Page 35 of Craved By the Werewolf
I shoved my phone into my pocket, heart racing like I'd just ran up the mountain. I unbuckled my seatbelt, ignoring the curious look from the guy in the aisle seat.
"Sorry," I muttered, already reaching for my carry-on in the overhead. My fingers shook as I yanked it free.
The flight attendant at the front started to say something, but I was already moving, weaving down the narrow aisle before the door sealed me in. I didn't care how insane I looked.
The jet bridge air slapped my face, clearing the fog in my head. I didn't have a plan, just one certainty pounding in my chest like a war drum.
Thorne.
14
THORNE
The morning air was already warm and sticky, the kind of thick heat that promised it would be sweltering by noon. The scent of sun-warmed earth, and the faint bite of woodsmoke from last night's fire pits hung over the ridge. I'd told myself a long perimeter check would clear my head. It wasn't working.
Vala's scent still clung to me.
Wolf-me was thrilled. Man-me was irritated.
The two of us hadn't agreed on much since she walked into my life.
I kept my eyes scanning the tree line, the fence line, the trail worn smooth by patrols. But every quiet pocket of woods just left too much room for my mind to wander—to the sound she made when she laughed, the way she challenged me with those sharp eyes, the warm weight of her curled against me.
My thoughts kept circling back to the fae attack, how close I'd come to losing her in that chaos. How it had clarified things in a way nothing else could have.
"Thorne, you're brooding."
I glanced over to find Raina leaning against the fence, coffee in hand like she'd been waiting for me to pass by just to heckle me.
"I'm doing my job," I said.
"Uh-huh. You're doing that thing where your jaw is tight enough to snap your own teeth. That's not the job, that's the 'female trouble' face."
I didn't rise to it. Which, of course, she took as confirmation.
"Look, I don't care what happened between you two," she went on, "but I do care if it turns you into a distracted idiot who misses a real threat because you're replaying some human drama in your head."
"I'm not distracted."
Her brow went up. "You just walked past a set of bear tracks without even noticing."
Damn it. I doubled back, crouched, scanned them, then kept moving.
I was so close to shaking her and her coffee when Kai appeared from the opposite trail, grinning like the troublemaker he was.
"Morning, Alpha. Or is it mourning, Alpha?"
I shot him a look that would've made most wolves tuck tail. He just fell into step beside me, smirking. "You smell like her. Thought you should know."
This patrol was going to be hell.
We were halfway back to the compound when our earpieces crackled.
"Alpha, we've got—uh—situation at the main gate," came the voice of Brann, one of the younger guards. He sounded winded. "It's... Vala Nightingale."
Every muscle in my body went on alert. "What about her?"
"She just... came out of nowhere. Dropped off by a... uh... RidgeRide?—"
