He was breathing. He was definitely breathing. He couldn’t feel it past the roaring in his ears, the heat flooding his veins, the absolute certainty radiating from the most primal part of his brain.
No. Not possible. Not now. Not her.
He killed the engine and forced himself out of the truck with the controlled movements of a man holding a live grenade. The salt air hit him first—clean and cold. Then the green tangle of the gardens. And beneath that, beneath everything?—
Her.
Magic that called to his wolf, that made every protective instinct he had snap to attention.
FOUR
THEO
Theo approached the porch with the measured stride of an alpha on pack business. Not the desperate lunge his instincts were demanding. He was the Alpha of the Vance Pack. He had control. He had discipline. He had?—
She raised an eyebrow at him. One single, devastating eyebrow.
“Can I help you?”
Her voice was dry. Unimpressed. Not a hint of the deference he usually got when people realized who he was.
Theo stopped at the base of the porch steps, looking up at her. Bad tactical position. He didn’t care.
“What did you do to the wards?”
The eyebrow climbed higher. “I’m sorry, whoareyou?”
“Theo Vance. Alpha of the pack that protects this territory.” The words came out harder than he intended. More growl than speech. “The wards you activated have been dormant for thirty years. Half the town registered that surge. I need to know what you did and how.”
She stared at him for a long moment. Then her mouth curved—not quite a smile, more like the beginning of one that had been intercepted by annoyance.
“I signed a deed.” She uncrossed her arms long enough to wave a hand at the inn behind her. “I didn’t summon anything. The house had… opinions about the transaction.”
“That deed lit up every ley line in Haven Shores.”
“Sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”
Beck made a sound that might have been a strangled laugh, quickly disguised as a cough. Theo ignored him, his focus narrowing to the woman in front of him. To the stubborn set of her jaw. The challenge in her stance. The way she planted herself without flinching, even with an alpha wolf glaring up at her.
“The ward lines need to be checked.” He took the porch steps two at a time, closing the distance between them.Professional. He was being professional.“That kind of surge can cause instabilities. Dangerous ones.”
She tilted her head to look up at him—because he had nearly a foot on her, and at this range that was suddenly, devastatingly apparent.
“By all means.” Her voice was steady, but awareness flickered in her expression. Recognition of the charge building in the air between them. “Check your wards. Don’t let me stop you.”
The ward anchor was behind her. To reach it, he’d have to step past her. Into her space.
Theo moved.
The scent of her crashed over him—closer now, stronger. That honey-and-sea-salt combination that was going to haunt his dreams. He could feel her magic, too, brushing against his senses. It flickered responsively when he got near, like flame reaching for oxygen.
Their gazes caught. Held.
He watched her pupils dilate. Watched the pulse jump in her throat. Watched her magic spark—turquoise flickers at her fingertips—before she clenched her fists and locked it down.
They both stepped back at the same instant. A foot of space that should have been nothing and felt like miles.
“Two minutes.” Beck’s voice drifted up from the base of the steps, rich with amusement. “Two minutes and she’s already yelling at you. I like her.”
