“You’re going to howl like this?” The shock of finding her naked popped the words out of my mouth before my brain caught up to them. Unlike with Graeson, whose nakedness inspired bone-deep female appreciation, Dell’s nudity called my protective instincts to the fore. I would have offered her my jacket to cover herself if I’d worn one today.

“Um, no. That’s not how we operate.” She snorted. “Besides, we need to keep a low profile until the others arrive. Howling in wolf form would announce our position. Howling in human form, well, that’s not something that happens without four or five cases of beer involved.”

The pack bond. A ping of thought bounced off the inside of my skull before I realized I had reached out on reflex to grasp that golden highway before slamming into a roadblock. Damn it. One taste of their connection should not have left me starving for more.

Dell lifted her arm, clearly reading my mind without help from the bond, a smile dancing on her lips. “Or…you can tell him yourself.”

I stared at her hand and wet my lips. What if it didn’t work this time? What if the first spark had been a fluke? Such decadent inclusion could become addictive to a loner like me. It was no replacement for the twin bond, or for the parents who had abandoned me. Even in the presence of many, I ached with their absence. I always would, and no amount of warg blood could change that. All it could do was show me exactly what I was missing.

“No.” I wiped my damp palms on my pants. “You can handle this.”

I didn’t think I could endure the loss of that blissful state of communion if I achieved it again.

“Oh.” She pushed herself upright. “Okay.” She blinked and stared at me, waiting. “I got him. What do you want to pass along?”

“Tell him we’re at a campground near the lake.”

“Give him a minute.” She flushed. “He’s exhausting his vocabulary of curse words.” The idea of Graeson losing his cool over my audacity to ignore his orders coaxed a grin out of me. Dell cleared her throat and lowered her voice to a suitably masculine octave, the better to mock him with. “I’m not above cuffing you to the bed, Ellis. Don’t defy my orders again.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I rolled my eyes and ignored the bed comment.

Dell smothered a girlish laugh then switched back to Graeson. “Can you be more specific?”

“Hold that thought.” I hiked back to the path and glanced around for signs. Bingo. Someone had used a scroll saw to write Upper Branch Campground into a weathered rectangle of wood nailed to a tree trunk. I returned to Dell and relayed the information. “That’s as specific as I can get without a phone or a compass.”