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‘Keep it steady. Let it run, then pull.’

She fumbled, kept reeling, tugged, and then, with an awkward but triumphant splash, a sleek silver trout arced out of the water, wriggling like a miracle.

Savvine whistled and spun to Xander, grinning. ‘Ha! I did it!’

Xander reached for the slithering fish and cut the line, tossing her catch into a hover cool box by his side.

‘Impressive,belleza.’

She danced in the shallows, pole still in hand, her laughter bubbling out unfiltered.

Xander glanced at her, one brow lifted, the corner of his mouth curling with undeniable amusement. His eyes roved her face, lit, alive, and flushed with joy.

‘Not bad for a first timer,’ he said, voice softer now.

She blushed before she could stop it and grinned back. ‘I’m a natural.’

‘That you are.’

She dropped the trout into the waiting ice bucket, reset the line, and cast again. Her movements were smoother and more organic this time.

The lake shimmered like glass.

Still, the question burned.

‘So,’ she said, not looking at him, ‘how did you do it?’

‘Do what?’

‘Vacuum. Missile. No helmet. You caught and threw a warhead like a toy and didn’t implode. I want answers, Xander Roman.’

He muttered something under his breath that sounded like ‘of course you do’, then flicked his line out again.

With a sigh, he chose to share after a moment. ‘‘We’re made of and regenerate nucleic-powered, aetheric shifting cells in the bloodstream.’

She turned to gape at him. ‘We who?’

‘My strong guard. Myhermanosand I got caught in an unexplained nuclear accident, if you can believe it. We all have similar powers that differ here and there.’

Her soul lurched, and she shook her head, trying to get her thoughts around his admission. ‘You’re all walking supermen who shift into transcendent wolves?’

His jaw tensed at her arched brow, disbelieving tone. ‘We’re more than a teen’s comic book impression of super humans. We’re lethal killers who can flit between mortal and spectral form. We can stalk through walls, burn through minds, freeze blood mid-vein, and tear through a whole platoon before they clock that we are there.’

He leaned closer, his voice a dangerous murmur against Savvine’s ear. ‘And that’s just me on a calm day.’

She blinked, stunned by the sheer magnitude of what he signified, what he was. While also aware that he was a spectral weapon wrapped in charm, and somehow, impossibly, still human.

She deflected the arc of lust that went through her as she stared into his eyes.

Her brows lifted. ‘So you’re enhanced.’

‘You say that like it’s a dirty word.’

‘It is, if you use it to be smug.’

‘I wasn’t being arrogant; I was just sharing my reality.’

‘You can say whatever you want, I still caught a self-satisfied smirk.’