Horizon Ridge insuring body parts isn't just for celebrities

With Eirlys, it had taken some time to recognize one another. After that, it was obvious. Mallaidh missed her family over the months of being gone and having her world shaken by the news sent her crumbling. Finding Ceallach had been a struggle, some work to get him to know that it’s her but after that they were family again. Even with Reed, they’d tentatively call one another family and maybe, one day, sisters. Mallaidh had no pack or location to her name when they’d met and they wouldn’t know where to find her. Blixen’s blessing makes it a bit easier. 

But Roarke? His silence answers most of her questions. He isn’t the same boy she’d tasseled and fought with. A rivalry meant for great things in the eyes of Teaghlaigh is lost. 

What is she supposed to say to someone that was once her brother, and not anymore? 

“Did you try to come home?” she asks after a long moment, not knowing what to ask. How much is his fault? As a child, not very much, but he’d gotten bigger. He’d been so close, once. He could have come home then. Lotte might not be dead and their father might not have died with her. Teaghlaigh would still be standing and everything would be... right. They could’ve had a relationship with their younger siblings instead of strewn about the whole world, lost from one another. 

A thick lump develops in her throat and she grinds her teeth together, trying to swallow the stray emotion building there.