Page 5 of Snips, Snails and Werewolf Tails

But he doesn't shift. Perhaps he feelsstrongeras a wolf, less vulnerable. But I can't talk to him like this.

"Please change back into a man," I plead, more gently this time. "I want to be able to talk to you. I knew it was you at the meeting earlier, but I didn't want to say anything in front of the others. And I knew it was you in the alley tonight. You saved me."

Still, he says and does nothing but stare at me. Occasionally, the moonlight strikes his eyes in just the right way to make them appear reflective and glowing with a yellowish hue.

"Lucian?" I ask, recalling what I remember about the alpha.

He tips his snout down, the wolf version of a human nod.

"Why do you keep coming to my rooftop garden at night and sitting outside my bedroom window?" I ask, even though he can't answer me.

He snorts a puff of air from his nostrils that drifts through the cool air like a waft of smoke, indicating a sense of frustration. My dreamscape feels as frigid as a winter night. Lucian shakes his head and I watch the ripples cascade through his fur like waves on the surface of water.

I open my mouth to say something in response to his silence, but then he stands andshiftsright before my eyes. For some reason I expected the shift to be more harsh and abrupt. Maybe because this is a dream, the transformation looks more like a fuzzy fade into another form, rather than the sudden snapping of bones and erasure of fur. In an instant, Lucian is standing in front of me in his fullhumanform, entirely nude and every bit as powerful as he looked as a wolf.

I feel like I can't breathe as I stare at him, futilely trying not to let my gaze wander.

For a moment, he stands there just looking at me, mouth open as if words are resting on the tip of his tongue but he's not yet ready to speak them. The cuts on his skin from my rosebushes are gone, and every sinewy muscle begs for my touch. It is both frightening and impossibly alluring.

Then, just his lips begin to form words, I wake up.

For a second, I lie in my bed with wide open eyes, trying to force myself back to sleep and the dream I left too soon. But it doesn't work. It never does. Once I wake from a dream, there is no re-entering it.

Instead, I wonder what woke me from such a deep sleep to begin with. I look over at the clock and see it's still well before dawn, which means the other witches haven't read my messages. I don't want to think about facing them. I know I'm going to have some explaining to do, and I would much prefer to go back into my dream and stare at the alpha wolf's chiseled chest instead.

But as I huff and roll over in bed, my eyes catch something in the window.

It's him.

There, just outside the glass of the windowpanes, the same wolfish eyes from my dream are staring back at me. Except this isreal life.He's here again—Lucian, the alpha, sitting in my rooftop garden,watching methrough my bedroom window.

I fight against my initial reaction, which is to cast another spell over him. Instead, I slowly sit up in my bed and look into his eyes, waiting for him to turn and run away now that he knows I've seen him.

But he doesn't.

When it becomes clear that neither of us are giving into fear, I do something rash.

I toss my blankets off my legs, stand up and walk over to my window, the only thing separating me from Lucian a thin layer of glass.

Then, against my better judgement, I turn the lock and lift the window open.

For a moment, he freezes, probably if this is some sort of game or trap. After all, why would I let him in?

But when I step aside, he leaps through the window and into my bedroom.

4

LUCIAN

IknewTala was going to break rank and do something stupid. She's been trying to usurp me for a while now, and she's been getting more and more brazen about it. But baiting the vampires into a fightright next tothe witches' coven building? That is nuts—even for her.

But if I am not careful, Tala will succeed in undermining me. She has a strong following in the pack. She can weed out those predisposed to disloyalty and feed their insecurities and visions of grand ambitions until they think insurrection is a good idea. She can manipulate the weak minded like a worm in their brains.

I hate referring to any of the wolves in my pack as "weak minded" but there are always some of those in any group of people, and werewolves are no different. But it's not just the weak-minded I have to worry about. Tala's group is growing and gaining traction, and soon, even the most loyal of my wolves might turn on me.

I want to trust my pack, but I know the allure of power can tempt even those of strong constitution.

Which isexactlywhynowis not the time for me to be distracted by a woman—especially not a witch.

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