And the moment the door shut behind them, her scent wrapped around him fully, warm and soft and all-consuming, another kick straight to his senses. He would have stumbled if he weren’t an Alpha who refused to go down in a small herb shop.
He pulled in a breath through his teeth, trying to lessen the hit. He focused on everything else he could smell: dried lavender, crushed yarrow, sage bundles, beeswax candles, a faint trace of lingering rosemary oil. She overpowered everything.
She set her purse behind the counter and rested her hands on it. “So, what can I do for the mighty Alpha of the Mystic Hollow pack?”
“You know who I am.” Not the brightest contribution to dialogue, and it came out unnecessarily growly. He drew a breath through his nose, trying to settle.
She shrugged, unimpressed. “Everyone does. And those who don’t can usually sense it. You’ve got very powerful energy.”
Her words pleased him. Stupidly. He didn’t do stupid. He needed to get a grip. “You don’t have magic,” he said.
“Not a lick of it. But you don’t need magic to read people, if you know what I mean.”
He did not know what she meant because she had saidlick, and now that was all he and his wolf could think about.
Her smile stayed warm, but her brows pinched slightly. “So...”
For fuck’s sake, pull it together. He cleared his throat. “I heard you want to get into the forest.”
Smoother than poetry.
She laughed. And the laugh lifted him clean off the ground like a gust full of floating dandelion seeds, everything bright and soft and achingly gentle. He wanted to close his eyes and exist in that sound only.
“This town, man,” she said. “Gossip on steroids. But yeah, something’s going on with my herbs. I want to look into it.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Potency. Which is odd for herbs that look perfectly healthy.”
“Could it be a processing error?”
A word disaster. He should have stayed shut up.
She gave him a slightly condescending look, but smiled. “I don’t think so.”
He believed her. The shop was spotless—everything fresh, tidy, and cared for. Everything in a place that made sense. “I wasn’t implying you messed up.”
“You were kind of implying it, but it’s a reasonable question. I wondered the same myself, then ruled it out. Hence why I need to investigate.”
Right. That was why he was here. “Where are you planning on going?”
“Some of the herbs that presented issues were collected near the south meadow below Brackenridge Bluff, so I thought I’d start there.”
That put her exactly where he didn’t want her to be. “There are mama bears with cubs roaming that area. And big cats.”
“Are you telling me I can’t go?”
“Trails aren’t closed, but it’s strongly discouraged. They shut down the camping zones at Bracken Hollow and Ridgeview Flats. Parks and Wildlife made the call—rightfully.”
She went quiet, staring at him but clearly not seeing him. Thinking. Then she shrugged and gave him what was clearly the end of that thought. “It’s their mountain, after all.” Her attention turned to him. “I’ll be careful.”
“I’ll take you.”
Well, fuck me sideways.That shat out his mouth before passing through a single functioning mental filter. If he’d had one brain cell left, he would have told Owen to go instead. Owen was a capable Ranger and his Beta. Responsible. Available. Safe.
Mated.
But no. He had volunteered like an absolute dumbass.
