Page 39 of Forensics of a Fable

“I enjoy the feel of you in my hands.” He pulled her closer, burying his nose in her hair as he inhaled her fragrance. “I crave the warmth of your skin against mine. I’m obsessed with your beauty, both the external portrait of perfection and the personality that humbles me. It pains me to be far from you, but there’s a secondary reason for my touch. Any predator who enters Bajka will scent who you belong to and think twice about warranting my wrath.”

“I don’t belong to you,” Bel argued.

“Yes, you do.” Eamon pulled her tight against him with a chuckle, staring down at her with an expression that stopped her heart and flushed her cheeks. “You are mine Isobel Emerson. Mine to protect. Mine to care for. Mine. Just as I am yours. You own me with a fierceness you’ll never understand. I swore to you that no one would harm you, and I never intend to break that oath.”

Bel tentatively reached out and brushed her fingers along his strong jaw. She couldn’t breathe as she stared into his death-black eyes. His words dug deep inside her, breaking her apart and rebuilding her into something new and empowered, andshe longed to close the distance, to feel his sharp canines scrape against her skin as she took everything he offered.

“I don’t like that the bear headed in this direction,” Eamon said, holding her gaze but severing the spell.

“That wasn’t a bear, was it?” She lowered her fingers and leaned against him, watching the mailman drive by as Eamon’s embrace enveloped her with comforting possession.

“I’m not sure what that was, but it wasn’t natural, and I’m concerned that it came for you. I don’t want you in the woods, even with your dog, unless I’m with you.”

“Do you think the bear is related to the cabin deaths?” Bel asked.

“Unless it learned to bathe and drug humans, I doubt it,” Eamon chuckled, finishing his coffee.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know, Detective.” He stood and then reached down to pull her to her feet. They lingered chest to chest for a moment before he reverently tucked a wavy lock of brunette hair behind her ear. “The bear’s scent is long gone, so you’re safe. I should go home and shower.”

He turned to walk into the woods, but Bel caught his arm, not quite ready to let him leave. “Thank you for coming for me.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“Eamon.”

“If anything, I showed up too late. It could have killed you.”

“But it didn’t.” She pulled him closer, not sure what she intended to do. “I don’t think it was going to hurt me. I don’t know why, and I don’t think it was because it scented you. But even if it had no intention of harming me, thank you for finding me. For guarding my door all night so I could sleep.”

He smiled, his canines flashing in the morning sunlight as he extricated his arm from her grip. He captured her fingers andlifted them to his lips, brushing a kiss over her knuckles before vanishing into the broken trees.

“I’ll fix this,” he called over his shoulder, and then the forest swallowed him whole.

Bel wasn’t sure how he would repair the destruction, but she decided to let him deal with that headache as she walked to the mailbox. She pulled out the stack of letters, leafing through the normal array of bills and junk until her eyes landed on a greeting card. It had a soft pink envelope with her address printed on it instead of handwritten, and she pinched her brow as she peeled open the flap. It wasn’t her birthday. It wasn’t any major event in her or her family’s lives either. Perhaps it was an invitation?

Bel tucked the stack of mail under her arm and walked toward her door as she pulled out the card. A cute cabin illustration sat on the front, and she opened it to find three printed lines. Every cell in her body froze as the hair on the back of her neck rose in alarm. It wasn’t signed. There was no personal note. Just those three damning lines printed in a generic font.

“One was too big.

One was too small.

But this one is just right.”

Bel ranfull speed into the station, skidding to a stop in the sheriff’s office, much to Griffin’s alarm.

“Emerson, what the—?”

“I think there’s another body.” She cut him off, throwing the card on his desk. After realizing what it meant, she had rushed inside her cabin and shoved it and its envelope into a plastic freezer bag to preserve what evidence remained. She made quick work of getting ready and caring for Cerberus, and then she’d raced to the station.

“What makes you think that?” Griffin asked, studying the bag. Bel had slipped it into the plastic open to ensure both the interior and exterior were visible, but the card’s front and back were currently the only sides he could see.

“A little cabin.” Bel pointed to the illustration. “And that.” She flipped it over, and Griffin cursed when he read those three small lines.

“How did you get this? Mail? Under your door? On your windshield?” he asked.

“Mailman dropped it off.”

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