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“Excuse me,” the man said, whose name Oliver couldn’t remember despite signing him in yesterday. “What’s the Wi-Fi password?”

“It’s on the list above your bedside table,” Luna and Oliver said in one.

“Thanks!” The man lingered in the hallway, scuffing his inn slippers. Thanks to Luna, they had little horns on them. “Also, I think there’s a problem with my window.”

Oliver turned to Luna. “I should go.”

“Yeah.” Luna stepped back, dropping his wrist. “I need to tell Hec it worked. He has the tab open on his phone, ready to book flights.”

“Right.” Oliver stood there, hands clenching around nothing, chest strangely empty. He wanted to ask something stupid—likeWill I ever see you again?—but the window man was tapping his slippered foot on the new carpet and Luna had a fiancé to get to.

“Bye,” he said stupidly and headed down the guesthall.

The problem with the window was simple: the guy wasn’t pulling hard enough. After getting a sheepish thank you and making a mental note to fix the stiff window later, Oliver slunk back to his room.

He didn’t want to alert his family that he was around, so he employed an old trick that all wolves did when they didn’t want anyone to hear them sneak down the hall: he went around the outside of the house and climbed through his own bedroom window. Thanks to the soundproof walls, nobody heard him come in. Now all he had to do was stay in his room for as long as he possibly could, or until his family stopped sitting around the common room, ears perked up, waiting to ambush and drag him into a board game or a movie or a jog like that would distract him from the great bignothingin his chest.

He was himself again, and he hated it. He’d spent weeks resenting the bond, wishing it would go away, and now it had finally gone, and hehatedit. At some point, it had been comforting, the knowledge that Luna was nearby, the warmth getting bigger and bigger until they finally touched, and it flooded him. Like sinking into a warm bath at the end of a long day. Like coming in from the snow.

A knock on the door jolted him out of his thoughts. He rubbed his empty chest, then went to answer it.

“I really don’t want to—” He cut off as he saw Luna in the hallway, dressed in a hat and mittens. Her cheeks were flushed. She looked almost shy, somethinghe still wasn’t used to.

She beamed. “Want to see me off at the airport?”

Oliver pictured it: Hector waving a lighthearted goodbye, his arm slung over Luna’s shoulder. Luna asking them to please send pictures of the fair, hugging everyone goodbye. Would she hug him? Would it be too weird? He didn’t want to be the only one without a hug, but if she did hug him, that would somehow be worse. He’d have to hug her back like a normal person who didn’t want to cling and ask her to stay.

“No,” he said.

Luna ducked her head. “Oookay. Well, I have five minutes. Hec is in the car. What are you up to?”

Oliver tried to think of something that wasn’t pathetic. “Going for a run.”

“Oh yay, you can finally run as fast as you want. No human holding you back.” Luna tugged at the fanged pom-pom at the top of her hat. It was, predictably, a werewolf. She’d bought it from the knitting shop after begging the owner to order it in for her. She’d picked it up this morning, spinning in the chilly street outside the shop. She wanted to wear it while she could, she’d said. Not much chance where she was going, all sun and sand.

“You should get going,” Oliver said.

She paused. “I have fifteen minutes.”

Oliver nodded down the hall. He was shocked the others hadn’t burst out into the hallway yet. “Go say goodbye to the others.”

“I have,” she said quietly. “It’s just you left.”

Oliver was deeply relieved this hadn’t happened at the airport. He’d hate for anyone else to witness this. Itwas bad enough that he was going through it, hands sweaty and throat dry as Luna stared up at him with those big blue eyes.

“I already said goodbye,” he said. “You should?—”

He stopped, stepping back automatically as Luna stepped forward. She closed the bedroom door behind her and took off her hat. Then her mittens, which were adorned with little knitted hedgehogs courtesy of Beth.

“What…” Oliver swallowed as Luna moved closer, catching him by the front of his shirt so he couldn’t move away. His breath caught as she leaned up, skimming their noses together.

“There’s no bond,” he reminded her. “There isn’t— We don’t need to.”

“I know,” she said. “I just…”

She hesitated. Then she slid her hands up his arms, skin on skin, fingers creeping up his sleeves to squeeze his shoulders. Her touch still sent a fissure of heat through him, no bond required.

Luna shivered. Her lips parted with a gasp, pretty and pink andwarm.