They knelt side by side, heads bowed, Brandon still holding her hand firmly as silence settled over them and the atmosphere shifted into something heavier, more sacred.
When a hand touched her palm, the pack elder paused for a brief moment before a faint smile appeared on his face, and something in Emma shifted as her breath caught and her thoughts drifted somewhere far away from the lounge.
For a moment, she wasn't there anymore.
She was back in a place she hadn't visited in a long time, standing in front of a memory that still felt too sharp, watching pieces of her life move in directions she hadn't understood then and still didn't fully understand now, until her vision blurred and a tear slipped free without permission.
Then another followed.
