All the haze and protective armor over his heart had cracked, not with a hairline fracture, but from a full-blown structural catastrophe. He thought his epiphany when Sam had taken Rayven had dosed him with clarity.

That was just the frigging iceberg tip of denial he’d been living with. A life without purpose he could no longer justify. But he accepted his mistakes, as they’d led to this moment. He could now live with losing revenge for his family’s death. They’d been gone a long time, and he’d given up decades of his life in honor of them. His parents would approve of his choices. Especially since Rayven was alive and needed his skills to save her. He’d do everything he could to make that happen, even if it meant sacrificing himself.

Breslin’s paws flew over the rocks, but aside from keeping an ear open for the vibration of another shifter, he spent his energy organizing his plan. Right now, success revolved around his alpha’s response. For if he couldn’t trust Deacon to stand behind him, then he needed different, even more dangerous, options.

In his gut, he trusted Deacon. He’d never given Breslin a reason to question his motives before—until sending him for Rayven. Certainly, years of watching his alpha find creative ways to save one after another of the clan members intent on messing up their lives should equal trust.

Yet it felt a little one-sided. The trustee honored the oath, and Deacon being the trustor let out the rope. When the time came for the trustee to sink or swim, Deacon let go. It was obviously time to paddle hard, but Breslin’s stomach coiled at the realization that he’d never had anything valuable to lose before.

Until Rayven.

Deacon had sensed that hole in him enough to remove him years ago from doling out death. But the choices he made afterward and the people whose lives he’d ruined since now weighed on him. Heavily. He supposed he could thank Callum for that bit of annoying conscience.

So he had no choice but to choose trust. Especially since Deacon was the only one with enough power to call forth Rayven’s beast. Whether it would be enough to save her during the tribunal, he couldn’t tell. The rules binding the alpha tribunal and delivery of judgments were old and complex. He knew some of the details, the most important being Deacon’s role as the alpha hosting the tribunal. As such, his responsibility included ensuring Rayven’s safety until the trial began—and presenting her case—whether she was innocent or not.

He landed on the porch of Deacon and Lena’s home, shifting back into his human form. Breslin waivered before the closed door, despite having reconciled his conscience and reaffirmed his faith in his alpha. Never once in all the years he’d worked for Deacon had he ever hesitated when summoned by his alpha. Today he felt strangely conflicted. Then the door swung open, his female alpha leaning against the door appraising him.

Lena stood aside and waved him in, though her gaze remained fixed behind him, searching. “He’s waiting for you.”

“Rayven’s still asleep,” he said in response to her unasked question. “Grizz will be bringing her in the morning.”

“Ah, good, then.” She lowered her voice and bent closer. “Is she…all right?”

“Not exactly.”

“I’ll make tea.”

Prepared to remind her he didn’t even drink tea, he realized it was her subtle way of leaving him alone with his alpha. He hoped she didn’t leave the house to seek out Rayven. For a human, his alpha took helpful meddling to an extreme. At the sounds of the kettle clanging beneath the faucet in the kitchen, he continued along to Deacon’s study. His alpha stood before the fireplace his head bent in a familiar pose of contemplation.

Breslin made it only a few feet into the large room filled with overstuffed furniture and soft rugs, before his alpha turned abruptly. Deacon sniffed the air, his eyes widening before they zeroed right in on Breslin’s neck.

Faster than the blink of an eye, Deacon was across the room with his palm wedged against Breslin’s throat, pinning him to the wall. His growl beat at Breslin’s eardrums. “What have you done?”

He swallowed hard, keeping his arms lax at his sides and chaining his cougar’s instinctive need to retaliate. “I haven’t claimed her.”

“And yet that is a mating mark I see on your neck.” Deacon’s eyes narrowed, his fingers flexing, claw tips threatening, not yet piercing.

Breslin drew in a slow breath. “She needed what I could give her.” When the tension didn’t ease, he rasped, “Wouldn’t. Ever. Hurt. Her.”

Hand suddenly snatched back, Deacon spun away, though the thick waves of his power still buffeted against Breslin. He didn’t move and took the few moments to slide back a mask of composure.

Deacon whipped his hand toward him and shook his forefinger, not yet turning toward him. “Tell me all of it. Now.”

He frowned. No one deserved to know all of it. However, he’d hit the salient points. “It’s a long story, and I respect your need to hear it all, but she’s injured. The Karndottir enforcers did their best to keep her from getting here alive.”

“She’s a shifter—a second-generation one, no less—and it’s been several days since you left. That’s more than enough time for her to recover.” However, Deacon’s searing glance hovered on him, his brows knitted together in concern.

“No, she hasn’t.” Pressure beat again along Breslin’s skin, a less-than-subtle alpha command to talk. Even so, his reluctance to reveal her secrets pressed harder. “Second generation or not, her beast hasn’t healed her.”

“Have you seen her bear?” Lena asked in a concerned voice from behind Deacon’s back. His alpha rolled his eyes, as if aware that his shield of angry censure visibly dissipated with the presence of his calmer mate.

Running a hand over his head and taking his first full breath, Breslin decided there was no good way to avoid the subject. Besides, maybe there was a chance it could help Rayven’s case. “No. In order to survive in her clan, Rayven denied her animal, even at the risk of causing herself permanent injury. I can sense it, but she can’t shift.”

Lena angled her face toward Deacon and rubbed his arm. “Can you heal her?”

Deacon waved the question away, not moving from his mate’s touch. “She’s sworn under oath to another clan.”

“Whose alpha is dead,” Lena persisted. “Doesn’t that break the tie?”

“She could be hiding the alpha inside her, which would provoke us into an alpha challenge,” Deacon responded without any real weight behind his words. “If not, there’s a risk I’ll tie her to this clan. Unacceptable considering the tribunal. She needs to heal herself.”

“I can tell the difference between lies and truth,” Breslin interjected, disregarding Deacon’s raised brow. “She’s not hiding her bear.”

Lena slid her arm around her mate’s waist. “With your immense catalog of alpha skills, I’d be surprised if you’d risk anything by trying.”

With a low rumble, Deacon slid his arm across his wife’s shoulders in resignation. “I’ll assess her when she arrives.”

He owed Lena for trying to sway Deacon. And she was trying. From the sympathetic look in her eyes, she was pressing for him, though it would take more than his female alpha to clear up this threat. “Rayven has proof there are laboratories in her territory creating the serum to drug the children.”

“Callum explained before he left on your command.” Deacon let go of Lena and stalked back to the fireplace before leveling a fierce glare his way. “As well as the fact that you sent him to commit illegal acts to get the information.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve requested people do things humans consider illegal.” His patience was running thin. If this was all the help his alpha could give him, then he needed to come up with other options quickly. “You’ve trusted me until now.”

Deacon remained silent.

Breslin took the opportunity and pressed further. “She obtained the information while freeing children from a lab. She was a captive of the alpha’s team when Gauthier was murdered. Even I had to admit the Karndottir heir couldn’t be in two places at once.”

“This vague information won’t hold any sway with the tribunal.” Deacon’s eyes remained hooded, and the gentle pulse of power against Breslin’s skull confirmed a probe—for what? He hadn’t lied to his alpha. Rayven was innocent.

“I hoped it would make a difference.”

“Only if it proves she didn’t kill her father. Otherwise, without a witness or several time-stamped videos, the data she retrieved only aids us in our efforts. Was her father involved in the labs?”

Breslin winced, then shook his head. “It would seem not.”

“Unfortunately, digging up dirt in their territory adds another reason why she’s at odds with her father. Another motive for murder.” Deacon lifted his hand. “If she’s honorable, she’d have issues with his overlooking the labs. If she’s not, he may have found out and wanted his cut of the profits—if there are any.”

“No matter what evidence I suggest, it will be twisted against her.”

“My former cynical enforcer would have picked your case to shreds.” Even Lena frowned at Deacon’s comments, yet he only shrugged, his gaze shuttered.

She crossed her arms and moved before Breslin. “I’d like to know why you are so interested in vindicating the daughter of your lifelong enemy?”

“I’d also like to hear your answer,” Deacon pressed. “You can also tell me how you received her mark on your neck.”

Frustration beat at Breslin’s brain with an instinct calling his cougar to challenge his alpha. For the time being, he could control his beast, and he understood his alpha’s confusion. He’d spent too long perpetrating his revenge, but explaining his change of heart was a waste of time. Nothing else mattered right now except that his mate was vulnerable. It wouldn’t matter if she were the daughter of Satan himself, she needed him. “I’ll admit I was initially predisposed to make her pay for Gauthier’s crimes. But she isn’t her father. And you know I’ve never put an innocent person to death.”

“You also never ceased in your efforts to avenge your family. Eighty years is a long time to suddenly disregard your feelings.”

Frustration clawed at him. Fighting his way out of this corner with Deacon wasn’t helping. “Gauthier’s enforcers captured her, along with a boy she tried to save. She was in custody while her father was killed. If what you need is a witness, I’ll find him and bring him back.”

Cocking his head, Deacon crossed his arms over his chest. “What if I say no? I have other things for you to do. Important things.”

Trapped. He felt damn trapped. Breslin braced himself against a rush of boiling anger. If he instigated a challenge and incited his alpha, it would mean his death, not to mention that a show of aggression wouldn’t save Rayven. “I will, most respectfully, have to follow my own instincts and go after the boy.”

Deacon didn’t move even as Lena’s glance flickered back and forth between the two of them.

However, Breslin’s cat noticed his alpha’s power rise and his eyes gleaming with an uncomfortable sparkle of red in their depths. “You’d disobey me.”

Not a question. Not a request for clarification. Only a very crisp statement that said Breslin was in deep trouble if the shimmer of power crackling in the air came his way. He shook his head slowly, reconciled to deliver his final truth. “Our laws allow me to protect my mate before obeying my alpha.”

“This would be the mate you said you haven’t claimed yet?” Deacon snarled. “Or is tying yourself to her your only way of getting revenge for her father’s crimes?”

“No.” Breslin growled as the chandelier above flickered and the windowpanes rattled. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He was so fucked. He’d lost control and worse—he hated having to explain himself. With an exhale, he opened his eyes and drew back his shoulders. “I may have lost my family, but I’ve never doubted they loved me. She, on the other hand, suffered at the hands of her father as no child should. And despite that, the only thing Rayven values in life isn’t her own survival, but protecting the weaker members of her clan.” He met Deacon’s hard glare unflinchingly. “My revenge means nothing if she pays the price.”

Several endless moments of silence drew out between the three of them. A bark of laughter shot out of Deacon, and Breslin nearly jumped. He was even less prepared for the rough slap on his back that nearly brought him to his knees.

“About damn time,” Deacon said, his expression sobering. “You know, if you’d lied to me, I would’ve knocked you back to last year—without hesitation. Gauthier wasn’t worth your life. I’d nearly given up on you wanting one for yourself.”

What?

Lena gave Breslin a satisfied smile before walking into her mate’s embrace.

Breslin stared in shock at the alpha pair, as if seeing them for the first time. Was this some sort of intervention? With a wash of cold realization, he admitted he had probably driven those closest to him to do just that.

His actions had been enough to make Callum crazy and, from the looks of it, his alpha as well.

He suddenly noticed the wrinkles showing around Deacon’s eyes. The frosted white in his hair that had been there forever seemed to have company. It never occurred to Breslin until now that he may have added those features to his alpha.

As if confirming Breslin’s thoughts, Deacon added, “I was convinced you were merely paying your dues here until your death.”

Breslin dipped his head, uncomfortable that something he’d only recently become aware of in himself had been so transparent. “I’m a killer. That’s all that’s ever existed inside me. But Rayven deserves a fair chance.”

“Whether she is guilty or not remains to be seen,” Deacon countered. “Since I expect more from my clan than an oath, I will take your recommendation about her innocence under advisement.”

“Since we’ve finished with uncomfortable sharing, I believe it’s time to give you this.” Lena held out her hand and handed Breslin a cell phone. “Shanae transferred your old cell number and set it up with all the usual numbers. However, someone’s been insistently trying to reach you.”

Breslin glanced toward Deacon, who looked at the phone with interest and a terse nod.

Thumbing through the incoming calls, Breslin didn’t see anything unusual until he checked the text messages. Ten messages to be exact, and all from a number he didn’t recognize. However, each one ended with a Q.

He speed-read them and sent back a response.

When no immediate response came back, Breslin figured he’d lost the shifter’s interest or the calls were a hoax meant to lure him into a trap. An answer came through that sealed the deal.

Hell, he’d never make it there in time. Deacon had moved beside him, reading the texts as they came up. “Brindy can get you there on the private plane in under two hours. She insists on time to prep the plane, though.”

Breslin tapped back his confirmation immediately.

“When you find the boy, I’ll send Brindy to you. No more caves, got that?” Deacon strode back to the fireplace before Breslin could answer. “How credible is this witness? Do you know his age?”

“From what I overheard, he’s a teenager. He shifted during his capture. Sixteen or seventeen. Rayven seemed confident—hopeful—he’d survive again in captivity long enough for her to come find him.”

Deacon glanced back. “On what do you base your faith in her assessments?”

A valid point from his alpha’s standpoint. In the past, he’d rarely trusted anyone not vetted by time and actions. Even Lena hadn’t gotten a pass in Breslin’s book—not at first, and not until she’d saved Deacon’s ass and several of the clan children. However, it was a little unsettling that she was watching him almost as intently as his alpha. They were probably sharing private conversations about his change in attitude at his expense.

He didn’t care. They were entitled. He’d give his life for either of them. If they helped save Rayven, he’d do whatever they wanted—forever, even if it meant having to give her up later.

“What’s left of Gauthier’s clan falls into either ruthless enforcers or families who have too much to lose by getting involved and drawing attention to themselves,” he offered. “From the few people with enough courage to step forward and help her, I’ve determined she’s well respected—not feared. She’s spent years helping her clan and refining her instincts.”

“A good sign,” Deacon said. “Some of the alphas have already arrived. Once they are all assembled, we are required begin. Whether you are here or not. But if she’s as important to you as you lead me to believe, there is one more thing I need to discuss with you before you go.”

Breslin gave a curt nod and braced himself.

* * *

Quinn shouldered open the door to the packed bar, his gaze sweeping across the nearly empty tables until he found his target at the back of the room. It was still early for the local regulars from every softball, hockey, and curling team in the area. Luckily, there was no sign of any other clan members either. Give it another few hours and the tables would be packed, the beer flowing and every sporting event available streaming from the TV monitors hanging from the ceiling.

He dragged a chair to where Aubrey sat texting on her phone and ignored the flip of her fingers shooing him away.

Having followed the suspicious shifters after they left the bar the other night and confirming they were more interested in picking up women than ratting out the Wilsons, he’d turned to calling in favors. The last of them, it seemed. Most everyone he knew had left the country. Of those remaining, few were willing to jeopardize their lives by aggravating whoever stepped up as the new alpha.

But one good break was all Quinn needed. Unlike his usual fiascos, he’d been lucky enough to get two.

Now if he could convince Aubrey and Elijah to help him before his airport meet time, he stood a good chance of freeing Nathan.

Aubrey leaned closer and grabbed his T-shirt, pulling him in not quite close enough for an amorous kiss, but still within range of her powerful fingernails scratching at his throat. It didn’t matter that none of them could half shift with the powers of an alpha. Some animals had more strength—and more viciousness than others. Focused on her steely gaze, he fought the instinct to defend himself.

It wasn’t as if he wanted to fight her. But hell, his beast didn’t take insults kindly. Like any sane man, he’d never willingly take on a wolverine, half shifter or not. Unless he had a death wish.

And he needed her. Per Elijah’s demand, Aubrey was the gatekeeper to team acceptance or rejection.

“Leave now, and I won’t rip your balls off.” A distinct possibility given the hand she had clamped over his thigh beneath the table.

“I found Nathan.”

“Like hell you did.” She sniffed and released him. “Prove it.”

He dragged out his cell phone and brought up several photos, then slid the phone to her.

Her finger flicked over the top, scanning each picture with a diligent eye. “All I see are pictures of mercenaries—humans, no less. They could be doing anything—anywhere.”

“I was there the night Sam’s men recaptured Nathan.”

A soft snarl lit as her eyes narrowed.

Sweat beaded down Quinn’s back, but he forced his hands to relax and continued. “I chose to go after Sam and the van that had Rayven in order to get Jacob’s help.”

“A lot of shit help he was.”

Yeah. “At least she’s alive. There were too many guards for me to take them. The point is…” He flicked back several photos and tapped a picture. “That van in front of the trailers is the same one, with license plates matching the one that took Nathan. Same guys too. I’ve watched the traffic videos along their route—can place them almost to the hour from the capture site to this property. They haven’t left since they arrived.”

“You got access to videos and searched them.” Her expression hardened, her gaze still a little too close to predator for his liking. “Why would I buy any of this?”

He understood her reluctance. He hadn’t done much to aid Rayven’s cause in the past. It wasn’t for lack of trying. The stagnant leads and runarounds from Jacob and Sam weren’t his fault. But he’d checked this lead from every angle.

“Because Breslin Taggart believes me.”

Aubrey blinked once and sat up straighter. “The enforcer who took Rayven to the trial.”

“The one who is getting satellite surveillance of the area to confirm our target. And the man whose plane is landing within the hour so he can help us find Nathan and take him to testify.”

Aubrey’s chair flew backward as she pointed a finger in his face. “If you’re pulling a fast one, Regan, it’s not me you have to worry about. Elijah will string you up and use your tanned hide to clean his bar.”

She was already in the back hallway before Quinn could respond. Not that he’d have bothered. If this plan didn’t work and they didn’t find Nathan before Rayven’s trial, then Quinn might as well be dead.

* * *

Deacon waited. He knew his mate. When she eyed him with the crystalline gaze of her past profession as a park ranger, Lena wanted answers.

“If matchmaking is an alpha skill, then you’ve known all along Rayven was his mate.”

At least she was on the right track, one that saved him from breaking his oath to the alpha council by disclosing details of higher powers. Even mating didn’t grant him the right to volunteer all his secrets. However, answering her questions constituted a loophole of sorts. “I didn’t know Gauthier had a mate, much less a child by her. You’ve seen the network of the clan in your mind. She doesn’t exist there. How could I match them up?”

“Oh no, no, no. Don’t answer my question with a question. I’d bet cold hard cash you have hundreds of secret alpha powers I haven’t uncovered. There must be more to this.”

He rubbed his fist over his mouth, hiding a smile he could barely withhold. He looked forward to years of verbal fencing. “I wasn’t certain but—” He considered his answer carefully as he guided her over to the couch, mentally sorting through the timeline of Breslin’s past. Deacon’s instincts and premonitions had started before that time, making the truth of the matter complicated. “Breslin was born in this clan. And even while he didn’t take his oath for many years, I dedicated special efforts in monitoring his activity. As a result, my bond with him is stronger than with some of my other people.”

“This monitoring tracked him in order to protect others in the clan from your assassin.” Lena frowned. “Breslin’s dangerous, but he’s never struck me as the mercenary or psychotic type.”

“He’s honorable to the bone.” Much like Lena and the rest of Deacon’s team. But did Breslin’s mate possess the same integrity. “I protected him from becoming the prize possession of someone with more money or power than scruples. Breslin’s value, initially, was due to his bloodline. Bart Taggart, Breslin’s father, was one of the finest trackers in my father’s clan. Only his birth as a cougar shifter kept him from an invitation to my father’s personal team. He and his family lived on the outskirts of Black Haven—beyond the sanctuary boundary.”

“Because he wasn’t a wolf.”

Deacon nodded.

“If he’d been accepted, his family wouldn’t have been subjected to Gauthier’s assault.”

He was in complete agreement with her on that and was already thinking on to the further complications of a mating between Breslin and Rayven Karndottir. “Perhaps. But some things are meant to be.”

“I’m not quite sold on fate forcing the paths of those two families…together?”

“You may be correct. I’ve never met the woman, and I’m not ready to rule her out as a conniving schemer. Frankly, I’d prefer to have witnessed their interaction together.”

“Because she’s a viper or because he’s hiding some deep-seated desire to use her? Given how he reacted today, the second seems unwarranted. Breslin’s hardly a candidate for a con.”

He gestured for her to explain. Not for a persuading argument, for he had his own thoughts paralleling hers. Lena’s logic matched his more often than not, but when hers didn’t, he spent time considering her viewpoint. Then again, maybe he just liked to see how her mind worked.

With a heavy sigh and a stifled smile, she pretended to appease him. “In the brief time I’ve known Breslin, he’s been aloof. You and Callum and the others watch him for angry outbursts bent on making Gauthier pay for his crimes. Yet I’ve never seen him violent or prone to rage. I’m usually good at sensing such things.” She waved her hand toward the kitchen. “Even with Trevor’s persistence to gain his attention, Breslin passively discouraged him but never rebuffed. He operates carefully within Trevor’s need for acceptance and a safe environment. Not the sign of someone living in his own head and self-absorbed. Definitely not the sign of a sociopath.”

“However, if he’d turned into one, it would have been my fault. I pushed him hard. I’ll be honest. I wanted him to give up his pursuit of Gauthier—to outgrow it.”

“Yet you assigned him the role of enforcer.”

He rolled his shoulders and exhaled as he sought a way to explain his logic. “Usually I select seasoned, and unmated, shifters to take on that role for a short period of time. Situations arise that few others in the clan would be capable of handling, so the pool of candidates is small. Of those who accepted the role, some ended up becoming my lieutenants as they bonded with the communities they protected. Others found their mates and retired.”

“Your real intent as matchmaker, I’m sure.” She wiggled her eyebrows and then winked. “Yet Breslin came home to you and basically hid here from life for a long time, never satisfying either of your aims.”

“He was a natural in the enforcer role—enough determination to do the job right with a high personal standard of justice. Despite his harsh opinion of himself, our people trust him to protect them. When he failed to choose a new course, I allowed him to continue in his efforts of eroding Gauthier’s financial base.” Deacon glanced at Lena and accepted the determined gleam in her eyes. She hadn’t given up on her initial question. It was risky having someone close who knew him so well, but he couldn’t begin to place an appropriate value on having a partner with whom he openly shared his private concerns. “I did sense a tug from across Gauthier’s border right after Breslin pledged his oath. We were the only two adults in this very room, and it rang strong and clear, and circumvented me.” He shrugged. “By the time I’d come to recognized the pattern as a potential bond strong enough to override the one he had pledged to me, it was many years later. If he’s sincere about her and—”

“You’re already certain about him, or you wouldn’t be worrying like this.”

“Just because he’s convinced she’s innocent doesn’t mean she is.”

“Gauthier’s personality doesn’t necessarily have any more of a claim on Rayven than your father’s did on you.”

Except Deacon’s father had carved a path for the choices Deacon made in his life. Rayven would have navigated a similar rocky existence, and the odds of her coming out of that as a decent person were slim. “We’ll find out when she arrives.”

“Breslin’s not gullible or easily manipulated, though I’ll admit, he seemed a bit…stunned,” she said, her frown marring the normally smooth skin between her brows. He brushed his thumb there and her lips twitched, threatening a smile. “But this woman has two parents. The fact that Gauthier didn’t announce her to the world may indicate she takes after her mother too much for his liking.”

“His refusal to acknowledge a daughter wasn’t out of character for him. His beast wouldn’t have been able to resist his mating call, but unfortunately the man refused to accept his gift of a child.” As she frowned, he continued. “The term ‘mating’ sounds a bit primordial. The truth is that we have a strong sense for our mates. Our one. The animal wants the companion and to continue the bloodline, and the human side wants the communion and stability—a rare combination. Not all shifters acknowledge the gift for what it is.”

“Could her birth have triggered the tug you felt?”

“An infant? No, I suspect the advent of her first shift activated the tug.” He dipped his head, trying to remember the moment. “Puberty is a demarcation for nature and mates, and most males recognize their mates the instant they come within close proximity, often before their mates. But Breslin was closed off to others. As his alpha, I maintained a bond with him and had more experience to anticipate what he might be feeling.”

“You caught a whiff of the mating call he wasn’t receiving and suspected he had a mate across the border.”

He winced at the quick synopsis. “Perhaps. I’m surprised it’s Rayven Karndottir.”

She cocked her head, leaning close for a teasing kiss. “There’s more.”

As much as he’d rather pursue that kiss to an extended exploration of his sweet mate, he nodded. “After Breslin pledged to me, I extended the sanctuary boundary to encompass his family’s lands.” At Lena’s widened eyes, he shrugged. “I couldn’t bring his family back, but he deserved compensation for their contribution to the clan. Breslin built a small cabin on the edge of the property.”

“Overlooking his enemy.”

Deacon shook his head slowly, more certain now with his conjecture than ever before. “Revenge is cold and empty. It isn’t fed by staring out a window at beauty and wilderness. I consider that longing. And a mating pull is a tremendously powerful thing.”

“Something in him knew.” Lena’s smile was blinding. “When did you realize we were mates?”

There was the million-dollar question he knew she’d eventually arrive at. “I’d like to say from the first moment I laid eyes on you, but in truth it was your touch that confirmed it for me.”

“A seductive tug.” She smiled.

“More like a lightning bolt of lust.”

Her brows lifted as her lips pressed together. “Yet, you held off. I’d even go so far as to say you tried to push me away for a good long while there—until the feral attack. Both of them.”

Yes. Having his mate cornered and bitten by feral laboratory-made shifters had ended any debate he had about whether Lena belonged to him. He’d realized he’d waited far too long to claim her. He ran a hand over the top of his head. “We each had a path to follow. Successful mating requires more than phenomenal chemistry and irresistible urges.”

She nodded and glanced at the ceiling, narrowing her eyes. “Phenomenal. Okay, I like that. Irresistible? Yeah, I’m good with that one too. Good save, darling.” She stood and spun away, striding toward the hallway before glancing back over her shoulder and crooking her forefinger at him. “If you have a moment, I’d like a reminder of phenomenal.”

He released the breath he was holding and gave her his best lecherous grin. Damn, he loved her. “My pleasure.”