When Jack returned to the table and discovered Ellie gone, his predator instincts kicked in. Was she in trouble? Had someone gotten to her despite the safety of the compound? A quick glance around the laughing, relaxed crowd stifled that concern. The atmosphere was cheerful and content as people ate the food they’d prepared and shared jokes and stories.

On the heels of realizing Ellie couldn’t have faced a threat without the rest of the clan being aware of it, his stomach seemed suddenly filled with lead. Despite the mouth-watering odors all around him, food lost all appeal. Why had she left the party? He’d been so sure they’d straightened out everything between them. Hadn’t she understood why he’d had to talk to Jolene? He and Ellie had so little time left together, and he didn’t want to spend it at odds with her. For the rest of the evening, he wanted to forget about everything: his ongoing feud with his uncle, the sad state of affairs within the clan, and the fact that he should keep his hands off Ellie from here on out.

“Where’s Ellie?” He handed his mother her plate.

“She just went back to the cabin to freshen up. She won’t be gone long.”

Helena’s serene expression made him relax. Ellie and his mother had obviously hit it off, and if Ellie was avoiding him again because she was still upset, Helena wouldn’t have been so calm. Under other circumstances, he would have been pleased that the two most important women in his life liked each other, but it only emphasized the unusual nature of the whole situation.

For just a little while, he wanted to pretend he was one of the guys, a prodigal son welcomed home by his old clan, a good ol’ boy bringing the love of his life to meet his mother. It would be nice if life was that simple, wouldn’t it?

Well, it wasn’t. There was no use crying about it, either. For tonight, at least, he could play along. When was the last time he’d sat down with friends and family eating food made with love and laughter? He’d thought he’d had relationships like that with his Redclaw clan—but he wasn’t going to think about that right now either. An unfamiliar sense of pride filled him as he recognized how well Ellie fit in, and how much his former clan embraced her. Shame, really. If they knew she was a de Winter, would they have been so friendly? Probably. Ellie was hard to resist, member of one of the most powerful families in existence or not.

Something pinged on his senses, making him turn his head. His mouth fell open in wordless appreciation as he saw Ellie crossing the open field. The black and red dress hugged her curves in all the best ways possible. He’d been right; the dress was absolutely smashing on her. What he loved the most was how she wore it with confidence, without concern that she might be overdressed for the occasion, with every expectation that this was exactly the dress she should be wearing right now. That and the fact she was barefoot. She carried her sensible work shoes in one hand, picking her way carefully over the uneven ground, but it was her toes that caught his eye, with their bright scarlet nail polish. He was suddenly transported to the evening before, when her foot caressed his leg as they lay entwined on the mattress in front of the fire. The splash of color did something to him, as did her smile when she approached. He wanted nothing more than to take her by the hand and lead her away to a quiet place where he could make love to her all over again. The thought of her in his arms, her lush body willingly accepting him again, stirred his desire to the point of being nearly unbearable.

He stood up as she approached. “You look amazing.”

She laughed. “Thank you. Only I don’t have the right shoes. This dress cries out for some red pumps, but I’ll have to make do with these.” She indicated the track shoes. “For now, I just wanted to feel the grass beneath my feet for a change.” Glancing down, she wiggled her red-tipped toes. “I haven’t felt so connected with the earth in a long time.”

A pang of compassion shot through him. He knew what she meant. Shifters needed to spend a certain amount of time communing with nature in order to feel balanced and whole. It was necessary to their well-being, and yet Ellie had lived her whole life not recognizing this, surrounded by concrete and asphalt. Who knows how long it had been since she’d been barefoot or taken a walk in the forest? Or him, for that matter. He made a point to head out to the park every few weeks, but it wasn’t the same.

He leaned in to kiss her cheek. “You’re perfect the way you are.” His lips lingered as he whispered, “Just wait until you fly.”

She shivered a little as his warm breath brushed her skin, and flashed him a dazzlingly smile. With a hand on the small of her back, he escorted to the table and helped her take a seat.

The light spread in long golden beams through the trees, and he watched as she listened with bright eyes to the story Billy Bob was telling. She laughed in all the right places, causing Billy Bob to puff out his chest and continue on, even though nearly everyone else around them had heard it all before. In fact, Ellie’s obvious enjoyment made the others listen with bated breath, happy to watch her reaction. When Billy Bob reached the punchline, Ellie burst into a peal of laughter, and the others joined in as well.

If only Jack could capture this moment. Years from now, he wanted to be able to pull it out from his memory and stare at it like a perfect photograph, remembering what might have been.

Ellie glanced up as though she’d heard his thoughts, and for a long, breathless moment, she held his gaze. Then Gus Miller pulled out his fiddle and rosined up his bow. Ellie clapped with delight in anticipation, her focus on Jack broken. People rose to their feet. Some to put food away, while others cleared a spot for dancing.

Once warmed up, Gus opened with a rousing rendition of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which had people jumping to their feet and swinging their partner out onto the grassy meadow. Gus was joined by Bertie Houseman with his guitar, and LuAnn Atwell on the hammer dulcimer, and they filled the late afternoon with foot-stomping music. Some folk music, some country, some bluegrass. Whatever took their fancy. When the musicians started on “Drink Myself Single Tonight,” most of the ladies poured out onto the field, laughing as they formed lines and began dancing as a group to the song.

“C’mon, Ellie.” His mother grabbed Ellie by the hand and dragged her, giggling and protesting, out onto the grass, allowing her only the time to slip on her shoes before joining the others.

Ellie caught Jack’s eye and grimaced her embarrassment at him, but he just grinned and clapped to the music. For someone who didn’t know the moves, she managed amazingly well. She watched the others, slightly behind on the steps, but still following the action. He clapped and cheered her on with everyone else.

But when the musicians began playing “Achy Breaky Heart,” Jack found himself swept up with some of the other men out into the dance area. He caught sight of Ellie cupping her hands and roaring her encouragement with the other women, and he grinned as he gave in to the music. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d let loose like this, and it felt good.

When the song ended, he rejoined Ellie at the table, breathless with laughter.

“Looking good there, Ferris.” Her smile was everything he’d ever dreamed of.

He didn’t want this night to end.

Songs were played and people danced. Various members of the clan took turns singing as well. The afternoon faded into dusk, and lanterns hung in the trees were lit, allowing the festivities to continue. Even the appearance of Jolene, looking sulky and irritable, couldn’t dampen his spirits. The night was full of magic impossible to deny. And it was his to command, at least until morning.

That may have been what made him do it. Or perhaps it was the knowledge that come morning, Ellie would be leaving and he’d never truly heard her sing, not the way she was meant to do. At any rate, when there was a lull in the music, Jack went to Gus to share a quiet word in his ear.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Gus announced, causing everyone to look up at him. “I’m told we have a gifted singer among us. What say you put your hands together and give a round of applause for our guest, Miss Ellie? Maybe she’ll step up and grace us with a song or two.”

As Jack expected, the clan howled and clapped. Someone even began chanting “El-lie, El-lie” and it was taken up by the group.

Blushing furiously, Ellie turned to him. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Jack tugged her to her feet. “You were planning to audition on that competition show next week. How is this any different?”

She didn’t respond at first. Instead, she glanced over the crowd, presumably taking in the smiling faces hooting for her to sing. All but one. Jolene had been unable to resist the party in full swing, but she now fixed a smoldering glare in their direction. Ellie stiffened when she noted it, but instead of cowing to it, she suddenly seemed to find her resolve. She fished something out of her dress pocket and handed to Jack. “Hold this for me, please.”

It was the necklace. Wordlessly, he took it, the pendant so cold it paradoxically felt as though it burned his palm. At the same time, he could feel the suppressive magic within and wondered how on earth she’d managed to carry such a burden her entire life.

Had it been bound to her specifically? If so, that was some strong shifter technology. Nothing outside the ability of a de Winter to procure, but unusual just the same. He spared a passing thought for Ryker, who would practically salivate to get his hands on something like the amulet. According to Ryker, Redclaw got its start as a repository of shifter artifacts.

If the pendant wasn’t designed with Ellie’s genetic code in mind, it might act as a dampening field on his own shifter.

It might also protect him from any sort of undue influence Ellie’s powers might have on him, intentional or otherwise.

As an act of trust on Ellie’s part, it was enormous. Whether she fully realized it or not.

Flashing him a devastating smile over her shoulder, Ellie walked up to Gus and the other musicians while everyone else cheered. She smiled at the gathering, and Jack’s heart felt like it might burst out of his chest with pride.

That’s my girl.

“What are you going to sing for us, little lady?”

Gus’s question was perfectly innocent, but Jack could see the indecision and uncertainty on Ellie’s face. He hated that she felt that way, that he’d been the one to put her in this position. She caught his gaze and held it. It seemed as though there were no other people in the universe but the two of them. Slowly, a smile formed on her face.  As soon as he saw it, he knew she would be all right.

“I’m going to sing ’On My Own‘ from Les Miserables.” Though ostensibly she was speaking to Gus, it was clear she was addressing the audience as well. “Are you familiar with it?”

Gus shook his head.

Truth be told, Jack barely recognized the reference himself. He knew there’d been a movie a few years back, and that a big name celebrity had played the lead. He recalled thinking then that an actor would do anything for a paying job. If he remembered rightly, the movie had been a play first, but that was the extent of his knowledge.

Ellie raised her voice so everyone could hear her. “Les Miserables is a tale of right and wrong laid out against the backdrop of the law of man and the law of survival.”

The attention of every man, woman, and child was riveted on her as she spoke. The flickering light of the lanterns hung about the ‘stage’ added to the atmosphere, pulling the audience in as Ellie spun her tale. “The hero, Jean Valjean, is sentenced to twenty years hard labor for stealing bread to feed his family. Upon his release, he cannot escape his criminal past. Everywhere he goes, he is faced with his record, so he takes on a false identity in order to make a fresh start.”

All around him, clan members sat in hushed silence with laser-like focus of everyone on Ellie. It wasn’t just the story, though that was compelling enough. It was the power of her voice. The pendant burned icy hot in his grip. If, as he suspected, it was dampening the effect of her abilities on him, he could still feel it, suppressed as it was.

“He adopts a child, taking her into his protection. When she is grown, she meets and falls in love with a young revolutionary, Marius. All you really need to know at this point is that she’s a protected woman of substance, and her rival is a street rat named Eponine.” Ellie wove her tale deftly. “Marius charges Eponine with getting a message to his love before a major battle, one in which he might not survive, not knowing Eponine is desperately in love with him as well.”

Ellie hung her head. “This is Eponine’s story.”

Somehow, without changing clothes, without the benefit of staging, and without even the music to support her, Ellie transformed herself from the laughing, forthright woman Jack knew into someone else. She folded in on herself, and when she lifted her head, she wasn’t Ellie any longer. Something altered in her face, making her seem both younger and harder than Jack knew her to be. It was eerie watching the metamorphosis. Ellie’s lips moved, and a sad tale poured out. The man she loved didn’t love her, but loved another. And yet in her imagination, Eponine-Ellie walked with her lover through the streets until morning, reveling in his phantom-embrace precisely because he wasn’t there to destroy the fantasy.

The confession of her love to the imaginary Marius was painful to witness. Especially because Eponine knew exactly to what degree she was lying to herself—Marius would never be for her—how could he be? They were from two very different worlds. But when the song reached its climax, it was no longer Eponine singing, it was pure Ellie. She looked straight at Jack as she rent her heart over the fact he was blind, and yet she still hoped somehow they would be together. When she sang of her love for him, Jack’s heart stopped, shocked into immobility until it thudded back to life double-time.

She warbled the last words into a powerful, breathless silence, as every person listening felt the pain of her unrequited love.

As the final, stunning notes faded away, Jack glanced at his mother. She sat in rapt concentration, tears streaming down her face as she watched Ellie. His mom wasn’t the only person so entranced. More than one member of the clan wiped their face, and there were audible sniffles too. Everyone else sat motionless, almost as if they were afraid to break the spell.

The pendant flamed with an icy fire in his hand. It didn’t matter if Ellie’s dragon-magic was affecting the rest of the audience or not. He didn’t care if the amulet was shielding him from the full force of her abilities. The need to stand up and declare Ellie need not walk alone pulled him to his feet. He opened his mouth to shout his words of support, to declare his ardent love, only someone spoke behind him, shattering the mood as effectively as a drill sergeant at a children’s birthday celebration.

“What the hell’s going on here?”

The voice cut like a knife through the party, effectively bringing it to a halt.

Seth was back.