“You feel like Aaron, I guess.”
This was beyond mind-bending. He couldn’t seem to respond except to blink and shake his head. Again.
Still standing just inside the room, Malachi said, “Are you withholding focus?”
“No.” Of course he wasn’t. Was he?
Just to be sure he stared at Ember, really stared at her, daring her brain to register the threat in front of her. She didn’t flinch. After a minute, he had to give up. True he hadn’t acclimated many humans, but he’d never heard of a situation like this. Ember must be one bold woman, except that didn’t explain it either given Quinn’s brief effect.
“Ember,” Malachi said after a brief quiet settled over the room. “I’m willing to grant your request.”
Wide eyes, a hitch in her breathing, and a scent-burst of surprise. “Thank you.”
“On the condition that you acclimate to me as well.”
“Why, if I won’t be staying with you?”
His low growl filled the room, not reproving her for the question but rather asserting what he was. “Among my pack, in my home or theirs, I do not shield.”
Slowly she nodded. “Alpha’s prerogative.”
“Correct.”
Ember shrugged. “Okay, go on then.”
“One second,” Aaron said. He got to his feet and crossed to Quinn, set one hand on his shoulder. “Pup, I want you to go outside.”
“I know she’ll be scared. I’m ready.”
No, he wasn’t. Most humans weren’t capable of acclimating to Malachi. The terror caused by his full gaze was too intense. Aaron swallowed, his mouth sour at the memory of Jeremy’s mate Lucy coming to meet the pack, acclimating to each, lastly to Mal… Even-keeled Lucy had sobbed and panicked for a full minute. “Go on, Quinn.”
The pup’s face crinkled, and his scent grew thick with rejection. He tucked his chin and nodded. For once Ember didn’t intervene, instead let her nephew head toward the back deck and step outside.
“Okay,” Ember said when the door shut behind him.
“Hold on,” Aaron said. “Let him get farther from the house.”
He and Malachi waited for the fading of Quinn’s footsteps, the fading of his scent into the woods. Then their eyes met, and Aaron nodded. Malachi had let him make the call as Quinn’s guardian, and gratitude swelled in him for that. He knew the pup as no other wolf did, not yet anyway.
“Far enough,” Aaron said.
“Good,” Ember said.
Then she looked squarely at Malachi. Maintaining his position at the edge of the room, Malachi looked back. A second later Ember screamed.
Ember’s entire body froze like a rabbit under a hawk’s diving shadow. Her hind brain screamed something more primal than words. A beast with golden eyes had her in his sights, and she was a trespasser, prey, a dainty bite to eat. She would die. Right now. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Heard herself scream aloud. Felt the rawness of it in her throat. Heard the echo of it in her head for…a long time.
Then a breath filled her lungs, and the rest of her brain regained control. Not a beast, a man. A ginger-blond man standing at the edge of the room. The alpha of Quinn’s pack. Ember flexed her hands. Her fingers tingled all the way up her arms. She trembled where she sat.… Sat? Yes. On the floor. In the corner. Knees drawn up to her chest.
Aaron knelt across from her, close but not crowding. He held his stomach and looked to be in pain. Was he really so kind, to hurt on her behalf? She shifted to hands and knees and crawled over to him.
“Hey,” she said. “I guess I was out of it for a while?”
“For a full minute at least,” he said.
“Well, no worries. Look, I got through it.”
Aaron nodded, and his hand lowered to his side. He looked ten times worse than she felt.
