I would burn the world down before I let anything take her from me.
CHAPTER 12
ISLA
Pale morning light filters through the tower's narrow windows when I wake, but the bed beside me is cold. My hand searches the empty space where Grayson should be, finding only sheets that have long since lost his warmth.
Last night comes back in fragments. The prowler circling the tower. Grayson moving to the window with predatory silence. The long minutes of waiting while he investigated, every second stretching into eternity. When he finally returned, his expression was grim. Whatever had been out there was gone, but the scent remained—supernatural and deliberately obscured. We'd stayed awake for hours, watching the darkness, until exhaustion finally dragged me under sometime before dawn.
Now he's gone, and the pendant rests heavy against my sternum. Something about its weight feels different this morning. More present. More insistent.
I sit up, pulling the sheet around myself, and spot the note on the nightstand. His handwriting is bold and efficient, each letter formed with the same careful control he applies to everything else.
Prowler's scent led to the northern caves. Taking Declan and Rafe to investigate. Should be back by late afternoon. Jax is watching the cottage. Stay here until I return. Please.
The last word carries weight that the rest doesn't. Not a command but a request, and the fact that he felt the need to add it tells me how much he wants me safe while he's gone. But I can't stay in this tower all day wearing nothing but a sheet, and all my clothes are back at the cottage. The ones I arrived in last night are destroyed, scattered in pieces across the floor downstairs where need made us careless.
I find one of Grayson's shirts in a drawer and pull it on. The fabric hangs to mid-thigh, smelling like salt and cedar and him. For a moment I just stand there breathing it in, remembering the feel of his hands on my skin and the way his bear recognized something in me that I'm only beginning to understand.
The pendant flares with sudden heat.
I press my palm against it through the shirt, trying to understand what it's trying to tell me. The ocean beyond the windows is visible through the narrow slits, and something about it steals my breath. The water is completely still. Not the natural calm of a windless morning, but the artificial flatness of something holding its breath. Waiting.
Every instinct I possess screams danger.
I find my shoes—miraculously intact despite last night's frenzy—and head downstairs. My phone shows three missed texts from Grayson, all sent before dawn. The first explains about tracking the prowler, almost apologetic in its brevity. The second updates that the trail led to the northern caves and he's going with Declan and Rafe to investigate. The third is simple:
Stay safe.
I text back:
Need to get clothes from the cottage. Will be quick.
His response comes within seconds:
Wait for me. I'll be back in a few hours.
But a few hours feels like too long when the pendant is burning against my skin and the ocean beyond the cliffs looks like glass. Something is building, and every nerve ending I possess says I need to be prepared when it breaks.
I text Jax instead:
Coming to the cottage for clothes. Can you meet me there?
His reply is immediate:
Already watching it. Come ahead.
The walk from Warden's Tower back to my rental cottage follows the cliff path that winds above the churning water far below. Except this morning the water isn't churning. It's eerily still, reflecting the overcast sky like a mirror, and the wrongness of it crawls up my spine.
Jax is leaning against the stone wall near my cottage gate when I arrive, arms crossed and expression carefully neutral. But his eyes track my approach with predatory focus, and I wonder if he can smell Grayson on me. If he knows exactly what happened in that tower last night.
"Everything quiet?" I ask, suddenly self-conscious in Grayson's oversized shirt and yesterday's shoes.
"Too quiet." His attention moves past me to scan the surrounding area. "Sea's been like that since before dawn. Makes my wolf nervous."
"Makes me nervous too." I fish my keys from my pocket. "I'll just grab some things and head back to the tower."
"Make it fast." Jax's hand moves to rest on something concealed at his hip. "Something's coming. I can feel it."
