Jagger was easy to find. Too easy. I made it halfway back to the cave when I picked up his scent. He’d gone where I had wanted to go all day. He stood at the edge of the stream about a hundred yards from the cave entrance. If he insisted on being out in the open, this was as good a place as any to wait. The water masked his scent a little, but not from me. I knew in my heart he could never mask it from me again.

His back was to me, but he didn’t need his eyes to know I was there. My pulse quickened. I reached out with a preternatural sense I hadn’t known I had until I met him. I was searching for...something. A connection I knew should be there. Instead, I felt him push back. I’m not even sure he knew he was doing it. But, he slowly turned; his wolf eyes glinted and reflected the crystal waters of the stream.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I said. I meant so many things by that. He took the most obvious.

“I’m sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was bring trouble to your doorstep. Are you all right? Is your aunt all right?”

“We’re fine. It’s not the first time the patrols have come by to rattle our cage. It won’t be the last. We can handle it.”

“You don’t have to live like this,” he said. His words tumbled out, sounding almost rehearsed. Then, I realized they had been. He’d been waiting for me for a reason. “Rowan, I know a place. It’s closer than you think. There are people there who would look after you and your aunt. My people. You could get out from under the Pack.”

I lifted my skirt and stepped into the water, closing the distance between us. I was slightly uphill from him, so we met eye to eye.

“Is that how you live? Out from under the Pack?” He instantly read the sarcasm in my voice.

“Rowan.”

“Because it doesn’t seem like it. At least I more or less live my life the way I want to. I’m not hiding in caves and getting my ass kicked by shifters every other day. You’re covered in scars, Jagger. How many times has someone had to patch you up like I did?”

Something flickered behind his eyes. I’d touched a nerve. Who had patched him up before I came along? The answer drummed in my brain. He’d given it to me himself in a fevered dream. Keara. It was on my lips to ask him about her, but something made me wait.

“What did she give you? What was in those shots, Rowan? What’s wrong with you?”

The question got my back up like it always did. And yet, when Jagger asked, his tone mixed with pain and genuine concern. It came from a place of caring, not disgust. Other than Aunt Grace, no one had ever asked it of me like that.

“It’s nothing.”

“Rowan.”

“It’s nothing! I mean it, Jagger. You can’t just march into my life like this and stir everything all up. We have a balance. It’s not perfect. But it’s mine.”

“So, you like it here. You like the fact that you’ve never stepped foot outside of Heartland. How do you even know what you’re missing? What? Do you watch the world on TV or something?”

He took my breath away. Anger bubbled up and I wanted to lash out at something. My vision went blurry. For two seconds, I lost control. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who could strike a nerve.

He was on me. I hadn’t even seen him move, but Jagger held me by the elbows. He pulled me out of the stream so we stood on a flat embankment beside it. He towered over me, eyes flashing as he tried to read what was inside.

“There’s shifter in you,” he said. “I can smell it. But, that’s impossible. You’re human. I can sense that through and through. What did they do to you?”

“Nothing!” Hot tears stung my eyes as I jerked away from him. “I’m not a freak. Don’t treat me like one. I’m just me. I’m Rowan. That’s all.”

“That’s not all. Who said you needed to take those shots? Your aunt? Does she get them from him? Rowan...if you knew what I know. The things he’s tried to do to human women. Whatever they’re giving you, it’s not for your benefit. I’m sure of it. Let me help you.”

“Why? Why on earth would you want to help me?” I knew the answer. Why didn’t he? Once again, I felt a wall of darkness rising up around him. There was a reason I couldn’t get in his head like the rest of the patrols. Alpha. The word tumbled over and over in my head. It held the answers. It held power.

I couldn’t get to Jagger the way I could the other shifters because he wasn’t like the other shifters. He was raw power, strength, danger. And yet, his touch seared straight to my heart. I craved it. His nature called to mine even though I didn’t fully understand what mine held.

“We have a doctor,” he said. “A shifter doctor. A human one too. Let me take you to them. They can help you. I know they can. I’m asking you to trust me.”

“Oh, I’ve been to plenty of doctors.”

“Who? Valent’s doctors? You’re lucky you’re not already dead.”

Aunt Grace’s words thundered through me. If I didn’t have my medication, I’d die just like her children had. Her terror seeped into me. She believed it. She’d seen it.

“If you help me,” Jagger said, “I swear to you, Rowan. I’ll get you out of here. I’ll get you to people who can make you better.”

“Better? I told you. There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“I’m sorry. Not better. But, if you need something medically, I’d rather have you get it from real doctors with your best interests at heart. Not Valent. God. It makes me sick thinking about what he could be pumping into you. I’d almost bet my life he’s making you sick, not treating you. You’re too close to this. You have no idea what he’s capable of.”

They were the same words Aunt Grace had uttered.

“Rowan, help me.” He shook me gently.

“I don’t owe you anything,” I said. “It’s the other way around in case you forgot. I told you I can handle the Pack. I can. But not if you keep stirring things up.”

Again, my words held more than one meaning. Why didn’t he feel what I felt? We stood there in a stalemate, staring into each other’s eyes. Each of us wondering what the hell was wrong with the other.

Finally, I couldn’t stand it another second. I forced the issue. I took Jagger’s hand and pressed it between my breasts. I took my other hand and pressed it over his heart. One heartbeat. Two. My pulse slowed at first, his quickened. Then, slowly, our hearts beat in time.

Jagger’s eyes widened at first with shock. His lips curled back and a growl came from the deepest part of him. Feral. Unbidden.

I had been wrong about everything. My power didn’t work on Jagger like the other shifters. It affected him much, much deeper.

Heat unspooled in me, settling low in my core. Desire flooded my senses and it got hard to breathe.

“Jagger!” I said, raw and breathless.

I was spinning. Lust. Confusion. Fear. It snaked around me and pulled me down. It was as if true north altered for me in the space of a moment. I’d long suspected what we were to each other, but until that instant, I hadn’t been sure.

Jagger wasn’t just a shifter. He wasn’t just an Alpha, though that alone made him special. There was nothing wrong with me. Whatever was different just fell away. As my heart beat in time with Jagger’s for the first time in my life I knew one true thing.

He was mine.

Jagger moved first. He pulled his hand away from my heart and cupped my face. I grabbed his wrists. His eyes searched mine. Pain etched deep lines in his face.

“Rowan,” he whispered my name as both a question and an answer.

Then, he kissed me. There was passion in it, but pain and grief too. His. Mine. I was drowning and he became my lifeline.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I could only receive him as our lips pressed together. A kaleidoscope of colors spun behind my eyes.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

The world stopped spinning and Jagger pulled away. He let out a choked sound and put the back of his hand to his lips, not wanting to feel what I knew burned through him.

I stayed stock still. His pain uncoiled inside me. It was deep. Absolute. Dark. More than anything, I wanted to touch him and bring him back to the light.

“No!” he said.

“Jagger!”

He held a hand up. “No.” Shaking his head, he took a series of faltering steps backward.

“Jagger, wait…”

It was too late. He let out a howl that echoed through the trees. He dropped to his knees and shifted in one powerful, magic-filled instant.

His wolf stood tall, majestic, his silvery fur glistening under the setting sun. Then, he turned and disappeared into the woods.