I feel it before I understand it: the change in the air against my bare skin, the subtle pivot of the breeze from crossways to behind me, my own scent rolling out across the water like a banner unfurling.
Sienna stops floating on her back in the lake. Her head comes up. She rotates smoothly, treading water, her eyes moving across the trees until they land with laser precision on the cluster of ferns where I’m standing.
Her expression goes from shock to fury in the span of a breath.
I’ve been caught.
For a moment, I consider fleeing, pretending it wasn’t me, running back into the woods. For a moment, I genuinely consider it, like a coward.
After quickly pulling on my clothes, I push through the ferns and step out into the sunlight. I walk to the edge of the pebbled shore and stop there, arms loose at my sides, and wait.
She stares at me. Her mouth opens, closes. Then, she hisses, “Are you stalking me?”
I cross my arms over my chest defensively. “No.”
It comes out of my mouth automatically, the lie, and guilt settles in my chest the second the word is said. Because of course I was. There is no word for what I was doing that is kinder than that.
“Yeah, right,” she sneers.
“You’re not supposed to be out here on your own, Sienna.”
Her eyebrows arch. “Excuse me?”
“The forest is not safe for unsupervised guests.” My voice sounds stiff and official, even to me. “You should have informed Lydia before leaving the estate.”
She laughs. It’s not a pleasant sound. Having her ire aimed at me is not something I’m enjoying.
The water is up to her shoulders, but the lake is clear, and the angle is making it hard for me not to notice that every time she moves, I can see the full curve of her breasts just at the waterline. Droplets slide down her collarbones, her nipples drawn tight from the cold.
My eyes keep lowering. I keep dragging them back up to her face.
She notices.
“Are you serious right now?” Her tone is sharp and incredulous. “You know what, I’ll take it as a compliment. It’s been a while since I was sure you even had eyes.”
“Sienna—”
“Nobody told me I needed a babysitter, Alpha Steele.” Her chin lifts. “Nobody told me I needed supervision. I was briefed on territory boundaries. I stayed within them. If you wanted to keep tabs on me, you could have just assigned someone. Instead of…you know, personally following me around. I’m sure you have better things to do with your time.”
She is moving while she talks. Walking through the water now, toward the shore, toward me.
Toward her clothes.
“Get out of the way,” she says, still mostly submerged.
I step back onto the moss, giving her a clear path to her pile of clothing on the rock.
And then, she’s rising out of the water. I tell myself not to look.
I look.
I cannot help it. She emerges from the lake as if out of a myth, water sheeting off her skin, her hair plastered dark down her back, every curve and plane of her body on full display. She isn’t bothered that I’m seeing her naked. Normally, female wolf shifters would be screaming and telling me to turn away. She simply walks past me with her shoulders squared and her head high, like she is the one in control here. And heaven have mercy, she is.
My body is not my own. My hands ache with the urge to reach for her. I swallow against the tightness in my throat.
She picks up her shirt and starts pulling it on over her wet skin with brisk, angry motions.
All of a sudden, she laughs again—that cold, scathing laugh.
