He was pretty. So pretty from up close. He had long, long lashes and dark eyes; wavy blond hair like an Adonis. He smelled like wood, Muscat, and sin.

How come she was seeing Coveney close enough for her to smell him now?

Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be…

“Arrrrg!” she yelled, waking up to her flesh burning her.

She definitely wasn’t dead, because death wasn’t supposed to hurt so much. Unless she’d been sent to purgatory.

“What the hell!”

“Don’t move. I’m almost done.”

Now that she was a little more conscious, she could see that he had some sort of balm in his hands and he was applying it to her wound.

Oh, good. She bit her lip and did her best to stop herself from crying out, letting him do what he could.

“It hurts like a bitch, I know,” he told her. “Rain had to cover half a dozen of my wounds with this shit.”

He was talking to her. Moving his lips and all. Which meant she was supposed to somehow make herself talk back.

She carried on staring like a lunatic.

“You’re a contradiction, Ava.”

“How do you know my name?” she croaked, her throat feeling like sandpaper.

“Ran through your application to join our pride. I talked about what you did yesterday with the rest of the pride; turns out, Daunte had already seen you, and he remembered you from the prospective members.”

“Is that how you found me?”

She frowned, concerned about how easily he’d read through the trail of breadcrumbs she’d left. She’d only listed a burner phone on her application, and she’d paid for it with cash. But if he had done it, others might have, too.

She had to get rid of the phone. Her stomach twisted; her brother might know her number. She’d given it to her bank, just in case he contacted them, too.

“Nah. I had a wolf helping me track you down. Figured you might have needed an antidote.”

Now that the pain had receded some, she felt his hands more acutely. They weren’t soft; he had calluses and rough, dry skin.

“So, Ava-no-last-name, who supposedly wants to join our pride, yet never turned up for our trials. What’s your deal? Just based on that information, Rye figured you may be a spy.”

“Rye?” she asked. It wasn’t the first unfamiliar name he threw her way, but she was trying to make sense of what came out of his pretty mouth now.

“Our Alpha. Anyway, spy potential. But then, you go and warn us enemies were coming and you saved my life a few minutes later. So, yeah, contradiction is all I got.”

She shrugged. “I was there. Almost made it to the door, too. Then, I saw the giants you were interviewing and I doubled back,” she partially lied.

To be honest, she hadn’t needed to join their pride; all she’d been after had been an audience with their Alphas.

But there had been a chance they might just have locked her up, and called her enemies. Staying away and observing them had made sense. After weeks of looking into their little peaceful world, though, she’d found herself wanting to see if there was a place for her there.

He smiled. “My Alpha picked you to come here in person. Despite the lack of last name. And the fact that you’re five foot two. You should have come.”

She winced as he tied a bandage around her. Finding herself half sitting up, and ever so close to him, she felt awkward enough to start babbling.

“So, you’re a designated healer?”

He’d done everything the hard way, so it was clear he didn’t have healing powers, but prides without healers had a member who volunteered for first aid. It rarely was an Enforcer, though, and from what she recalled of when she’d observed the Wyvern, that’s what he was. He’d been patrolling often; more often than anyone else in the pride, actually.

“No.”

He left it at that, which meant that more silence ensued, with his face so close she could feel his breath on her naked breast.

Blushing like a teenager, she looked around the unfamiliar setting. She was in a large, simple room, much more spacious than the one she’d occupied at the inn. The eastern wall was entirely made of reflective glass, and her eagle approved, enjoying the view, even in the dark.

Someone had removed her jacket, and it lay on a white dresser, next to her shoes and pants.

She’d been naked around other people since she’d first shifted at age thirteen, so about half of her life. It had never been an issue. Right now, she had to fight her instinct to cross her arms across her chest. Not because she didn’t want him to look at her, exactly… but she felt so damn self-conscious.

“Then why isn’t your healer taking care of me?”

“We killed her a few days ago.” Her mouth fell open. “She’s the reason we had so many enemies at our door.”

She’d betrayed her pride, then. Ava’s eyes clouded as she remembered those who’d risen against her flock.

Not everyone had joined them, but the Enforcers had killed all those who spoke against them.

She closed her eyes, willing herself to stop thinking of it.

“Good.”

The bitch had deserved to die, just like her old enforcers did.

The tiger chuckled low. “Good? What if she had her reasons?”

Ava shrugged. “You had kids, and she sent an army against you, regardless. There’s no reason that could justify that. How did you get out of it, by the way?”

Her mind went directly to Knox. Had he been there? Was he still around?

“You’ve heard of Scions?” the tiger asked, and she rolled her eyes.

Had she ever.

“I’m from Italy. Most Scions are still based around Rome and Athens, you know. Except the Scandinavian lot, I guess.”

She bit her lip, wondering if she’d said too much. Damn her stupid babble mouth.

“Italy? You don’t speak with a Mediterranean accent.” He replied. “If anything, you sound British.”

She forced a smile. “British mother.”

At least she wasn’t lying. She just didn’t add that her Russian, her Spanish, her French, and her Chinese also had no trace of Italian.

She may not have been raised to run for her life, but blending in, making foreign dignitaries comfortable, that had been drilled into her early and often.

“Anyway, you were saying about Scions?”

He was frowning when he explained they’d received help from their kind, perhaps not understanding just how rare that was. Scions were as selfish as they were self-centered. Which was understandable, because well, they were deities.

“They’ll ask for a favor in exchange one day,” she said, and the tiger nodded, not questioning her.

“All done.”

She looked down to her bandage. It was probably overkill; he’d wrapped it all around her torso, breasts included.

Now that he was done, he sat up, and took a step away from her. She felt the absence in a way that made her question her sanity. Like he’d removed a part of her. Which was point-blank ridiculous.

“As soon as I get out of this door, my Alphas are going to ask me about you. I’ll tell them I owe you, and they’ll agree to let you stay for the night.”

She nodded.

“Thank you. You didn’t owe me anything. I was just…”

“I did, and now my debt is repaid,” he replied, interrupting her.

Pain flashed through her, a pain that wasn’t caused by her stupid wound. He was being nice about it, at least; he could have told her to get out of here right away.

“So,” the shifter carried on, “if you want to stay come morning, you’re going to have to come up with a story. A good story. Preferably the truth.”

She opened her mouth and closed it. The truth. Telling them the truth right away wasn’t only trusting them with her life; it was trusting them with the lives of all her kind. Could she do that?

“Rest up. I’ll bring some broth in a bit. You have time. Just not much of it.”

He turned on his heels as she bit her lip. Before he’d opened the door, Ava stopped him, suddenly aware of an embarrassing detail. She’d observed him for weeks, but…

“Hey?” she called. When he turned back to her, she asked, “What’s your name?”

Eagles had keen vision, but there was no way she could have caught what he was actually saying from high up in the sky.

His eyes softened a bit. Ava watched, dazzled and practically shocked as he smiled. She hadn’t seen him smile, not like that, not even to the children. It was like someone had suddenly lit a candle in the darkness.

“Coveney. Coveney Walker. I’m the Head Enforcer here.”