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“Youwhat?”

Blair shrugs—heshrugs, like what he just said isn’t certifiably insane—and fiddles idly with one of the vines on the gazebo. “It was time for me to move on.”

I turn to face him, mouth opening, then closing, then opening again as I come up completely at a loss for words. This is Blair. Ewan Blair. Director Blair. Thinking of him as anything else is… absurd.

“There were more important things I needed to focus on.”

I shake my head in immediate denial. “Please don’t tell me you quit because of me. That’s insane, Blair. Truly. I—”

“No, not because of you,” he says, then thinks for a moment. “Well, maybe a little because of you. But also because it was time. And I left the place in good hands.”

“I can’t imagine the Bureau without you. Or you, without the Bureau.”

“I’m not sure I can, either. But I’m ready to find out what that might look like.”

Standing here, feeling the sheer magnitude of everything that’s changed in the last half-hour, it’s suddenly… not so impossible.

Given how completely unrecognizable my whole life seems right now, maybe it won’t be so hard to see him as something new, too.

“I just… god,” I say in a rush of breath. “I don’t even know how to process any of this.”

“Take all the time you need. I’m—”

“Not going anywhere,” I finish for him, and he laughs softly before pulling me into an embrace.

“That’s right, em—Kenna.”

I don’t know what to do with all this tenderness. Not from him. Not with how much time we’ve spent at odds, always burning, always challenging and dancing around each other, taking care not to get too close.

This ease and gentleness, the way he strokes a hand up and down my spine and presses his lips to the top of my head, it sends the world tilting even further off its axis.

Combined with everything he’s told me, the fact that he somehow now believes I’m his mate, all of it makes me want to retreat. Not out of anger this time, or pride, but pure, choking overwhelm.

I take a step back and he lets me go, watching me carefully and following my every cue.

“I’ll see you,” I say. “I mean, if you’re planning to stay in town…”

“I’ll find you,” he assures me, reaching up and tucking a curl behind my ear. “Always.”

42

Blair

Some of my equilibrium has returned by the following morning.

Some. Not all.

I suspect I won’t be feeling anywhere near balanced until matters between Kenna and I are settled.

Not that I have any idea when that will be as I wake up, shift from my dragon form back to my human one—something that’s been surprisingly easy to do these past few days—and walk to my car to get a clean set of clothes.

I’ve been staying out in the brush near Kenna’s parents’ home, sleeping in my dragon form with the supplies and clothes I’ve gathered stuffed into my rental Jeep.

When Kenna refused me use of her cell phone, I had to get creative. Even though I nearly exhausted myself with the round trip to Seattle and back, it was worth it. I arranged for a rental car out here, clothes and money to be waiting when I got back, and special overnight delivery of a surprise I hope Kenna allows me to show her later.

But all of that can wait right now.

I haven’t seen my mate in almost a day, since I left her yesterday after our conversation. I know she needs her space and time to process everything, and I’m more than willing to give it to her, but there’s no part of me that can resist seeing her at least for a moment. Just to check in and make sure she’s alright.