It was perhaps a bit rude of a first question, but this was the second time I’d seen him. Both times he’d been watching me.
“Following you?” he asked, tilting his head sideways. Somehow that made him evenmore attractive. “You’re the one following me. You were looking for me.”
“What?” I shook my head forcefully. “No, I wasn’t.”
“Then whoare you looking for?” he stressed, those damnably different eyes not wavering from me one bit. “I heard you call out for someone. Did you lose them? Did a pet run away?”
“No.” It was all I could manage.
Fresh warmth coasted in on a new gust of wind. The forest sighed happily in response, if such a thing was possible. Birds chirped, and squirrels chittered. A comforting blanket of safety wrapped itself around me as I considered the stranger in front of me.
“Well, I’m the only one out here, and I don’t think I’ve ever met you. Have I?”
“Not unless you count watching me at the cemetery,” I said brazenly. “But, no, we’ve never actually met. I would remember that.”
His full lips ticced upward slightly-not much but enough-and I flushed red all over again, my entire face burning. He didn’t have to say it outright, but it was very clear he’d understood the inflection in my words that I had never intended to put there. Where had it come from? Why the hell couldn’t I control myself around him?
“I was there on business. I apologize for staring. But I must agree,” he said, both eyes burning holes inside me. “I wouldnever forget meeting you.”
Oh, god. His words curled my insides in the hottest, most pleasantly spicy way imaginable. The man couldtalk.
“I didn’t come out here looking for you,” I reiterated, not bothering to hide my attempt at a topic change. If he took one step toward me, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Not with him looking like … like …that!
“Did you find what you were looking for?” He shifted his weight, pulling his shoulders back and emphasizing the fit and muscle his gray flannel was hiding.
“No, I didn’t,” I said, thinking about the wolf with matching eyes. “I’m not sure I ever will. It’s confusing.”
I tried to wave it off, like it was nothing. The man didn’t let it go. He leaned a little closer. We were separated by something like ten feet still, but I swore he could have kissed me had he come another inch. The pull of hiseverythingwas sucking me in, a black hole threatening to take hold of me and never let go.
“I understand,” he said with far greater gravity than two words spoken between strangers should ever be able to contain. “But you shouldn’t be out here.”
The spell broke over the hardness as he spoke.
“I shouldn’t? Why the hell not?”
“Because some secrets are best left buried,” he said, his face losing its warmth and becoming cold steel as hard as his muscles. “You should leave them that way. Don’t come back looking again.”
Without waiting for a response, he was gone. A cold wind escorted him out. The forest pulled back, bushes shrinking, limbs lifting away. It was empty.
“Wait!” I shouted, rushing off after the man without taking a moment to think it through. “You can’t just go!”
The forest seemed to swallow him up. I followed his footprints for a few dozen steps before skidding to a halt as a fallen tree loomed out of the bushes. At the base of it was a thick, unmistakable print of a boot.
Haphazardly I climbed over the trunk that was almost as tall as I was, looking wildly on the ground beyond, desperate to find another print. I had so many questions for the mysterious forest-man with two different eyes.
What I saw on the other side pinned me in place. I didn’t dare jump off the log. Not now.
In the soft forest floor on the other side of the log, clear as day, was a print. But it wasn’t that of a boot. It was larger. With fewer, but far broader toes.
A wolf.
I looked deep into the bushes and the forest nearby, trying to figure out what had happened. Where had the man gone? Wasthe wolf here watching us the entire time? Why? What did it mean?
For a moment, I wondered if perhaps it had attacked the mystery man, hunting him as it did its other prey. No. I would have heard screams if that were the case. Besides, that man, whoever he was, he was no prey.
That man was a hunter, just like the wolf.
Backing slowly off the log, I retreated to where I had seen the man, picking up the hatchet I’d dropped upon his entrance. Everything seemed darker now, robbed of a light that had shone brightly during his presence.
First his warning and then the wolf print. It all had ominous foreboding written all over it, and my instinct agreed. It was time for me to leave. Like the man had said, I should have stayed out.
I was no longer welcome in the forest.
Lincoln
Blue and gold eyes tracked her through the bushes, unblinking with determined focus, watching her every move.
I didn’t worry about being seen. It was extremely unlikely a human would detect me. It would take magic to do so. To that point, she had shown no signs of possessing the magic the elders feared.
The reverse wasn’t true. I could see every breath she took, every sway of her hips, every tiny waft of sweet delicious scent she left in the forest air. Her very presence shook my wolf to its core, forcing me to work overtime to prevent the instinctual guttural growl from coming out and revealing me. My claws dug deep as I watched her body move, every muscle fiber twitching, aching to lunge forward andtake.
I must have this woman. Iwill have her. The elders be damned.
That presented a problem. As alpha, in theory, I could do whatever I wanted, and the pack would follow. Reality was always different. The elders commanded great respect, and my position as alpha was still relatively new. Combined with therising tensions from the forest itself, and things were rocky, to say the least.
If I told them I was going to claim her, I could be looking at full blown civil war. She wasn’t just a witch. She wasthe witch. The one who elders claimed would spell doom for us.
She found my wolf print. I watched her eyes widen and look around with fear, recognizing the warning sign I had purposefully left. It went completely against my inner desires. I hated trying to push her away, telling her to stay out of the forest. So why had I?
Perhaps it was part of my desire to protect her-not only from the darkness growing at the heart of the forest but perhaps from my pack as well. From me, and the threat that I represented.
Teeth bared as my lips pulled away, snarling against the internal struggle and the futility of it all.
A wave of her fear was carried to me on the cool breeze, replacing the lavender and cinnamon sweetness that was so sticky and cloying in my nostrils the entire time I stood across from her. A potent mixture designed to draw me in and take her. Right then, right there.
Even now, slightly removed, I wanted to rub her smell all over me. I wanted more of it. More of her.
All of her. Corded muscle strained against steel willpower as instinct fought rationale. Neither a winner. Neither a loser.
Resisting the urge to go to her was beyond frustrating. Her call was silent but intoxicating.
Almost like a spell.
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