Brian frowned and glanced around at the dense woods. “I’m not supposed to leave you alone out here.”
I made sure he could see me roll my eyes. “I’m an enforcer now. Besides, we’re in the middle of the South-Central Territory, less than a mile from the ranch. I’ll be fine.”
He glanced in the direction of the main house. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll catch up with you before you even get back. I just need a few minutes. Please.”
“Okay. But hurry.” He took one last look at me, then walked off through the woods. When his footsteps finally faded from earshot, I exhaled and leaned against a tree, staring up at the moon between its bare branches.
Why did I find every conversation about my impending marriageutterlyexhausting?
A twig snapped in the dark and I jerked upright, instantly on alert. I scanned the woods to my left and right, suddenly wishing I’d taken the time to shift my eyes. But then I inhaled to survey the ambient scents, and…
“How long have you been there?” I demanded in a whisper I knew damn well he could hear.
Jace stepped out of the shadows, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, his arms relaxed, as if he were on a casual midnight stroll. Through the deep woods, exactly where he’d sent me on “patrol” with Brian. “Long enough.”
Shit. He’d heard everything Brian had said about him. “It isn’t nice to eavesdrop.”
Jace took a silent step toward me, and the gravity of his gaze belied his casual posture. “‘Nice’ isn’t in an Alpha’s job description.”
“Brian just bared his soul, and he had no idea you could hear him.”
“I gave him every opportunity to notice me.” He took another step forward, his intense focus pinning me where I stood. Was that anger in the line of his jaw or…something else?
My heart hammered so hard, I was sure he could hear it. “Don’t blame him. I didn’t notice you either.”
“You’ve been on the job for all of twenty minutes. Brian’s been an enforcer for nearly five years. He should have noticed. And he shouldneverhave left you out here alone. Patrolalwaysworks in pairs.”
“He was a little distracted.” And now so was I. Jace was three feet away, and I could see every cerulean striation in his irises. Even in the dark.
“An enforcer can’t afford to be distracted.”
Was he still talking about Brian? Or was this about me now? “It wasn’t his fault. I was…”
“Giving him false hope.” He stepped closer, and I caught my breath. Something was different. His pulse was steady, but each beat of his heart sounded harsh and tight, as if the muscle was working harder than usual.
“No I… It might have been hope, but it wasn’t false,” I insisted.
“You’re lying.”
I’d heard his heart beat like that many times before, right before he pounced on prey. Yet he no longer looked angry enough to pounce on me. Maybe hungry enough, though.
That was it. Jace lookedhungry. And not for food.
My heart jumped up into my throat. I’d seen glimpses of that craving in him before. When he’d seen the carnage I’d unleashed in the hunters’ cabin. When he’d seen the short cut of my skirt. But both of those times, professionalism and willpower had overruled any inappropriate appetite.
Now that hunger seemed to have been unleashed somehow, and I couldn’t decide how to react. Surely,anythingwas better than the icy gaze he’d turned on me after the council meeting.
I was suddenly hyperaware that my idle hands wanted…something. “I’m going to marry him, Jace.”
“Yes. You are.” He stepped closer, and my pulse tripped, not in panic—I wasn’t afraid of him—but with nerves. This wasn’t the big-brother-Jace who called me kiddo and told me to wear a longer skirt. This was a pensive, intense Alpha I’d only seen glimpses of before. This was a predator closing in on his prey, and I couldn’t tell whether he intended to devour me or simply play with his food.
“‘Knuckle-dragging cavewoman.’” Jace chuckled, and each rich note resonated low in my stomach, then burned even lower. He took another step forward and we were a foot apart. “You’re going to eat that poor kid alive. If he hasn’t figured that out yet, he has my sympathy.”
“Does he?” I wasn’t sure how else to respond to the rapacious shine in his eyes or the way each movement he made suddenly felt tightly controlled, as if he were one overstressed thread of willpower away from reaching for me.
What would happen if that thread snapped?
