Page 18

“I’ll drive you,” she assures me. “I’m just… what happened?”

“I’ll tell you about it on the way.”

She nods, heads back inside to get her keys, and I give Elias one last weak smile before heading to get into the passenger side of Nora’s car. Slumping against the seat, I stare blankly out the window, watching as Nora reappears, kisses Elias, and walks to the car. He stays in the doorway as she goes, watching her the whole way, then waving as we pull out of the driveway.

The sight of them puts an ache in my chest. A happy one, considering how winding and challenging their path to each other was, but also one that twists and tightens unexpectedly somewhere in the vicinity of my heart.

Pulling out of the long, gated driveway and onto the road, Nora keeps glancing over at me nervously.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not comfortable sharing,” she says. “But I’m honestly shocked that Blair would be so…”

“Impulsive? Reckless? Brutish?” I supply a few adjectives.

Nora lets out a sigh. “That’s not the Blair I know.”

“Yeah,” I say, trying not to let the bitterness creep into my voice. “I guess I’m just special.”

Nora makes a small, concerned noise in the back of her throat. “Did he… hurt you? Do you want to go to the police?”

I shake my head slowly. “No, he didn’t hurt me. And… I don’t know. He seemed like he really regretted it, like he knew he fucked up. Or, at least that’s what I’m assuming. He was barely able to speak to me.”

“That still doesn’t give him the right to just take you.”

“He gave me back, didn’t he?” I say with a small, hollow laugh.

“Kenna,” Nora says warily.

“I know.”

WhatI know, I’m not exactly certain, but I don’t think I want to get Blair in trouble. What I want more than anything is just to talk to him, for him to explain what’s going on in that thick dragon skull of his. But with how our last few interactions have gone, I’m beginning to think there’s little to no chance of that ever happening.

Sighing again, I lean my head back against the seat and close my eyes. “He kidnapped me when my date tried to stick his tongue down my throat.”

“What? The shifter?”

I told Nora and Holly all about my hot date when we got together last night for our weekly thirsty Thursday wine night at Holly’s place. They’d been encouraging, supportive, just as impressed with the wolf boy’s credentials as I had been.

“Yeah. The shifter. Total dud, actually. And not too good at realizing when a woman doesn’t want to be slobbered over.”

“Shit, Kenna. I’m sorry. But how does Blair come into it?”

“As soon as the wolf started mauling me, Blair was just… there. Shifted. Swooped right down and carried me off.”

A startled laugh breaks from Nora’s mouth, and she immediately pulls one hand off the steering wheel to stifle it. “I’m sorry. Truly. I don’t mean to laugh. It’s not funny.”

An exhausted, slightly hysterical giggle rises in my own chest. “It iskindafunny.”

As we continue on toward Seattle, I tell her the rest of it. How Blair locked onto me that first day at the Bureau, our conversation in his office, the elevator ride.

“And he claims it’s not a mating thing?”

I grimace. “Absolutely, unequivocally not a mating thing.”

Glancing over at Nora, she still has her eyes on the road, but her brow is furrowed in concern.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Blair just has… a complicated history when it comes to mates.”