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“Pain is only the most immediate symptom,” Grandmother Musgrove continued. “If he stayed away, he would get sick. Perhaps die.”

Luna stared at her. “Oh my god,seriously?”

“In rare cases.”

She started down the hall. Luna trailed after her, wincing when Ben banged Oliver’s head on a doorframe.

“You can stay with us free of charge,” Grandmother Musgrove announced, adjusting her thick sleeves against her tattooed wrists. “I’m sorry this happened now, and not a year ago. He was different before. Sweeter. More open. Less prone to snapping at things that didn’t require teeth. You would have liked him.”

“Before,” Luna repeated. “Why, what happened a year ago?”

Grandmother Musgrove stopped, staring down the hall at the closed door that Ben had carried Oliver through.

“You should go to see him,” she said. “The closer you are, the lesshe hurts.”

Luna squirmed. The door to her room lay behind Grandmother Musgrove, empty and tempting.

“I totally will,” she said. “After I call Hector.”

She rushed into her room, closing the door behind her. The ice in her chest was small, almost unnoticeable. Oliver would be fine until she got back. She could still sense him through the bond, dead to the world in the Musgrove’s common room.

She twisted the phone cord around her finger as it rang.The closer you are, the less he hurts. Grandmother Musgrove made her sound like morphine. A soothing balm. A warm shower for a shivering traveler. She’d never been that for somebody before. It felt like a lot of responsibility.

She wasn’t abalmto Hector, she was… fun to have around. Arm candy. Something adorable and pampered and delightful, like a purebred puppy who very rarely peed on the carpet. Hector never wanted anything else, and neither did she.

“Stranded fiancée,” came Hector’s greeting down the crackling line. “How goes the snow? Melted yet?”

Luna glanced out at the thick snow outside the window. It wasn’t actively snowing yet, but the sky was looking worryingly overcast.

“Not yet,” she said. “Hey, did you know about the werewolf bond… proximity thing? Like, it hurts them if their… ugh. Bond mate, spouse, whatever. It hurts them if they get too far away.”

“Shit, really? I thought that was just Hollywood.” There was a slurping noise, and Luna sighed.

“Are you drinking on the beach right now?”

“Toes in the sand, baby.”

Luna groaned, flopping back against her cold bed.

Hector laughed. “What happened? Did you go for a walk, and he freaked out?”

“We, uh…” Luna coughed. “He flipped out at me over nothing and stormed off. Then his brother had to go after him and carry him back because he, um, passed out.”

Hector whistled. “He passed out? That’s intense. So, what, you gotta hug him once a day, or he gets sick? That’s what happened in the movie I saw. What’s he like, anyway? Your new husband.”

“Ha, ha,” Luna said loudly. “We’re notmarried-married, just wolf married. They do separate marriages for the human paperwork; we haven’t signedanything. And he’s a jackass. He’s rude and he argues aboutnothing,and he’s so stubborn about the stupidest shit.”

“Uh-huh.”

More slurping. Luna sighed, eyes dropping closed as she imagined a golden beach, her toes wriggling through gloriously warm sand.

“Is he hot?”

Luna’s eyes flew open. “What? He’s—he’s fine.”

“Oookay.” Hector paused. “Not used to you playing thingsdown.”

“Well, what am I supposed to say?Yes, beloved fiancé, the guy I’m magically bonded to is smoking hot. He’s still a jackass! I mean, apparently, he’s going through a lot right now, but who isn’t, right?”