The door to the office swung open. Silas stood there, his Alpha aura dimmed to a gentle, mourning glow. He saw the splintered desk. He saw the gold-eyed wreck of a man hunched over the terminal.
"You heard it," Silas said softly.
Rikae didn't look up. His voice was a raw, jagged edge. "You kept it. You saved the file I deleted."
"I saved your soul, Rikae. Or what was left of it." Silas walked over and put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Kael called me three months after the explosion. He said she survived, but barely. He wanted to know why you hadn't come. I didn't have an answer that didn't make me want to kill you myself."
Rikae gripped the silver box so hard the metal groaned. "She forgave me, Silas. On the chip... she wrote 'Forgiven.' How can she forgive a man who hit delete while her brother was begging?"
"That's the problem with fated mates, Rikae," Silas sighed. "They don't love you because you're perfect. They love you even when you're a monster. Now, the question is: are you going to sit here and cry over a year of lost time, or are you going to go to the Black-Ridge and earn that forgiveness?"
Rikae stood up. He didn't look like a "Vessel" anymore. He looked like a wolf who had been through hell and brought the fire back with him.
"I'm going," Rikae said, his voice deep and vibrating with the Wolf's resonance. "But Silas... if I go there, I'm not coming back as your Lead Beta. I'm coming back as her mate. Or I'm not coming back at all."
"I've been waiting for that Beta to return for a year," Silas smiled. "Go. Before I fire you for being late."