“Jag…”
“You walked into a den I spent twenty years circling and took down the most protected predator on the planet in one night.You did what governments, vigilantes, and criminals like me couldn’t do.You ended him.Completely.”
He lifts his head, eyes finding mine.The praise settles through him, and his body leans in without permission.His hands travel to my shoulders.Mine mold along his spine.
We hold each other’s gaze.
There’s too much in it.Respect, hunger, things neither of us are ready to say, and gravity that pulls and pulls until resisting takes monumental effort.The air between us ignites, charged with the impulse to close the final inch and claim the moment.
We don’t.
Dove exists in this space with us, and loving her means not crossing lines that would hurt her.Whatever this is between Wolf and me, it will wait.Or it’ll die unfinished.
I drop my forehead to his, a controlled retreat.He exhales, and the urge to kiss him hardens my stomach.He senses it, fights it, and returns to his position against my chest.
“Sometimes I forget how old you are.”He traces a finger through the dusting of hair on my forearm.“You reminded me just now.”
“How so?”
“Commanding as hell.Dangerously confident.Older and knows it.You’re checking a lot of my boxes, kitten.”
“Wolf…” Blood rushes south, and I groan with frustration.“Knock it off.”
“Not until you tone down the dominating daddy energy.”
“I’m not that much older than you.”
“I’m twenty-four, and you’re… Forty?”
“Yeah.”
“Fun fact.You’re ten years older than my oldest brother.That makes you older than everyone in my family except my old man.”He snorts.“And holy shit, it’s working for you.”
“Moving on.”
“You’ve been watching Adrian Crowe for twenty years.”
“You’ve been digging through my encrypted files.”
“How do you think I found you?”
“I know how you found me.”I rest my lips on the top of his head.“And I’m grateful, Wolf.More than you know.”
“How did you know Crowe was behind the murder of your parents?”
That’s a history I can share, considering Mikhail probably already scraped it from my servers.
Pulling in a breath, I say the words I’ve never spoken out loud.“Celeste told me about Crowe before she died.”
My throat dries, but the words keep coming.
“Celeste and my dad were together for six years.Never fought.Not once that I can remember.Until the last few months.”I stare past the cabin window, back into that house.“Dove was eight.She hated the arguments and always hid under the bed when they started.I’d sit with her, make up games, and distract her until it was over.But one night, it went longer than usual.I heard them talking when I went to check on them.I didn’t mean to listen.But I heard Celeste say someone was hunting them.She was scared.My dad was, too.She wanted all four of us to go into witness protection.Change names.Disappear.”
Wolf shifts, listening with his whole body.
“My dad didn’t believe the threat was that bad.He thought they could manage it, thought they had time.Celeste saw me around the corner, and she knew I’d heard.”
“You were sixteen?”
