Cress ran her hands through her short hair. Even though it had been over a year since Thorne had first cut it, she still had trouble believing how light she felt, how free. Free in so many ways. The past months on the Rampion had introduced her to dozens of places in the American Republic as the crew delivered the letumosis antidote. She had seen mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans. Thorne had worried that she would think the Rampion just as much of a prison as her satellite had been, but it wasn't. Being on the Rampion led her to these places, and with Wolf and Scarlet and Thorne she didn't feel caged even when quarters were tight.

And quarters were tight. But not because of the ship's size. No, they were tight because Thorne seemed to take up so much space even as he tried to give her as much space as possible. Cress sighed, tugging at her hair, wishing she could wind it around her wrists like she used to. Thorne had said he was going to become the man that he deserved.

"But I love the man you are now," she whispered to the wall of her bunk bed. He had thrown himself into the work of bringing the antidote to people in the American Republic, and he had just paid off the ship, but he still treated her like something fragile and precious, something he was not allowed to touch. That day on Luna when he had lain next to her, had kissed her—that had been the last time she had felt how much he wanted her, loved her. She shook her head at herself; she still knew he loved her. Each time she looked up from a task to find his eyes on her, she saw it. But knowing that he loved her in her head and feeling it with her whole being were two very different things.

A knock sounded on the door to her quarters.

"Yes?"

"Cress?" Scarlet's voice was faint behind the thick metal door. "Can I come in?"

Cress sat up, brushed away a tear that she refused to think about, and ran her hands through her hair to make it neater. "Yes—it's not locked."

Scarlet pulled the door open and looked at Cress with concern in her warm, brown eyes. "Hey," she said as she closed the door, "Are you OK? Dinner's just about to start, and I hadn't seen you in a while."

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," Cress stumbled over the words as she rushed to get them out. "I just, I was, um, napping."

Scarlet lifted one eyebrow and gestured to the empty space next to Cress on the bunk. Cress nodded, and Scarlet sat down.

"I know you're a brilliant hacker, but that was a pretty terrible lie."

Cress twisted her hands around each other, not wanting to look over at Scarlet. "It's…it's, well, it's personal." She had known Scarlet for the least amount of time of the crew, and even though they had flown all over an entire hemisphere of the Earth together, Cress still was a little in awe of her. She was confident, brave, arrestingly beautiful, everything Cress felt she wasn't.

"Hey," Scarlet said, putting a hand on Cress' arm, stilling her hands' restless movements, "I get it if you don't want to talk, but you seem unhappy lately. And I don't like having an unhappy member of the…pack." Her lips quirked up at this. Cress gave a weak chuckle. Then, as she thought about herself as a wolf, she laughed.

"If I'm a pack member, what am I, an omega?" Her laughter died. She would be the weakling, the one who kept the pack back. Scarlet squeezed her arm.

"Definitely not. You may not be as big as the rest of us, but you're smart, and wolf packs need smarts. And we don't yell at or pick on you. That's what Thorne is for." Now Cress did laugh.

"Poor Captain. He'd hate to hear that." But again her amusement faded away as quickly as it had come. She sniffed as tears threatened to spill over.

"Cress…I don't want to pry, but you're unhappy about Thorne, right?" Cress nodded, not trusting her voice to be steady.

"You do know he's crazy about you? I'm pretty sure even Darla has that figured out by now, and she's one of the less intelligent androids I've met."

Cress nodded again and took a deep breath. "I know it, but I'm just so confused—if he's crazy about me, then why not show it to me?" Cress took a shuddering breath, and Scarlet moved her arm to drape around Cress' shoulder in a loose hug. "I just, I just don't know what to do. I know I was mad at everyone for thinking I'm naive, but you were right. Watching net dramas doesn't really teach you much about real people or what to do when, when…"

"When it's more complicated than 'happily ever after'?"

Cress gulped and nodded. "Exactly."

Scarlet looked thoughtful. "I'm not a relationship expert, or if I am, it's only when it comes to being with a human-wolf hybrid. But I think you should ask him why he's keeping his distance." When Cress didn't say anything, Scarlet plunged on, speaking quickly. "You see, after we defeated Levana, Wolf—Ze'ev—he thought I might not want to be with him anymore after what she did to him. If we hadn't talked about it, who knows what would have happened?"

Cress shook her head. "But Scarlet, you're brave. I only made it through all of that by pretending to be someone else, by imagining myself playing a role. I can't play a role with the Captain."

Scarlet was gentle as she took Cress' shoulders and turned her so that they were facing each other. "Cress, I may not know you as well as I'd like, but I do know that you're brave. When you contacted Cinder to tell her about Levana's plot, when you hid the Rampion from radar even though you knew you could be killed for it, when you broke into the Lunar control center and broadcast that video, you were brave, and you were also you."

Cress managed a smile. "I was a little bit heroic with that last one."

"A little?" Scarlet scoffed. "A lot. I couldn't have done what you did that day—hack Luna's broadcast system, figure out how to break the security codes, and all while people were coming for you. We would have failed without you."

"We would have failed without you, without a lot of people."

Scarlet smiled. "Isn't that how a pack works—together?" Cress returned the smile. "You're part of the pack, Cress, and I'll be here for you whether you talk to Thorne or not, but I think you should, and soon. I don't think he's any happier about things than you are."

Cress tried to remember that she could be heroic, that she could be brave, but the thought of leaving her quarters to go face him at that moment was too much. "Scarlet?" She reached out and squeezed her left hand, the one missing part of the pinkie finger. "I'll try to be brave, but right now I think I need to figure out what I want to say."

Scarlet nodded. "I'll bring you some food. I can also make some vague excuse for you that will keep the guys from asking any questions."

"Thanks," Cress said as Scarlet started to close the door. After it shut, she looked down at her hands. "I am brave," she whispered, hoping that saying the words aloud would make it true.