The wolf had been louder since she left.
I hadn't expected that. I'd expected distance to silence it, the way putting space between you and a loud sound brings the volume down. That wasn't what happened. Instead, there was this directional pull that hadn't existed before she arrived in Graymoor, like something had locked onto her location and was now just permanently pointing.
I drove down because standing in my own territory listening to its point was not something I could do indefinitely.
Elise closed her office door behind us and turned around.
"What are you doing here, Rhys?"
I almost answered, but my eyes had caught the photo on her desk again. Silver frame, corner of the desk. Two people outside a house. The woman was laughing, and she looked—I knew that face. I couldn't place where it was from, couldn't pull a memory up cleanly, but the recognition was there, sitting just under the surface.
"Are those your parents?" I asked.
"Yes," she said it without looking at the photo. "What are you doing here?"
I sat down in the chair across from her desk. "The threats. The text, the photo…"
She waited.
"Someone wanted you to back off. And I've been sitting with the fact that none of this is fair to you. You didn't ask for any of it. You inherited something and you're trying to figure out what to do with it. That's reasonable."
She was quiet for a moment. "I'll agree with that assessment."
"I'm not thrilled about your plan to sell," I said.
"I know."
"But I understand it. Your life is in the city."
"It is. And Graymoor is two hours away and I have no reason to relocate, so keeping a piece of land I can't use doesn't make sense."
I heard that and something settled in my chest that I didn't enjoy. "Right."
"You're disappointed."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to." She looked at me steadily. "What are you actually trying to tell me, Rhys? Get to the point."
"I want to help." I leaned forward. "My lawyers will handle the legal side. Whatever ties the pack has to that land, I'll have them released properly so the title is clean and fully yours—no complications."
Something in her face shifted. Relief, genuine relief, and I realized she'd been carrying the weight of that possibility since she first drove into Graymoor.
"But I need something from you," I said.
"Of course you do."
"The land has questions attached to it, things I don't have answers to yet, and I need them before I can transfer anything cleanly. Which means I need to know what's actually tied to that parcel, and the only way to get there is to dig. So come back."
"We have phones, Rhys."
I shook my head. "No. It'll be easier with you in Graymoor than two hours away. And it'll give me more peace of mind. Whatever happened with the photo, that won't happen again."
"I have work," she said.
"Bring it."
"I can't just pack up my caseload and—"
"You don't have to put your life on hold. Bring the work." I watched her not quite argue with that. "Stay at the house."
She was quiet for a moment. I could see her working through it.
"There's something else," I said. "Your family and my pack, there's an obvious connection and that connection didn't happen by accident. You know that. And whatever it is, you're not going to find it sitting in the city."
She looked at me for a long moment.
"I'll think about it," she said finally.
I stood up and she opened the office door, and we walked out into the main area where three of her colleagues immediately found reasons to be standing near their desks.
Janine materialized within four seconds.
"Leaving already?" she asked me with a smile.
"Afraid so."
"That's a shame." She tucked her hair back. "I was actually going to offer to show you around. I know all the good spots in the city, the best restaurants, a wine bar that just opened on Fifth that everyone's been—"
"He knows where the highway is, Janine," Elise said.
Janine looked at her. "I was just being hospitable."
"I know, Janine," Elise touched my arm and pointed me toward the lobby. "This way."
"I'd love to try that wine bar sometime," I said over my shoulder to Janine. I was just enjoying Elise' reaction.
"Wonderful, I'll send Elise the details—"
"He doesn't need the details," she said. "He lives two hours away."
"Distance is nothing with the right company," Janine called after us.
Elise kept walking. I fell into step beside her.
"You could have shut that down," she said.
"I could have," I agreed.
"You didn't."
"It was more interesting this way."
She looked up at me. I was looking straight ahead with the most innocent expression I could make, which, I'm sure, didn't look innocent at all.
Two more colleagues looked up as we passed through the lobby. One of them waved at me. I waved back.
Elise pushed the front door open and we stepped outside.
"You could just call," she said. "You know that, right?"
I turned to face her on the front step.
"You already know how I feel about that, Ms. Winters," I said.
"Drive safe, Rhys."
I headed down the steps toward the street, and she watched me go for exactly one second before she turned to go back inside.
I'd made it halfway to the car when I felt it.
Eyes. The kind you learned to notice when you'd spent enough years in situations where someone watching you from a distance meant something.
I turned my head without breaking stride. Across the street, a man I didn't recognize was standing still. He was watching the building.
I stopped and turned fully.
He was gone. He walked away like he'd suddenly had somewhere to be the second I looked directly at him.
I stood on the pavement for a moment, looking at the empty spot where he'd been.