Page 93 of Elven Throne

She forced herself not to look hastily around. That would only draw more attention they didn’t need. “Any idea who it is?”

A low growl escaped him before his gaze flickered toward the liquor store’s front wall of windows. “If I did not know better, I’d say it’s Blackmoon.”

Which made absolutely no sense.

Even less when Rebecca followed the shifter’s gaze, because they could both clearly see Rowan inside the store, yucking it up with the cashier like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Then we need to figure out who it is,” she whispered.

“Agreed.” Maxwell walked ahead of her along the sidewalk, sniffing the air, trying not to be too conspicuous despite the nearly empty parking lot. Then he turned back to face her and nodded toward the corner of the liquor store.

Whoever it was, the unknown party watching them was hiding behind the building.

Rebecca nodded, and they both moved silently around the corner. When the side was clear, they made their way toward the back.

Being watched wasn’t particularly new, but all the way out here, off the side of the highway, with no reason for anyone else to keep an eye on them or to know where they were in the first place?

That made the probability incredibly high that they were about to face another attempted attack.

Maxwell clearly felt the same. He gestured for her to wait, then slowly snuck along the side of the building to check it out on his own first.

Only then did Rebecca notice a change in the air. A new presence she could have sworn she felt. Something alarmingly familiar, and though she couldn’t immediately make sense of it, it did feel like someone was watching her.

Not just watching.Searchingfor her.

The second before Maxwell slipped around the back corner, footsteps approached from the other side.

Rebecca caught a glimpse of the shifter leaping forward into his own attack, and she took off after him.

The air filled with rabid snarling and flashing lights. Maxwell’s anger and protectiveness surged over her through their connection.

The next second, the brief and violent scuffle ended with a heavy grunt that also sounded so impossibly familiar…

She darted around the corner to join him, a hissing orb of crimson battle magic already in hand.

In the split second it took her to realize what she was looking at, she almost had the exact same thought as Maxwell.

Holy shit. It’s Rowan.

But no, not quite.

Itwasanother elf, pinned against the wall by Maxwell’s hand around her throat. The woman struggled feebly to free herself, boots scuffling across the asphalt as she sagged against the wall beneath his grasp.

Definitely not Rowan.

“Hannigan,” Rebecca called warily.

He whipped his head toward her and snarled, “She’s been following us.”

Rebecca couldn’t stop staring at the other elf. Coherent thought eluded her.

The other woman gave up her meager struggle, then released Maxwell’s forearm with both hands before she sighed. “I gotta say, I never expected to see ashifterin the mix. Just full of pent-up rage, aren’t you, big guy?”

Then she rolled her glinting hazel eyes in Rebecca’s direction, unable to move her head with Maxwell’s hand around her throat, and raised her eyebrows. “Tell him to let me go.”

That was honestly the last thing on her mind. Rebecca still couldn’t comprehend what she was looking at, but it was very real.

Maxwell wouldn’t have pinned a hallucination against the wall just to humor her.

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