"I should have." His voice was fierce with regret. "I saw the changes in you over the years, how you withdrew, how you stopped participating in things you used to enjoy. I noticed, but I didn't do anything about it."
I looked down at our joined hands, feeling strangely vulnerable. "Why did you notice me at all? Before the mate bond, I mean."
He was quiet for so long, I thought he might not answer. Then he sighed, his thumb tracing circles on my palm.
"Because you were different," he said finally. "Even as a kid, you had this...intensity. This way of looking at the world, like you were taking everything in, cataloguing it for later. I found it fascinating."
"And yet you let your brothers torment me," I said, unable to keep the bitterness from my voice.
"I know." His shoulders slumped.
