However, Seraphine knew better than to dwell on it. ’Don’t.’ She shut it down before the sentence finished. ’Not right now. Not ever. Stop.’

Marsha went quiet.

But the thought had already half-formed and Seraphine’s hands were still moving and the truth was that treating humans had never felt quite like this. Humans didn’t have this. The muscle under her fingers was dense and warm even through the cold rain and it was sitting in exactly the right places and the feel of it against her fingertips was doing something she was actively choosing not to think about.

She found what she was looking for.

"This is going to hurt," she said simply.

"Do it," Voren growled.

She pressed. Firm, precise, right next to the spine. The crack was loud enough to cut through the rain for just a second and Voren’s whole body went rigid. A sound tore out of him that he clearly didn’t intend to make. And then it was done.

The stiffness left him like something had been unplugged. He rolled over slowly onto his back and lay there looking straight up at the sky, rain pouring directly onto his face, washing the mud away in thin brown rivers. His chest rose and fell.

"Thank you, Sera."

"No." She was already sitting back on her heels, her own clothes completely ruined, mud on her knees and her arms, gently washed by the rain. "Thank you. For pulling me out." She reached her hand down toward him. "I didn’t even see that tree. I had no idea it was coming."

He looked at her hand for just a second and took it.

He stood without pulling on her too hard, careful about it, and when he was upright he turned and saw the car for the first time since it happened. The roof on the passenger side was crushed inward. Not a small dent. The kind of damage that meant anyone still sitting in that seat would not have walked away from it.

He looked at it for a moment without speaking. "I’ll call my beta. He can bring another car."

Seraphine was already shaking her head. "Have it repaired and let’s find somewhere to wait this out. You’ve seen it out here. The roads aren’t getting better anytime soon."

He didn’t argue.

"The packhouse is open to both of you."

The voice came from a few feet back and they both turned. Ravyn stood there in his soaked emergency cloth, rain running off the end of his nose, his expression carefully put together.

He had clearly been standing there long enough to watch the whole thing. When he had first arrived and seen them on the ground together, something in his face had gone tight and sharp. But that look was gone now, replaced by something quieter.

He had understood. And whatever feeling had jumped up in him first, he had pushed it back down.

"The packhouse welcomes you both," he said again, steadier this time.

Seraphine turned back around.

"There is absolutely no chance I’m staying at the packhouse." Her voice was flat. Finished. Like the topic had already been discussed and closed in her head before it even reached the conversation.

Voren pressed his lips together and looked at her sideways through the rain.

"Do you want my opinion?"

Without Damon beside her, Seraphine had nobody she could completely trust in that matter. to lean on in this particular moment. It was just her, standing soaked in the mud, and Voren waiting on her answer.

She looked at him for a second.

"Go ahead."

"Stay at the packhouse." He watched her face immediately start to close off and kept talking before she could get the refusal all the way out. "There are a lot of rooms. Nobody is going to bother you. You have my word on that. And when the rain clears up, I’ll take you out for dinner, just as you wanted." He paused. "So what do you say?"

She pressed her lips together.

She really, genuinely did not want to say yes.

But then her brain helpfully reminded her that her bag was still sitting in that lab. Her dry clothes were in that bag. Her phone was in that bag. And somewhere inside the packhouse there was a hot shower and right now, standing in the mud with rain running down the back of her neck and her clothes completely soaked through, that shower felt like the only thing in the world worth moving toward.

She exhaled. "Fine." She said it the way people say fine when they mean I want the record to show I am not happy about this.

"Packhouse it is. And we find a mechanic for the car on the way," Voren said with relief.

"I’ll handle the repairs," Ravyn said. "And I can mindlink Damon to bring one of my cars so you both have something to ride in."

It was obvious he was trying, hoping that Seraphine would forgive him and continue to work on the cure.

Voren glanced at the car. The roof on Seraphine’s side was folded inward in a way that meant the passenger seat was basically gone. One person could fit on the driver’s side, maybe, if they were careful about it.

"Repairs, yes," Voren said. "The extra car, no need."

Ravyn frowned. "Then how—"

"I’ll carry Sera on my back." He said it before thinking.

The rain kept falling.

Both Seraphine and Ravyn turned to look at him at the exact same time with the exact same expression. The kind of expression that meant they had both heard the words clearly and were still waiting for the part where it turned out to be a joke.

Voren was already walking toward Seraphine.

"You reset my bones," he said simply, like this was a perfectly logical chain of cause and effect. "Doesn’t it make sense to test how well they’re holding up?"

"Voren." Ravyn’s voice came out sharp. He stepped closer and dropped it lower, almost under his breath. "You hate women. How can you just—"

"She fixed my spine." Voren’s expression didn’t change by a single degree. "Would you have left me face down in the mud until my wolf decided to cooperate? She was already here, and she helped."

He glanced back toward the gate, then at Seraphine standing in the rain. "And I’m not letting her walk all the way back in this weather. Damon’s with Bryan. So."

He said it like that settled it.

And the thing that made Ravyn’s jaw tighten was that it did. Every word of it made complete sense and there was no good argument on the other side that didn’t sound like jealousy dressed up as logic.

Voren stopped in front of Seraphine.

She took one step back. Her wet hair was falling across her face and she pushed it aside and looked up at him and she was already shaking her head before he could say a single word. "You can’t serious."

Voren looked at her. "Do I look like I’m joking?"