A noise at the front of the trailer raised the fine hairs down my arms. The scritching of claws against metal dumped a load of adrenaline into my system. Was Aisha back for round two? Heart clogging my throat, I hauled myself out of the booth, crept to the door and peered out the window.

No one was there except for a mosquito hawk who thumped against the fist-sized exterior porch light mounted beside the steps.

Cocking my head, I filtered out the ambient noise until I heard the soft hum of the wards. They were intact, so if we had visitors, they were the friendly sort. Holding on to that comforting line of thought, I unhooked the inner screen door then shoved both it and the outer metal door open. I froze with my hand on the latch and swallowed convulsively.

White fur, matted with saliva. Slender ears perked for sounds they were past hearing. Head twisted perpendicular to its spine. Muscular hind legs still twitching.

A rabbit.

I really, really hoped this wasn’t the warg version of a welcome present. Or an apology. Aisha didn’t strike me as the kind to make amends, but I could picture her thinking nothing said I’m sorry quite like a fresh kill left to bleed out on your doorstep.

Chiding myself for getting choked up over a bunny, I took the first step down then leapt to the ground, knees protesting as they absorbed the impact. Nape crawling with the sensation of being watched, I forced myself to squat and trace the furrows etched into the metal siding with a fingertip. A sweeping glance under my lashes told me the gift-giver hadn’t waited around to witness its reception. I picked the furry corpse up by the ankles and set it on a spare cinderblock while I decided what to do with it.

“Ellis.”

Pivoting my weight to one side, I witnessed the moment Graeson exited from between two enormous oak trees. His rumpled shirt looked marginally fresher than his wrinkled jeans. His feet were bare and stained brown with grime. When he smiled at me, my pulse kicked up a notch. “Where have you been?” I stood and dug my bare toes into the soft dirt to anchor myself. “I met your alpha female earlier, and by met I mean she went for the jugular.”

The woman who stepped into the clearing behind him was as tall and lanky as a teenager, with sun-kissed skin and a splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her china-blue eyes shone, and her strawberry-blond hair spilled over her shoulders as she bounded toward me as naked as the day she was born. She smacked into my side and wrapped her arms around me, almost toppling us both.