His fury pulsed off him, palpable and hot.
Leni lifted her chin. “I want you to leave now, Knox.”
A wry smile twisted his mouth as he slowly shook his head. “No, you don’t. But you damn well should.”
Another step forward and there was no room between them. Nowhere to run. No space to mask the rapid tempo of her breathing or the heavy thud of her heart beating in her breast.
When she thought he might reach out to her face, instead his hand stayed low, moving aside the torn hem of her shirt. He stared at her Breedmate mark once more, a tendon going tight in the side of his dark, beard-shadowed cheek.
His gaze lifted to hers, those molten irises scorching her all over again. They mesmerized her. Unearthly and terrifying, yet beautiful. Just like the man himself.
No, she corrected, needing to find some distance here, not only from the intensity of his nearness, but from the unsettling heat of the reaction he awakened in her.
That uninvited warmth licked along her limbs and up her nape, while inside her, awareness pooled, sending that same fire into every vein and fiber of her body. It was electric, the energy that ignited so swiftly between them. It was undeniable. Perhaps even for Knox.
As he stared at her, a low curse fell from between his parted lips. Then he backed off, allowing a chill to fill the space he’d just occupied.
“We’ve both made enough mistakes we can’t take back now,” he uttered tersely. “I’m sure as fuck not going to add another one to that list now.”
If he expected her to answer, she couldn’t. Breathing was about all she could manage with the way her heart was galloping against her ribs.
Knox swore again, scrubbing a big hand over the roughened shadows of his jaw. “Lock your doors, Lenora. Stay put.”
He gave her the curt order, then pivoted away from her and started walking toward the back door in the kitchen.
She followed after him, confused. “Wh-where are you going? Knox, what are you going to do?”
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t even bother to turn around before he stalked out of the house and into the howling blizzard outside.
Leni rushed to the door behind him, but he was already gone.
Vanished in that next instant, nothing but darkness and blowing snow in his wake.
CHAPTER 8
Cold wind buffeted him as he took off on foot through the storm.
His boots chewed up the snow-drifted terrain between Leni’s house behind the diner and the vast expanse of wild, open forest that surrounded it. He needed the frigid air to batter him, snap him back to his senses. Flying ice crystals and bracing gusts sandblasted his uncovered head and face as he ran. He relished the needle sting accompanying his every step.
Knox craved every bit of punishment the blizzard could deliver.
Anything to cool the unwanted desire he felt toward the woman he’d left confused and upset behind him.
Twice, he’d almost kissed her tonight. He hadn’t counted that one among his list of mistakes he’d rattled off where she was concerned, but when it came to grenade-level bad moves, getting physically entangled with Leni had to rank right up at the top. Especially now.
Christ, what if he had decided to tap her carotid instead of feeding from the tattooed loser working at the gas station? One sip of Leni’s blood and Knox would be shackled to her for as long as either of them continued to breathe.
A Breedmate, for fuck’s sake.
He snarled at the notion, furious over the fact that she’d wanted to conceal it from him.
Right now, there was a part of him that wished like hell she’d been successful because everything changed when he spotted that mark.
He couldn’t unsee it. Just like he couldn’t deny that as special and rare as Lenora Calhoun seemed to him earlier tonight when he’d assumed she was fully human, that tiny teardrop-and-crescent moon stamp on her belly was irrefutable evidence that she was even more extraordinary than he could have ever guessed. A female to be protected, and cherished, no matter the cost.
It would take a Breed male with a more bankrupt sense of honor than his to pretend those things didn’t matter.
