Five days before Kukunniwi…

She’d been crying. Knight could see that as soon as she walked into the small Department of Wichita Children Services reception area, just a few seconds after he came through the door.

She’d come out to meet him, making it unnecessary for him to find her in the back office’s cubicle maze. For some reason DWCS still hadn’t added her picture to their department website, even though she’d been working with them full time for over a month now.

But here she was, her beautiful brown eyes tinged with red, and her usual smile tight with misery. The opposite of her usual smile.

Of course, his sappy wolf immediately started in on him: Kiss her. Apologize! Make promises. Say you’ll stay in Kansas. Ask her to move in with you. Anything. Anything she wants. Just make her smile again for real. Please!

“Hi,” Knight said, ignoring all the crazy shit his wolf was talking.

Her eyes searched his face. Probably looking for some sign, any, that he was human. Or that he regretted what happened on Friday night.

He was human—at least partly. And he did regret what happened on Friday night. More than she could ever know.

But this was precisely why he didn’t do relationships. Because the red anger eventually destroyed everything he touched. She’d found that out the hard way.

Now she knew, and he couldn’t let her unknow for fear of what he might do. Or try to do. With a human who’d already told him she wanted kids.

He kept his face hard. Giving her nothing to work with. Nothing at all.

Finally, she gave up and pasted on a patently fake smile as she said, “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I know.”

“This is where I work and I…” she trailed off, her lips tightening as her eyes slowly drifted back to his, blazing with anger. “I refuse to engage in any drama here.”

“I’m not trying to bring any drama,” he promised.

“Then may I ask why you are here?” For all her High Media training, it was clear she had to work to keep her voice level.

“For the kid…Jandro.”

She blinked. Obviously, that hadn’t been the answer she’d been expecting.

But it was true. If it were up to him, she’d never have to see his stupid face again, and he’d never torture his wolf by forcing it to see hers. But there were things that were more important than his pride. Like the welfare of a deaf cub who’d be stuck taking meth for the rest of his brief life if somebody didn’t step up and do the right thing.

To that end, he held out an old-fashioned manila folder. “I’ve got somebody who wants to foster-to-adopt the kid, and I need to talk to a social worker who knows ASL. So if there’s someone else here besides you, send them my way. If not—”

She snatched the folder out of his hand before he could even finish the sentence. Opened it, flipped to the first page, then immediately looked back up at him. “Qim Wulfkonig? Qim Wulfkonig, the deaf billionaire?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Qim Wulfkonig, the deaf billionaire, wants to adopt Jandro, no questions asked?”

“Yeah, I told him and his dad about Jandro—”

“Wait,” she said holding up her hand. “You know Qim and Grady Wulfkonig???”

Incredulity riddled her tone. He guessed she’d figured thug doctors serving out their residency in Kansas, and deaf billionaire businessmen from Oklahoma didn’t usually hang out in the same circles.

“Yeah, I know him,” he answered. “Qim’s my cousin. And Grady’s my uncle by marriage. He married my Aunt Tu.”

“Tu? Wait. Your aunt is Tu Ataneq???”

“Can we just cut through all the disbelief bullshit and accept I know all these people or I wouldn’t be here discussing them with you?”

She searched his face again, this time seeming to rewrite everything she thought she knew about him. And Knud could just guess what she was considering…

An ex-Marine with anger issues living in a shitty apartment was one thing.

But the nephew of one of the richest families in the human and wolf worlds living like a PTSD case in a shitty apartment was another. He could practically hear her thinking, “and he called me a wackjob…!”

He tried not to care. What she thought of him didn’t matter. Only Jandro mattered.

She opened her mouth and he braced himself to tell her just that. Screw whatever assumptions she’d made about him anyway.

But instead of commenting on his background, she asked, “Why does Qim Wulfkonig want to adopt Jandro? He’s 25 and single. Is this some kind of Daddy Warbucks-scheme? Is he trying to use him for publicity? Because if that’s the case…”

Two things struck him right then. 1 – L-heart was clearly primed to find the Orphan Annie story 99.9% less charming than the rest of the universe; and 2 - She was fucking amazing. Most people would have jumped at the offer to rehome a difficult-to-place foster kid. In fact, he was almost positive just about every social worker in this building would have happily thrown Jandro at the world’s richest deaf man, no questions asked.

But L-heart’s first and only thought was about Jandro’s welfare.

Regret filled his heart for the future she’d almost certainly have with another man. A human man who’d be able to give her things he couldn’t…like emotional stability and kids.

“No, it’s nothing like that,” he replied, trying hard to ignore the wolf whimpering in his chest. “He is young, yes, but he’s a guy who knows what he wants. And that has always included a family. It’s true he doesn’t live in Kansas, but in spite of that, I think he’d be a really good match for Jandro.”

She continued to squint down suspiciously at the paperwork. “You talked to Jandro for all of ten minutes and now you think you’ve found the perfect parent for him?”

Shit. He’d forgotten she had no idea that the wolf cub she’d brought to his apartment all those weeks ago was actually a shifter. As far as she was concerned, she’d found an abused and injured dog, one he’d taken to a nearby no-kill shelter the next day. End of story.

“Ok, listen,” he said. “Qim will actually be in Kansas all this week. I was going to go with the WCH social worker to visit him on Friday. But she told me you had to agree to sign me off as the official interpreter for Jandro’s paperwork…or something like that. Real talk, I’m terrible with all this red tape shit. Bottom line, this form…?” He took the folder back from her and shuffled through the paperwork he’d printed out until he found the form he was looking for, then handed it back to her on top of the folder. “All you have to do is sign it and—”

“Why is an Oklahoma billionaire here in Kansas for the week?”

“Wow, I really did not miss your constant interruptions,” he said.

A wounded look flashed across her face.

And dammit, he had to resist the urge to apologize yet again. Because while he might not have missed all her interruptions, he definitely missed kissing her into silence.

They’d only spent a weekend apart. And he knew ending things before it got too serious was the best outcome for them both.

But tell his fucking wolf that. Or his dick.

His miserable wolf wouldn’t let him go to the club to hunt down another woman. Only her, only her, it said. But even though Friday had been proof of all the reasons he couldn’t have her, he hadn’t been able to fall asleep without jerking off to images of her beneath him, accepting his claim. And when he finally did fall asleep, it still hadn’t been enough.

The nightmares were back. The kid standing over his father’s body, looking at him in shock. Before crumpling to the ground in a small, untidy heap.

Fuck, fuck, fuck…

“Dr. Knight? Dr. Knight?” someone was saying in the distance.

He blinked. And there she was again. Cutting through the bad memories with a worried look hovering just above her fake smile.

“You know my name now?” His fake name, but still…

“Yes, it’s on this form you would like me to sign,” she answered. “Please enlighten me. Why is Qim Wulfkonig here this week and this week only?”

“His family runs a summer camp program in the Kukunniwi Woods. It goes mid-June through August. Qim and his Dad do this father-son trip every year to make repairs and prep the camp for the coming season. Look, can you just sign the paperwork…?”

She closed the folder. “Jandro’s a good kid who only recently lost his mother. He’s going to need a lot of guidance, therapy, and understanding. I want to make sure he gets all of that. The deaf are already underserved in this system, especially the ones without bioware. I fear Ms. Olcan may have a difficult time making a fair and balanced decision about this if she has to depend on you, Mr. Wulfkonig’s cousin, to translate. That’s why I won’t sign off on this paperwork.”

He snatched the folder back, unable to believe Jandro wouldn’t even have the chance to meet Qim because of this one bureaucratic obstacle.

“Are you doing this because of what happened Friday?”

She wheeled back as if he’d slapped her. “No! I am only looking out for Jandro’s welfare! If you truly knew me, you’d know I would never let my personal feelings get in the way of doing my job to the best of my ability.”

But he didn’t know her, did he? Not really.

“I get it. You’re just going to leave him in that home without even giving my cousin a chance.” He was furious and couldn’t believe she would pull this bullshit on him.

“No, Dr. Knight, of course I would not do that to Jandro,” she answered, rubbing one temple as if he was giving her headache. “I won’t sign off on you as the interpreter, but…” she took a deep breath, “I will agree to do the assessment myself if Ms. Olcan agrees to let me take her place.”