“From external threats. I get that.” She takes a step closer, and my wolf practically purrs at the decreased distance. “But what about internal ones? What about the manipulation that’s been happening right under your nose?”
Her eyes drop to my mouth again—deliberate this time, no pretense of accident. When she looks back up, her pupils are wider. Her lips part slightly, breath coming faster.
She can smell my desire just like I can smell hers.
“The restraints,” I manage.
She extends her hands without breaking eye contact. The titanium cables fall away with a soft click, but she doesn’t move. Doesn’t step back. Just watches me with those impossibly violet eyes like she’s waiting for something.
Gold flecks catch the cell’s harsh lighting, making her irises shimmer like gemstones. Her lips part slightly as she breathes, full and dark against pale skin. There—a thin white scar cutting through her left temple, mostly hidden by the fall of her hair. My fingers twitch with the urge to trace it, to find out what put that mark there.
The hunger in her gaze mirrors what’s clawing through my chest.
I should leave. Lock the cell. Put distance between us until I can think clearly again.
Instead, I step closer.
“Someone’s manipulating my pack,” I say quietly.
“Someone’s manipulating your pack,” she agrees.
The stone in her pocket pulses brighter, casting purple shadows across the concrete walls. Someone’s been playing games with my pack, pushing them toward a fracture that could destroy everything I’ve built.
But right now, all I can think about is the way she’s looking at me. Like she knows exactly what kind of effect she’s having, and she’s been waiting for me to admit it.
“This—“ I gesture vaguely at the charged air between us. ”—doesn’t change anything.”
“Doesn’t it?”
Before I can answer, she reaches up and traces one finger along my jaw. The touch is light, barely there, but it sends electricity straight through my nervous system.
My hand moves without conscious thought, catching her wrist. Not to stop her—to hold her there, to keep her touching me.
Her pulse jumps under my thumb. Fast. Irregular. She’s not as unaffected as she pretends.
“You should be afraid of me,” I say.
“Should I?” Her voice is barely a whisper. “Or should you be afraid of what happens when you stop fighting this?”
Silence stretches between us. Her eyes drop to my mouth. Stay there. Neither of us moves.
The stone pulses again, brighter now, and reality crashes back.
Someone’s been manipulating my pack.
I release her wrist and step back, putting the cell bars between us before I do something irreversible.
“Get some rest,” I say, my voice more abrasive than I’d like. “Tomorrow morning, we figure out who’s been pushing my pack toward destruction.”
She nods, but her eyes stay locked on mine. “And if you don’t like the answers?”
“Then we deal with the truth anyway.”
Dangerous territory for an Alpha who’s built his life on keeping everyone at arm’s length.
But as I walk away, leaving her in that cell with purple light pulsing through the darkness, I can’t shake the feeling that she’s not the real threat here.
The real threat is what happens when I have to choose between protecting my pack from manipulation and protecting myself from her.
