Despite my best efforts, I hung on his words. What sort of wishes did he harbor for us? Regret, I was learning, wasn’t a strong enough emotion to deter him from accomplishing his goals. He would use me, and he might regret it later. No. He would regret it, but he had me where he wanted me, and he wasn’t about to let a small thing like a wish he couldn’t verbalize stand in his way.

Dell followed me inside but a male caught her eye, and she crossed to him with halting steps. I waited to see what it was about, but she waved me on with a bright smile that didn’t warm her eyes, and I went because Graeson was right. There were dynamics here I didn’t understand, and the last thing I wanted was to get Dell hurt by sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.

Once in my room, I flopped onto the cot, thoughts circling back to Dell and my partial shift. I relived that sparkling moment of connectivity. The pack bond had glittered in my mind like a serpentine trail winding toward… I wasn’t sure. Contentment? Serenity? Happiness? What might have happened to me if I’d followed the path? Would I have been embraced by it? Absorbed into the collective? What shimmering promise awaited all who found their feet planted on that diamond-dust road?

All the what might have beens were as bittersweet as the memory of Graeson’s feverish caress. He shouldn’t have handled me that way. Not when he barely knew me. Not when I wasn’t pack. He was confused by that brief mental trespass across the pack collective. That was all.

I lifted my hand and turned it back and forth. The thought of shifting into a wolf who could outrun my problems was all too tempting. How lucky Graeson was to have a beast to share his burden.

The shack’s previous owner had skimped on the insulation, which meant I had no problem picking out the rhythmic crunching of gravel invading my thoughts. It sounded like more than two pairs of boots. A set of wargs? Sentries maybe? I shoved to my feet and yanked the soiled tablecloth-turned-curtain away from the cramped window.

A white horse ambled across the parking lot. Preternatural energy flowed around it, buffeting its mane and tail in an unearthly breeze. It stamped its front leg and tossed its head, beckoning me with its liquid eyes, black and gleaming. Taunting me. My fingers pressed into the cool glass. I hadn’t realized my arm lifted until my index finger traced the curve of its spine through dust caking the glass. That spike of cold shocked me aware, and I jerked my hand back.