Willow finds me at the fence.
“You were in the barn,” she says.
“Getting a halter.”
“For thirty minutes.”
“The mare was out.”
“The mare’s been out since dawn. You didn’t go looking for her until Garrett was in the barn.”
“Willow.”
“I’m just observing.”
“Observe quieter.”
She smiles. It’s small and careful, and it’s the closest Willow gets to teasing. “The thread between you is different today.”
“I don’t want to hear about threads.”
“Thicker. More complex. There are… layers to it that weren’t there before.” She pauses. “Briar. He’s going to figure it out on his own if you don’t tell him.”
“Figure what out?”
“Don’t.” Gently. “Don’t do that. Not with me.”
I tie the mare to the fence. My hands are busy with the knot, and my eyes are on the rope. My voice is flat when I say, “His wolf already knows. I can feel it. The way he looks at me has changed. He’s circling it.”
“Then tell him before he lands it himself. Let it come from you.”
“I’m not ready.”
“When will you be?”
“I don’t know. When the hearing is done. When the Syndicate situation is resolved. When I’ve figured out what he is to me and whether—”
“Whether you love him.”
The rope is tied. The mare stamps. The morning is warm, and the hills are green. And Willow is standing beside me, waiting for an answer I don’t have.
“I don’t know what I feel.”
“You broke into a Syndicate facility to pull him out.”
“That’s not love. That’s operational.”
“You’re carrying his child.”
“That’s not love either. That’s biology.”
“You stood in a barn for thirty minutes watching him shovel horse shit, Briar. That’s not biology. That’s not operational. That’s a woman who can’t stay away from a man she’s trying not to want.”
My jaw tightens. Willow watches it tighten and doesn’t flinch, because Willow has never flinched from me. Not when we were stuck together in a motel room for two weeks. Not when I made her wear a slutty dress to gather intel. Not any time. That’s whyshe’s the only person in this compound who gets to say things like this to my face.
“You’re impossible, you know that?” she huffs when the silence drags on too long. “We’ve all been watching you avoid him since he got here, and it’s as clear as day that you want this man. Just talk to him, Briar.”
I exhale slowly. “The hearing is in four days,” I say. “Bern will be there. The full southern council. Garrett is testifying again. After that… After that, I’ll figure it out.”