Silverback Lane came into view at long last, and I blinked away the tumble of snippets Dell had shared with me. Vision cleared, I found myself standing in front of an ancient cabin covered with moss. The structure sagged and leaned to one side, but the path was well tended and the scent of baking bread made my mouth water.

“You shouldn’t be here. The alpha has ordered everyone indoors until Cord is apprehended.”

I whirled toward the creaking voice, the sound like unoiled hinges protesting, and found myself squaring off with a woman who might have topped four feet on a good day. This was not a good day. She appeared shrunken over the shaft of her walking stick, her skin layered in heavy wrinkles, her eyes all but lost to the folds of tanned skin.

“I had to get Dell home.” Behind her, Isaac and Aunt Dot waited for my cue. “She’s not well.” I tracked the short woman’s progress as she circled me. “Is this it? Are you Meemaw?”

“Who else would I be?” She fluffed her wire-hard gray hair. “Don’t you see the family resemblance?”

“Yes,” I lied with a straight face. “I do.”

“Poor child is a fool.” She squinted up at me. “I see why she enjoys keeping your company. You’ve a like temperament.” She jabbed me with a wizened finger. “Cord has lost his mind, girl. Were I you, I wouldn’t want to be in these woods when he catches your scent.”

My pulse stuttered. “Where is he?”

“I haven’t seen him since the bonfire last night. Bessemer reached into his head and—” she mimed snapping a stick, “—broke him. He’s not himself. He’s not a man at all. He’s all wolf.” The layers of cloth in her skirt rustled when she stepped forward. “Haden had just brought his mother to visit me when the bond recoiled. He hit my floor convulsing and screaming the name Ellis.”

Haden. I skimmed the surface of my memory for why his name sounded familiar. Of course. He was one of Graeson’s six. I’d met him at the bait shop turned base camp. He was the warg who’d griped when I claimed a bucket of fried chicken for Dell.

Meemaw’s account of Haden’s collapse mirrored Thierry’s version of Dell’s reaction to the bond severing.

“The woman with Dell when she collapsed said she cried out for me too.” I rubbed my arms. “She doesn’t call me Ellis. Only one person does.”