Now?

My stomach was in knots, and the weird feeling had settled into a dull ache that sat heavily in my chest.

This wasn’t like I was dealing with someone else’s family anymore. It felt like I had been abandoned by my own family.

Without me even realizing it, whatever distance that had been there before had somehow closed. I had no idea what that meant, now – if it was just another thing that was embedded into Thorn’s instincts, or if being away from home was starting to make me reach for the closest thing that I could consider family.

But I did know one thing…

Echo was definitely going to hear about this.

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