She waits a beat. “You don’t get to walk in here and start issuing orders.”
“I do when it concerns your safety.”
“My safety?” She gives a short, humorless laugh. “You think I’m just going to take that at face value?”
“I don’t care what you take it as,” I reply. “You’re leaving.”
She shakes her head once. “No.”
The word lands clean and steady.
I take a slow step forward. “Dr. Ellis?—”
“No.” Her voice stays level. “You don’t get to command me out of my own investigation because it makes you uncomfortable.”
Uncomfortable. That’s one word for it.
My gaze drops briefly to her shoulder. The fabric is torn clean through, blood darkening the cotton beneath. The rogue hurt her. My wolf does not like that.
She notices the shift in my focus. “It’s superficial.”
“That wasn’t the point.”
“Then what is the point?”
That you were seconds from being claimed or killed. Instead, I say, “The point is you don’t know what you’re getting into.”
She watches me carefully. “You knew it was coming.”
Silence.
“That wasn’t random,” she continues. “Those cameras were destroyed in sequence. The animal went straight for them. Then straight for the cabin.”
I hold her gaze but don’t confirm anything.
“You keep doing that,” she says quietly. “Ignoring direct questions.”
“Because you don’t need the answers.”
“That’s not how this works.”
“It is now.”
The wolf in my chest paces, irritated by the distance between us and furious at the risk she represents. Ciaran’s voice slides back into memory, unwelcome and persistent.
Claim her before the council finds out.
Secure the bond.
End the vulnerability.
I force my breathing steady.
She studies my face like she’s cataloging data. “You’re not even going to try to deny what happened.”
“You misinterpreted it.”
Her expression flattens. “I watched a wolf turn into you.”
