She’d set up her workspace in a sunny section near the garden. Half my pack had found reasons to be nearby. Maria and Tessa sparred a short distance from her, glancing her way so often they would’ve stabbed each other if they weren’t paying attention.
Robin tended vegetables, though he kept stopping and calling out questions to Victoria. She didn’t seem to be upset about it. She just paused and answered before returning to her work.
Even Kirk had stationed himself by her, his attention split between the training warriors and the witch with jam on her sleeve.
They were all watching her while pretending not to watch her.
Victoria sat cross-legged on a blanket, her notebook open, her enchanted pen hovering as she dictated observations. Glassbeakers caught the light, arranged in a careful grid around her. The crystallization experiment? Acorn had curled up in a patch of sun near her knee, his tail draped across her thigh.
She hadn’t noticed me.
She kept pushing her hair back without looking away from her work, gesturing with one hand while talking to her pen. A small smile crossed her face when Acorn’s tail twitched in his sleep.
My pack had accepted her. This wasn’t tolerating her presence or acknowledgement of her title. They’d claimed her the way they claimed territory. Made space for her.
I’d gone to the kitchens this morning and described a squirrel’s food preferences in detail. I knew the exact temperature Victoria liked her tea. I’d carried her equipment down one hundred and four stairs without being asked and carried her too because the stairs were steep, and I’d worried she’d fall and that was simply logical.
I’d picked flowers for her, though I’d forgotten to add water.
I’d tracked her through the forest when my wolf was worried.
I’d made a standing order for Acorn’s food.
For thirteen years, I’d run this territory alone. I’d made it my whole self. Built my identity around being alpha, king, and the wolf who didn’t need anyone.
And now it appeared I was courting a pretty witch with a squirrel companion through carefully arranged breakfast trays.
She meant everything to me.
The thought arrived without drama. It settled into place like it had always been there, waiting for me to notice.
My wolf said nothing. That was how I knew it was serious.
Victoria added something to one of the beakers. The movement made her dress catch the light, and I noticed the small stain near the hem from where she might’ve knelt in the dirt to collect samples.
I’d been undone not by beauty or strength, but by the way she talked to her pen. By choosing nuts for a squirrel. And by the fierce intelligence in her eyes when she studied my maps and saw patterns I’d missed.
I should leave. I had work waiting. Trainings to organize. Border disputes that wouldn’t resolve themselves. So I made myself turn and walk away before anyone noticed their alpha staring at his wife like she was his whole world.
I was in trouble.
And I had no interest in getting out of it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
VICTORIA
The bioluminescence extraction required precision I wasn’t sure I could maintain with half the pack watching me work.
I sat cross-legged on the blanket in the clearing, six sealed vials arranged in front of me. The fungi samples glowed orange in the late afternoon sun, their light stronger in shadow. I’d been coaxing the compound out using temperature variation. Heat to activate and cold to stabilize, back and forth until the residue separated from the base material.
My enchanted pen hovered above my notebook, ready to record observations as I dictated them.
“Sample four shows sustained luminescence after compound separation, suggesting magical rather than purely chemical origin. The glow persists independent of the original organic matter, which?—”
Movement in my peripheral vision made me pause. Robin had drifted closer to the edge of my workspace, giving up on weeding the garden bed to stare at the glowing vials. Maria and Tessa had stopped sparring and were leaning against a training post with their attention fixed in my direction.
I noted it mentally. Pack proximity increasing. Possible territorial concern about unknown compounds.
