For a heartbeat, silence stretched taut between them. In the dim light, Dani could see every nuance of his expression. The frustration, the uncertainty, the guilt he would never admit aloud. He looked older in that moment, heavier. The future alpha already carrying the weight of an entire pack.
But she was done letting that be an excuse.
“You know what?” she whispered, sliding off the desk. “Forget it. I don’t want a secret friendship. I don’t want to pretend anymore.”
“Dani—”
“I’m done being invisible to you.”
She grabbed her bag off the floor and stormed out before her voice could betray her further.
She heard him curse softly behind her. Heard the scrape of a desk leg as he moved, maybe to follow. But she didn’t look back, didn’t slow down. Her boots echoed down the hallway, a rapid staccato of anger she clung to with both hands.
Better to be furious than heartbroken.
***
Outside, the sky had finally begun to dim, the sun slipping behind the jagged peaks of the Chilkat mountains. Dani tugged her jacket closer, her breath a pale cloud drifting into the cold air. Her car sat lonely in the lot, the last of the other vehicles already gone. She stared at it, her jaw set, before turning to the woods.
She would walk. It was only half an hour, and she needed to clear her head. She could pick up her car in the morning.
It would have been nice to focus on the crunch of frozen earth beneath her feet, the rustle of evening breeze through the branches of the twisting trees rising above her head.
But the acrid taste of rage still choked her.
And worse, something deeper.
She would never be good enough for him. Even if she turned that very night, she’d still be the lost little wolf who only managed to shift at eighteen.
He was Arthur Wells. Heir to the Nordan. The young Ice Bear.
Her nose stung, and she wiped it furiously, telling herself it was only the cold.
She didn’t know how much longer she could take this. It would have been bad enough, being his friend when he couldn’t even bring himself to acknowledge her in public.
But he wasn’t just her friend. She wasn’t sure when things had changed. When she’d stopped looking at him and seeing a half-wild tousle-haired boy with a gappy grin on a new adventure. When she instead saw the muscles, felt the heat, first really heard the low rumble of his voice.
She was in love with him. She had been for a long time now.
And he…
He couldn’t even make eye contact with her in the hallway.
She broke through the tree line, arms hugging tight around her middle, the cold seeping through into her very bones. She couldn’t wait to get home and make a fire, curl up in front of it, maybe wallow with a crappy romance movie.
A snapping of twigs yanked her right back to the growing shadows of the icy evening.
Laughter, loud and jeering, came from just beyond the trees.
Shit.
She swallowed, instinctively taking a step back.
The laughter stopped abruptly, muffled footsteps growing closer.
She considered running. The first few houses at the edge of Skymist peeked through the branches; she might make it if she was fast.
No. Who was she kidding? Running had never worked before. Better to stand her ground.
