Voren dropped into the driver’s seat and pulled the door shut behind him. His shirt was damp across the shoulders and his hair had a few raindrops still running through it. He reached over and turned the heat up without saying anything about it, then looked at her.

"Where do you wanna go?"

Seraphine leaned her head back against the seat and took a long, slow breath. Her whole body felt heavy. Her chest felt heavier. She was done. She was so completely done with the Centenary pack.

"My bag." She groaned quietly, pressing her fingers against her forehead. "I left it in the lab."

She already knew what she was about to say before she said it. "I’m not going back in there."

Voren didn’t push her on it. He didn’t say anything.

"Can you call Damon?"

He glanced over. "For what?"

She turned her head toward him slowly, the way a person does when they are too tired to even argue properly. "He needs to know I’m not at the pack hospital anymore. He’ll be looking for me."

Voren reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and dialed. Then he put it flat on the console between them with the speaker on.

Seraphine looked at it, then looked at him. Her eyebrow went up.

"Would it hurt to just hand me the phone?"

"I don’t let anyone touch my phone." He said it the same way someone might tell you the sky was blue. No drama. No apology. Just a fact he had apparently made peace with a long time ago.

She stared at him for a second, genuinely curious now. What on earth was on that phone that made him hold it like it was classified material? She almost asked, but decided against it.

If she had known, she probably would have understood. That phone carried more weight than Voren would ever sit down and talk about. More pieces of himself, and secrets that he kept locked behind a screen because some things were easier to carry quietly than to explain out loud.

The line picked up.

"Alpha Voren." Damon’s voice came through the speaker clear and alert.

"It’s me," Seraphine said, leaning slightly toward the phone without touching it.

"Sera." His tone changed immediately. Warmer. "Everything okay?"

"I need you to grab my bag from the lab." She paused. "I’m not working on the cure anymore."

A beat of silence came through from his end. "What happened?"

She ran through it. The argument, the way Ravyn had almost hurt her, the moment she decided she was walking out. Damon listened without cutting her off, and when she finished, he was quiet for just a second.

Then he said, "Does this mean we don’t get to see Daisy finish the punishment?"

Seraphine opened her mouth and closed it.

She had completely forgotten about that part. She pressed her lips together.

"I already destroyed the cure," she said, keeping her voice even.

"No you didn’t." Damon didn’t even hesitate. There was something almost amused in his voice, like he knew her too well to let that land. "You’ve got a whole storage unit stocked up. I know about that."

Her eyes squeezed shut. She sat there in the passenger seat with her eyes closed and her jaw tight.

"Don’t give anyone the code," she said finally. "Not a single person. And if anyone comes asking about the cure from now on, I’m charging them an amount that will make Ravyn think twice before trying to hurt me again."

"Understood, boss." She could hear the small smile in it. "I’ll get your things together. But the way this weather looks right now, I’ll probably bring everything to you after it clears up. Oh, and Bryan’s down for now. Washed, fed, knocked out."

Something in her shoulders dropped. Just slightly. "That’s good." The corner of her mouth moved. "He needs to rest."

She looked out at the rain running down the window in thick, uneven lines.

"I guess we’re phone calls from here on out then. For a while at least."

"About that," Damon said, "you did tell me to grab your bag. Your phone is probably sitting right in there. I’ll find it and bring the whole thing to you."

"Right." She said it and actually meant it. "Thanks, Damon."

Voren ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket in one smooth motion.

The rain had been coming down steadily this whole time but now it picked up. The sound of it changed, heavier and more aggressive against the roof of the car, and outside the windshield the world was turning grey and blurry. The trees at the edge of the road bent. The wind was getting mean.

Voren pulled up slowly toward the gate and eased the car to a stop. Orange caution triangles had been set up across the road in front of them and a warrior in a soaked raincoat came walking up to the driver’s side window.

His hood was plastered to his forehead and he had to raise his voice to be heard over the rain.

"Alpha Voren. Roads are closed. Trees came down all over. You can’t get through right now."

Voren looked over at Seraphine.

His expression was easy, unbothered, like fallen trees in a storm were a minor inconvenience at most.

"You still want to go?"

She nodded once, and that was all he needed.

He was out of the car before she could say a single word. The door opened, the rain swallowed him, and he was already moving toward the first fallen log before it even registered.

"Voren—"

The door shut behind him.

She watched through the rain-blurred windshield, leaning forward slightly in her seat. The first tree was massive. It was the kind of thing that would take a crew and equipment to move under normal circumstances.

Voren crouched low, got his grip, and moved it like it inconvenienced him personally. The wood scraped across the wet road and he dropped it to the side like he was setting down a chair.

The warriors at the gate stood frozen for about three full seconds. Then something seemed to kick in and they moved, spreading out toward the other trees, working alongside him.

Seraphine watched from inside the warm car with the heat still running and she didn’t know exactly what she was feeling. Something quiet. Something she didn’t put a name to.

She was still watching when his whole energy changed.

She saw it before she understood it. His head came up fast, his body turned, and then he was running.

Running hard, and straight toward the car.

She had no time.

The door flew open, and his hand found her, and she was out, pulled fast, and then they were both on the ground and something hit. Something enormous. The sound of it was everywhere at once, a crack so deep it moved through the wet ground beneath her.

A tree. A full tree, massive and old, had come down across the back of the car where she had been sitting half a second ago.

She was on the ground. Cold water soaked through her clothes immediately. And Voren was above her, both arms braced, his body covering hers completely...