I slowly lifted my gaze to Theodore, standing in the doorway, and after a long silence, I said, "I'm going home."
He let out a cold laugh. "Home? What home?"
He stepped inside, looming over me. "I heard your parents died years ago, and your old family den's been falling apart ever since. You've got nowhere to go, Lillian. Don't play these games, acting like you're leaving to make me chase you."
I gripped the edge of my blanket, my knuckles white.
"My binding ceremony with Sophia is coming up," he said, his voice flat. "Stay out of trouble, and the Hawthorne den won't mind keeping an extra mouth to feed."
The word "extra" stabbed into my heart like a knife.
I remembered when Theodore, still my sweet pup, would wrap his arms around me and say, "Wherever Sis is, that's where I'll be. Th
