Page 62 of Rejected Exile

Cat waggles her brows at me. "I can think ofthreethings you could do."

Just the thought of the guys currently makes my stomach turn at the moment. Not because I don't want to explore things with them any further—I desperately do—but because suddenly, everything is up in the air.

Either I find my inner she-wolf and claim one of them as my mate, if they're willing and the curse is lifted.

Or everything around me crumbles and shatters as I'm well and truly shiftless, with no hope for anything else.

As we arrive at the house, I spot an old pickup truck in the back drive. I frown at it a little; the contractor isn't expected back, and the new appliances I ordered for the kitchen aren't due for delivery. As I get out of the car, humid late-winter Oregon air hits me, and my eyes land on the front porch. I feel a tightening in my chest.

Kieran is standing there, hands in his pockets, leaned up against the side of the house.

His eyes find me, and even from hundreds of feet away I can feel his gaze.

Cat spots him as well. She glances at me. "I can get rid of him."

"No, he and I need to talk." I give her an apologetic frown. "Mind driving around the neighborhood for a bit?"

"I've got one better—I'll run errands. We need some more snacks and frozen pizza. Text me if I need to come back sooner rather than later."

"It won't take long," I reassure her.

"That's what you said about coming up here," Cat reminds me, "and look how that ended up."

Point taken. But Idon'twant it to take forever to lay the ghosts to rest between Kieran and me.

The sooner I can feel at ease inside myself, the better. I don't want to be looking over my shoulder anymore, chasing the ghosts of what could have been between me and the boy I grew up loving.

As Cat pulls away in the rental car, I step up to the front porch and study Kieran for a moment. He looks tired still, the shadows under his eyes prominent, his skin dry and his shoulders bowed inward. But his cheeks have filled out in the days since I saw him last. Maybe the hunting excursion was good for him—at least he seems to have eaten while he was out with Niall and the others. And no doubt they kept him away from the vamps.

"Kieran." I stop at the foot of the porch, feeling strange at how similar this feels to all those afternoons growing up, when I would come home from school to find him waiting for me. "I guess we should talk."

"That's why I'm here."

He steps out of the shadows of the porch and into the late morning light. Sun strikes his cheeks and chest, nestles in his hair and curls around his arms. For a moment, the breath knocks its way out of me as I stare up at his face and see the features of the first boy I ever loved. The memory of that face dogged me for years, but it's nothing compared to standing here in person.

Something in me shifts and coalesces. My heart beats its heavy thud:thump, thump, thump.Around us the wind shifts, and a breeze curls beneath my nose, bringing with it the smells of the house: fresh paint, unfinished wood, and hard work.

Along with that scent comes another, suddenly distinctive smell so strong I take a step back.

It's the scent of sweet berries warmly nestled in a pie crust, maple syrup fresh from the tap, rum sharpened with spices, and an undeniable iron tang of fresh blood from a hunt.

Kieran's scent, one I've smelled before, sharpened and mellowed with age. Stronger than it's ever smelled. Wrapped in something that curls in my belly and strikes tinder between my thighs, like the start of a bonfire that leads to acres of forest burning down.

He smells like coming home. Like fate wrapping its big strong arms around you and crushing you to its chest. There's a rumble deep inside me, a kind of feral yawning, and as I blink the world comes into deep focus.

Suddenly, the shadows on the porch are lighter and full of details I've never seen. The earth beneath my feet smells like clay and plant rot. And I feel the tingle of one last winter cold snap in the air, the sky pregnant with the promise that snow could come tomorrow. It's like the ground is shifting beneath me and reality is changing.

I want to go to Kieran.

Like a wire between us, something tugs at my center.

The ground beneath me shifts, and I feel like the earth itself is tilting. Any moment I'll stumble forward and fall—directly intohisarms.

Slowly, I breathe out. Try to make the world go right-side up again. As soon as I breathe in again I'm struck dizzy by a world of scent and living emotion. So I part my lips instinctively to taste it, letting the air into my mouth. Kieran's eyes widen as he stares at me for a long, frozen moment.

"Your wolf." His voice comes out choked; hands hovering in the air, he grasps at nothing. "I can smell her. How?"

Moving my left arm—it suddenly doesn't feel likemyarm—I turn my wrist over and stare down at my palm. Clenching my fist, I feel strength move through me: from my shoulder to my bicep, to my forearms and my hand. I'm suddenly certain that if I wanted to, I could bound across the space between me and Kieran in a single step.

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