“Hi!” She beamed at us with a smile that was way too bright and way too enthusiastic for the absolute shit day I was having.
“Hello?” Noah said slowly, his tone conveying the same confusion I felt.
The woman was pretty in an obvious sort of way. Dark hair carefully styled in loose waves. Blue eyes that sparkled with excitement. Designer clothes that screamed money and status. She looked like she’d walked out of a magazine cover and into my hallway without any warning.
I had no fucking idea who she was.
Noah and I exchanged looks, the kind of silent communication that came from years of being brothers and dealing with weird situations together. I raised my eyebrows slightly. Do you know her? His answering frown said everything I needed to know. No fucking idea who she is either.
Huh.
“I’ve been so excited to come here,” the woman continued, apparently oblivious to our confusion or choosing to ignore it entirely. “All these years I kept wondering how you boys would grow up! And look at you now. Very handsome men, I have to say.” She winked at me in a way that made my wolf snarl internally.
I didn’t have time for this bullshit. “Who are you?”
Her face fell slightly, disappointment flickering across her features before she smoothed it away with practiced ease. “Oh. You don’t remember me?” She pressed a hand to her chest, wounded. “I’m Isabella. Isabella Crane. We were friends when we were children. Best friends, actually. Don’t you remember?”
Oh.
The Cranes. Mother had mentioned they were arriving today. Some childhood friend I apparently had absolutely no memory of whatsoever. I searched my brain for any recollection of a dark-haired girl named Isabella and came up completely empty.
“Sorry, I don’t remember,” I said flatly, not bothering to soften the words. I didn’t have the energy for politeness right now. “Mother mentioned you were arriving soon, though. With your parents. Are you here alone?”
“No, they’re with yours in the main house. They’ve been catching up for hours, talking about old times and pack politics and all that boring adult stuff.” Her eyes roamed over me slowly, deliberately, taking in every inch in a way that made my skin crawl. “I came here to look for you.” She paused, her gaze flickering to Noah almost as an afterthought. “And your brother, of course. I was supposed to tell you dinner is ready!”
Before I could react or step back or do anything to prevent it, she grabbed my arm and started pulling me down the hallway toward the main house. Her grip was surprisingly strong for someone who looked half my size, and her mouth was moving a mile a minute.
“Do you remember when we used to play hide and seek in the woods? You were always so good at finding me, no matter where I hid. I used to think you had some kind of magic power. And that time we climbed the old oak tree near the river and you had to carry me down because I was too scared to climb back? I cried for an hour afterward and you gave me your dessert to make me feel better. Oh, and the summer we spent by the lake! You taughtme how to skip rocks. I still think about that sometimes, you know. Those were such happy memories.”
I looked back at Noah with an expression that I hoped conveyed the full depth of my what the fuck is happening right now confusion and alarm.
Noah shrugged, his face showing the same bewildered what the hell that I was feeling.
I tried to pull my arm free from Isabella’s grip but she just adjusted her hold and kept talking, apparently interpreting my resistance as some kind of playful game rather than a genuine attempt to get the fuck away from her.
“I’ve been following your career as alpha from afar,” she continued. “Everyone talks about the changes you’ve made to Ravenshollow. The restructuring of the border patrol. The new training programs. Opening the pack to human visitors. My father says you’re one of the most innovative alphas of our generation.”
“Yeah,” I said, finally managing to yank my arm free. I took a deliberate step to the left, putting space between us.
Isabella closed the gap immediately, moving closer until her shoulder almost brushed mine. “And the way you handled that whole situation with the Thornes last year. So decisive. So strong. A lesser alpha would have crumbled under that kind of pressure, but you handled it beautifully.”
“Great.”
Another step. Another follow. She was tracking my movements with the precision of a hunter, matching every attempt to create distance with a corresponding move closer.
My wolf was going absolutely insane inside my head. Every instinct screamed at me to put serious distance between us, to make it clear that this kind of proximity was not welcome and never would be. She wasn’t my mate. She wasn’t pack. She had no business touching me, grabbing me, standing this close, looking at me with those hungry eyes that made it very clear what she was hoping to get out of this reunion.
I belonged to Lina. Every cell in my body, every beat of my heart, every thought in my head belonged to my mate. This woman’s presence felt wrong on a fundamental level that had nothing to do with manners or social niceties and everything to do with the bond that tied me to someone else entirely.
“The integration of humans into pack life is particularly impressive,” Isabella was saying, apparently unaware or uncaring of my discomfort. “My pack would never consider something so bold. My father thinks it’s risky, but I told him that’s what makes it brilliant. You’re not afraid to take chances.”
“Mhm.”
I tried another step away. She followed like we were dancing some kind of fucked up waltz that only she knew the steps to.
For fuck’s sake.
I was about to snap. About to let my wolf take over and make it very fucking clear that she needed to back the hell off before Idid something we’d both regret. My patience was hanging by a thread and that thread was fraying fast.
