The Thornveil name was the oldest pack name in the Northern Reach, and the Winter Solstice gathering was when the family convened, without exceptions. Kael couldn't avoid it. Without me going, I'd spend the holiday alone.
"I'll go with you," I said. "Where you are, is where I am."
He didn't respond, just exhaled smoke into the cold air and watched it disappear. I stood in the doorway listening to the snow fall and told myself I'd made the right call.
But I didn't know it then.
The drive on Solstice Eve took most of the afternoon. He worked through the morning and we left when the light was already fading, the city giving way to forest roads and then, eventually, the long stone wall that marked the Thornveil estate boundary.
I had been here once, as a child, so long ago the memory had
