Ashleigh was silent. The world around her had gone still.
Fiona stared at her, waiting for a response.
“How… what…” Ashleigh couldn’t even form a sentence.
Fiona sat back down on the stool beside Ashleigh.
“So, it’s true then,” Fiona sighed.
Ashleigh swallowed. She had unintentionally confirmed what Fiona had only suspected.
“Obviously, I don’t know what actually happened,” Fiona said. “But I have known your father for almost thirty years. He and Cain were closer than anyone realizes. They may not have agreed on how to run a pack or what level of interaction we should have with humans. But they were friends.”
Fiona smiled sadly.
“After Cain died, I was stuck in the hospital for a long time. I had been inside a battle simulation when the mate bond was severed. With the suppressants he had taken, I didn’t feel how he died, or whether it was fast or slow. Only… that he was gone. A sudden intense stabbing in my heart and an emptiness that left me breathless.”
