Page 31 of Fated to the Lone Shifter
I re-gain my composure. “I don’t need to tell you anything, probie,” I snap, the word laced with warning. “You should be the one answering questions.”
She tilts her head, and I catch the shimmer of fire in her irises. “Excuse me?”
“You’re the one who was out in the woods tonight,” I growl, stepping closer. “Off-post. No camera. No explanation. What are you hiding?”
Her hands clench at her sides. “What areyouhiding? Nicole’s dead.”
“Really?” I can’t stop. The tension’s been building all damn night, hell, all week. And now, with a probie dead and my instincts screaming, I’m done pretending.
I move in, close enough to see the distracting ticking of her pulse in her neck. “You weren't casting spells under a full moon?”
Her mouth opens—but no sound comes out.
That’s all the answer I need.
“I don’t know what you think you saw,” she says finally, voice quieter now. “But I was trying to…”
“I don’t care what you were trying to do,” I cut in. This game she’s playing…she needs to understand she’s literally playing with fire.
“You don’t get to play with fire in my woods and act like it’s all under control. You put yourself in danger, and someone else ended up dead.”
“That’s not fair,” she breathes, but her voice cracks. “You don’t understand—”
“Then make me understand,” I say.
Silence. Except our breath. Fast. Hot.
I reach for her arms—maybe to make a point, maybe to stop myself from doing something worse—but the second my handswrap around her biceps, it hits again. The pull. The heat. That deep, bone-deep knowing.
She gasps. Flames ripple just beneath the surface of her skin, searing a path along my fingertips with a heat that feels alive, pulsing, as if her magic recognizes mine.
Her eyes widen. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She wants answers I can’t give her.
I bare my fangs. “Same question, sweetheart.”
She takes a half-step back like the air between us is too hot to stand in.
But she doesn't run.
Instead, her breath catches. Her lips part. “You think I wanted this?”
“I don’t know what you want,” I growl. “But you’re burning through my restraint like it’s kindling, and that’s not safe for anyone.”
We stand there, fire licking between us, magic and something more pressing in from all sides.
We’re seconds away from crossing a line we can’t un-cross.
And then—
“Hey, you guys!” Marcus’s voice cuts through the trees. “Get your asses back inside. The Captain wants us all for interviews.”
I let go of her arms.
She blinks, as if waking from a dream. Without hesitation, she turns and follows Marcus back to the firehouse.
But the mark of her touch stays with me, seared into my skin like a warning.
