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"I can’t be sure if it's real."

His eyes lift to mine.

"But sometimes I remember someone holding me."

I can't move.

"I remember being scared."

My vision blurs.

"And someone saying..."

He stops.

"What?"

His face twists like he's trying to pull the memory out of somewhere impossibly deep.

"That they were sorry."

A tear slips down my cheek. Because I know. I know exactly what he means. Because I said those words. Not because I didn't love him. Because I loved him so much it destroyed me.

Rhett reaches for my arm, but I barely notice. Morrow looks terrified.

"I'm sorry."

"No."

My voice breaks.

"No, don't apologize."

I step closer.

"You don't understand."

I place a hand over my mouth.

"I thought you were gone."

The room goes silent. I stop wondering if he's my son, and I start grieving the 15 years we lost.

Nothing but the sound of our breathing fills the room, and I realize Rhett is still holding onto my arm. I look down at his hand and then up at his stunned face.

At the same moment I just accepted that Morrow is my son, he realized he had a son. He realized where Morrow’s… Sayer’s wolf abilities come from.

My gaze shifts as I realize Morrow is looking at me with the strangest expression.

“You can call me Sayer now.”

My vision begins to dim at the edges as Rhett lowers me into a chair. But, before I can have the full breakdown I feel coming on, something taps against the front window from the outside. Once. Twice. Three times. Not loud.

Gentle. Like fingertips against glass. All three of us turn.

The porch is empty. The tapping comes again. This time from the kitchen window. Then the living room. Then the office. One after another. Circling the cottage.

No one speaks. Rhett quietly sets his coffee down. His expression changes. Gone is the investigator I met last night. In his place is someone else. Someone alert. Dangerously focused.