Page 35 of Moonlight's Mate

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Beck glanced at the shimmering blue reflecting the darkening sky. No wonder the view inspired her creative werelings. He took a step that would angle him directly to the parking lot.

But paused. His head swiveled seemingly of its own accord toward a spot closer to the water.

There. He couldn’t see her, but she was there.

His hackles prickled. She was nothisAlpha! And yet his feet, apparently turned traitor along with his head, carried him down the hill and through the willows that edged the lake. Where the willows turned to reeds, he found her.

She stood with her dress hiked up to her thighs, shin-deep in the lake. With the bright hot colors of the dress on the darkening blue, she looked like a flame dancing on the water.

He paused, still stunned by his awareness of her, and leaned against a willow, striving for casual though really he wondered if his knees would hold him up. Finally he found his drawl. “Gone fishin’?”

She glanced over her shoulder. “Cooling my heels.”

“You always were impatient.”

“Scared, mostly.”

He straightened. “Mer, I won’t let the fae—”

“Not scared of them.” She slogged out of the lake without further clarification, shaking water vines off her bare ankles. “I saw the reinforcements you brought. Thank you. I would have missed that opening in our perimeter. You’re good at this.”

Her blunt compliment made him blink in surprise. “I didn’t want to be sent away, but yeah, those years in the army were worth something.”

“I’m grateful you’re here now.” She stopped in front of him and pushed herself up onto her tiptoes to kiss him.

Her lips yielded against his. He wanted to pull her close, but he was still unnerved by the feeling that had pulledhimtoher.“You would do the same for me.”

She quirked her lips, but the expression was more wry than amused. “If the Sun-Down Tavern ever needs a new logo, I’m your girl. But you’ll never change that, will you?”

He tilted his head, wary of the undercurrents still swirling around her even though she wasn’t standing in the water anymore. Was she saying she wanted to be his girl? A zing went through him, but he wasn’t sure if it was excitement or fear.

“I brought Nally and the spores with me,” he told her. “Could be dangerous, even with him wrapped in iron and four-leaf clovers, but I wanted every option available.”

She nodded. “I talked to him earlier. He’s still feeling guilty. I told him he is not to sacrifice himself.”

Beck tilted his head at the way she said the word. “No one is going to sacrifice for those creatures. They have their own world, as we do. They’ll just have to live with what they have.”

She studied him. “Didn’t you say that’s not enough for you anymore? Just living?”

As if the lake waters were rising to drown him, he felt himself paddling to stay afloat on the strange mood ebbing between them. “That was different.”

“Right. Too different.”

“Mer—”

“We should get back.”

Considering she was the one who’d left, this seemed like a blatant dismissal, but he followed her to the parking lot.

With the failing sunlight, her pack had lit their own torches, great fiery things scented of pitch. In their flickering light, her dress shimmered like another flame, ready to burn.

And still he wanted to reach out for her.

He prowled away, out of temptation distance. This was not the time to confuse their people. Or himself. But as he skulked just beyond the firelight, still his awareness of her tugged at him.

Hands clasped in front of her, she stood in the empty parking lot. On the other side was the lake, dark now and reflecting the early stars in its stillness.

The first toadstool sprouted as the evening chill snaked across the pavement.