I didn’t notice the note just inside the door to my room until I was returning from the shower. Meet me at the stones.

Nothing more than that. Not even a signature. I didn’t recognize the handwriting, which told me it could only have been written by one person.

My pulse picked up speed, even as I wondered what he might want with me. He must have come by while I was showering. Had any of the others seen him standing by my door? Undoubtedly, our rooms extended down the length of the tunnel and off to the right and left three doors down from mine, forming a capital-T shape. There was no chance that no one had happened to pass through at the right, or wrong, time.

“What of it?” I asked myself, my voice the only sound in the otherwise silent room.

We were friends. That was all they needed to know.

So why did my heart begin to race when I knew he wanted to see me? That certainly didn’t happen when Owen or Dallas wished to speak with me.

His knowledge of my affliction had woven a connection between us, whether I’d known it at the time or not. Two days had passed, and I hadn’t yet managed to remove him from my thoughts. He was everywhere, all the time. His voice, his eyes, his hands on my arms. His kindness.

So kind. That was the most surprising of all. Anyone who looked at him would think him a brute, while he was large as all male shifters were, his body was what I could only describe as “brawny.” Yet as a lion, he moved with grace I wouldn’t have believed possible.

A man of contradictions.

And he wanted to see me outside.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Alan asked when I nearly crashed into him on my way out the door. He’d obviously been on his way in to see me.

Of all the times. I hadn’t exchanged more than a few words with him at a clip since our return. I tucked my hair behind my ears, then silently scolded myself for fidgeting. I wasn’t a child, and he hadn’t caught me doing anything wrong.

“I didn’t think I was in a hurry,” I lied. “I wanted something to eat, and then to go for a walk.”

“I want you to be careful out there,” he muttered, his brows drawing together.

“Why? Is something amiss?”

“…no. Not exactly.” It was his turn to lie, it seemed.

I heaved a sigh, Klaus forgotten for the moment. “What is it, truly? I’ve known you too long and too well to buy whatever it is you’re attempting to sell.”

His frown deepened. “I don’t know, honestly. It might be something, it might not. It could’ve been a tourist or hiker who lost their way.”

“A human, you mean. There was a human somewhere nearby.” My stomach knotted itself, then knotted the knot. If I’d indeed intended on finding something to eat prior to crashing into Alan, a change of plans would’ve been in order.

“We’re looking into it.”

“We?” I raised an eyebrow.

“You know who I mean. Along with Klaus.”

Which explained why he’d been prowling the woods as a lion. I hadn’t thought to ask him about it at the time, too wrapped up in my own concerns to question his actions.

“I see,” I murmured, imagining him putting himself in potential danger for our sakes. It wasn’t an image I particularly enjoyed, not one bit.

“So please.” Alan placed his hands on my shoulders in a familiar, practiced gesture. “Please, do not take too many chances out there. Times have changed.”

Had they ever. I promised to be careful and managed to extricate myself from his grip as politely as possible before moving on. Klaus would undoubtedly believe I’d chosen to ignore his note by now. What was it he wanted to speak about? Was he going to tell me what my brother had shared, that he’d sensed a foreign presence nearby?

He paced inside the circle of stones, hands deep in the pockets of his shorts, the picture of a man whose impatience had grown until it was nearly unbearable.

“I’m sorry,” I said as I joined him. “I was held up.”

“So I had assumed.”

Now that we were together, he relaxed. The frown lines on his brow smoothed and a faint smile touched the corners of his mouth. In an instant, he was a completely different man.

“What did you want to see me for?” I managed to ask over the furious racing of my heart. I wished it would stop betraying me as it did. I wasn’t entirely certain that this rush of feeling toward him was wise.

As an afterthought, I added, “Did you want to tell me about the presence you sensed, which you didn’t feel important enough to tell me about before?”

He growled. “No, it wasn’t that. Though it had something to do with it.”

“Why didn’t you say anything the other day, when I ran into you out there?”

“We had other things to discuss, or have you forgotten?”

My cheeks flushed at the memory. “You know I haven’t.”

“Then I should think you wouldn’t have to ask such a question,” he retorted, stern and perhaps a bit put-out by my impertinence. “It might interest you to know that I’ve been wracking my brain for two days, trying to find a way to bring your dragon back.”

My heart softened further than it already had, much to my dismay. “You have been? But… why? And what do you think you could do?”

“You might not like the answer.”

I groaned. “Wonderful start.”

His eyes darted back and forth, his head turning slightly to ensure we were alone before announcing, “I decided yesterday to share your problem with someone. Just one person. Mary.”

“You what?” If he’d punched me, I couldn’t have been more surprised. “You told her? Without asking me?”

“Ainsley, before you lose your temper, try listening to me.”

“I’ll lose my temper if I see fit,” I snarled. “How dare you speak to her about me without finding out how I felt about it?”

“Perhaps I knew you would take it the wrong way, as you have, and would fly off the handle over it. As you have!”

When I turned to storm off—somewhere, anywhere but where I stood with him in front of me—he closed his fingers around my arm in a vise grip and was not about to let go as easily as he had before.

“Let go of me,” I snarled, trying to pull away to no avail.

“Not until you listen,” he whispered, which was somehow more threatening than when he’d shouted. “I knew it was of no use to seek your permission, but that we’d find more answers with her help. She has resources we do not, and she can research away from prying eyes.”

He released me, nearly shoving me away in disgust. That small gesture pained me more than I would’ve guessed.

“Did she find something?” I asked, hands on my hips. It wouldn’t do to let him know how he hurt me. I wasn’t even certain why he had. The thought of him being disgusted with me…

He grunted, shaking his head. “Not yet. But if anyone can, she can. She even has the Appalachian clan digging around—not that she would tell them specifics,” he continued, raising his voice over my protests. “She simply has them looking through texts to find any recounting of a shifter who lost their animal, whatever it may be.”

An awkward silence fell over us, one which I wanted badly to fill. I hadn’t forgiven him for going behind my back, but that didn’t erase my guilt for overreacting as I had. He had a point, I wouldn’t have granted permission. Still, it would have been a nice gesture if he’d come to me first.

He was the one to break the silence. “So. I assume there have been no developments.”

I touched the stone closest to me, felt the smooth surface as I rested my palm against it. Centuries of weather had worn them down from what they’d originally been—back when I was a girl; there was hardly enough space between them through which to see the sun.

“No developments,” I murmured without looking at him.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He sounded it, too.

I felt compelled to ask, “Nothing on your side? I mean, looking out for intruders?”

“You would be the first to know.”

“I doubt it,” I snorted. “I’d think Alan would be. Or Dallas, or Tamhas. Not me.”

“Yes, you.” His voice had gone soft, like a caress, and I allowed it to wash over me for the briefest, sweetest of moments.

“Why?” I whispered, still facing the stone.

“Because…”

I held my breath when he hesitated. What was he about to say? What did I want him to say?

He cleared his throat. “Mary had an idea she wanted me to share with you. She suggested you imagine yourself shifting, imagining it as clearly as possible with every detail precise as can be, and see if your dragon responds to that images. It’s better than doing nothing.”

My heart sank. The moment, if there’d been one at all, was over.

I looked over my shoulder to thank him.

He was gone, having silently slipped away.