He took in a long, deep breath and let it out again, wreathing his face in mist. “Will you come with me, now?”
“What?”
“I asked you once before,” he said. “Will you come with me—away from Denver, from Colorado, taking nothing, giving up everything you’ve known? Will you, Athena?”
Yes, her heart cried. Yes, yes, and yes. But there was something wrong with his question and her own response to it. She hesitated, and in that hesitation lay the cold, hard seed of doubt.
So much had altered since the first time he had asked her to abandon her life. She had remembered how to Change, and healed herself. She had begun to discover that what seemed important was only window dressing and false pride. She had learned to love, not with charitable dispassion, but with her entire soul.
She was not the person she had been a few months ago. But Morgan demanded her complete surrender without offering his trust in return. He had tried to drive her away even as he claimed her for his own. He asked her to run, not toward a real life together, but away from what he feared in himself.
“You want me to go with you,” she said. “But you expect me to do so in ignorance. You want me to trust you, when you will not trust me with the things that have hurt you and made you what you are. You refuse to believe that I’m strong enough to accept whatever you tell me.” She held out her hand, cupping her palm as if she could touch his face. “All I ask is that you confide in me, Morgan. Confide in the woman who loves you. If you do that now, for me, I will go with you to the ends of the earth.”
Dry leaves rustled across the cavern floor. Athena’s heart beat five, ten, twenty times before Morgan moved. He smiled, only with his mouth, and she knew that she had lost her gamble.
“Your love is not enough,” he said, almost gently. “The answers you want are only the beginning. You would find no contentment, no peace. You would always expect what I can’t give you.”
“You mean that you could not love me.”
“Love breaks like thin ice on a lake just when you think it is sound to cross.” He lowered his head so that the dark mass of his hair concealed his face. “It’s a hard lesson, but it will make you stronger in the end.”
“Strong… as you are? Is this your example, Morgan?” She uncurled and stood to face him. “Is it strength to pretend that none of this ever happened? Should I let my past determine my future, crawl back into my chair and play at being helpless so that I will be safe until the day I die?”
“You will not be safe in Denver.”
Such irrational anger stirred in Athena that it was as if the wolf had taken her mind without Changing her body.
“Oh?” she choked out. “What danger will I face, once you are gone? My heart will be cast in iron, but I’ll still be able to help those who can find some use in hope. If I’m careful, I can concoct an explanation for my recent behavior that may convince society to accept me back into its midst.”
His eyes burned through the veil of his hair. “You will not be safe as long as your brother is alive.”
“I know… I know that he tried to kill you, but he is not an evil man. I will talk to him. I’ll make him understand, and he’ll regret what he did—”
“No.” Morgan stood, moving as if every bone and muscle in his body had been torn apart. “Niall told me the truth about your mother, Athena. He hid it from you all these years. He wanted you to remain dependent and weak, so that he wouldn’t have to remember the woman who stole your father’s love.”
“What truth?” she whispered.
Morgan hesitated, staring toward the mouth of the cave.
“What truth?” She strode toward him and stood so close that he had no choice but to meet her gaze. “Tell me!”