Kurt chugged the last of his thermos of black coffee and strode toward Colt and Trigger. Best to get this out of the way.

They were saddling Ranger, Colt’s Bay, and Harley, Trigger’s awful, mean, and spiteful black stallion. The monster snapped at him the second he was close enough.

“I have something to say.”

“It better be a fucking epic apology,” Trigger muttered.

Genie was twitching her bushy tail from where she sat clinging to the fence between the horses lead ropes.

Kurt frowned at her because, holy hell, she’d been so weird when he’d come back. She’d hugged him. Hugged. Him. His leg, and then held on like a tick latched onto a stray dog. Everyone else had ignored his return, which was understandable, but the damn squirrel had welcomed him with little open arms. Literally.

“Look, I didn’t mean to abandon you.”

“Not us, man,” Trig growled out. “The girls. Ava and Karis were in a war alone, and where did you go? Where were you? Feels pretty fishy that your people came for them while you weren’t here.”

“My people? Fuck you, Trig.” Kurt was good and pissed at such an unfair call-out. “You’re my people. Wasn’t that clear at the last war? The one I fought without you askin’? The one where I killed my Alpha—my Alpha—to protect Ava? I got a note, man. I explained that in my goodbye letter. I got a note and I trusted it. I thought I was keeping you guys safe by leaving.”

“But you didn’t.”

“But I was trying. I have no Clan, Trig! You get that, right? I have no Clan. And I’m back here even though you killed off all my old Clan. Here to help you. So don’t you go accusin’ me of skipping out on a fight. I didn’t do that. I thought I was making a decision that kept everyone safe from the trouble I brung.” He spun and made to walk off, but turned because he wasn’t fuckin’ done. “And you know what? You can’t say shit.”

“What?” Trig asked, his eyes blazing an angry gold.

“You can’t say shit! You abandoned you entire MC. Dissolved us, and for no reason other than you fuckin’ felt like it. So don’t you call me out for leaving. Until your glass house is fuckin’ bullet proof, don’t go casting stones at me.”

“She’s a polar bear now, Kurt!” Hairpin Trigger chucked the brush he’d been using on his horse, and it blasted against the wall. And then he neatly dodged the kick Harley aimed at him. “She ain’t human no more. Have you seen her yet? Huh? Have you seen Ava? Have you looked into her eyes? Smelled her sick soul? Because I have. I do all the time, and that’s on me, Colt, and you. Karis did her job. She was laying over her getting fuckin’ murdered when we got to them, just to protect my mate. You seen Karis? She’s still healing up, but look at her arms. Look at her neck. You don’t even want to imagine her torso—”

“Trig,” Colt murmured, “she’s beautiful. She’s perfect.”

“That ain’t the point! She shouldn’t be scarred, and Ava shouldn’t be Turned, and you should’ve been there, man!” Trig shrank back and looked off to the side at the ground. “You should’ve been there, and I should’ve been there, and I’m mad.”

“My mate died.” Kurt gritted out the worst three words he’d ever uttered aloud.

“What?” Colt asked, his tone shocked.

“I ain’t lookin’ for pity, but you think I don’t understand what it was like, that fear? You think I don’t understand what it was like in those minutes you were racing back to the ranch, hoping the girls were still fighting? Ava’s Turned. Karis is scarred. My Laney—” Kurt’s voice broke on her name. He cleared his throat, once, twice, and then willed his voice to be steady. “My Laney wasn’t so lucky. I didn’t get to her in time. You can’t be harder on me than I’m being on me, Trig. You think I wanted them scarred and Turned? No. You’re my friends. I came back, putting me and my boy at risk because I got sent a video of the burning bear. Of the death oath. Don’t question my loyalty, Hairpin. I got a letter and thought I was helping by leaving…that’s all.”

“How did she die?” Colt asked.

“Laney wasn’t a mountain lion shifter. She was a bear, and our pairing wasn’t accepted by the Clan I was in. So I tried to take the Clan and force her acceptance. I put her and Gunner at risk going for that Alpha rank, and now she’s…” He swallowed hard. “She ain’t with us anymore.”

“Fuck, man,” Trig whispered so soft Kurt barely heard it. “I didn’t know.”

“No one does. It’s not something I sing from the rooftops. And like I told you, I ain’t lookin’ for pity. If you give it, I’ll hit you both in the dicks with a baseball bat. I’m just telling you…I know that fear. And…well…I’m sorry. Sorry I left like I did. I haven’t had the balls to face the girls yet, but I wanted you to know I’m sorry.”

Genie was coming his way, and she looked like she was going to latch on again. Good God. Kurt stared down at his pant leg, now embraced by one emotional, or rabid, little squirrel.

“Genie, what the fuck are you doing?” Colt asked, staring at his little pet like she’d lost her mind, which clearly, she had.

She didn’t respond other than to nuzzle her face against Kurt’s shin.

“She’s been basically dead for two weeks, and now she’s a hugger?” Colt asked. “She ain’t even biting you! Trig! Are you seeing this? She’s got some kinda disease or something.”

Trig bent down at Kurt’s leg and slowly reached out. “Oh my God, maybe she is finally trained to be a nice squir—”

Genie bit him.

Trigger flinched back and held up his bleeding finger. “Mother fucker,” he whispered, staring at the red drop that welled up on his index. “I was wrong. She’s still a demon.”

Colt slapped his leg and laughed, Genie held on tighter to Kurt’s pantleg, and everything was weird.

“Right,” Kurt muttered. “Well, I’m gonna go say my apologies to the girls, and then we have a flock of crows to murder.”

As he walked away, Colt called out, “It’s funny you say that because a flock of crows is also called a ‘murder.’ I Googled it.”

Kurt glanced down at the little critter who wasn’t letting go of his leg to hide a private smile.

God, he’d missed this place.