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Seraphina pushed her plate away, her appetite completely gone despite the delicious array of food. She studied Macie's face, searching for deceit but finding only genuine concern. From across the room, she felt Orion's gaze on her like physical heat against her skin. When she glanced up, he was indeed watching her, his expression unreadable but intense beneath the warm glow of candlelight.

"He doesn't strike me as the explaining type," Seraphina muttered, reaching for her water glass.

Macie laughed, the sound bright and musical. "Give him a chance. The king may seem... intimidating, but he brought youhere to protect you. If there had been any other way, I'm sure he would have done things differently."

"By not kidnapping me, you mean?" Seraphina's fingers traced the condensation on her glass. "There's a novel concept."

"Was your house not burglarized? Were you not in danger?" Macie's hazel eyes held a surprising steadiness.

Seraphina's protest died on her lips. The woman was right – someone had broken in. Someone apparently had been after her. And these strange visions...

"So, just curious," Macie continued casually, "did you by any chance have a birthday recently?"

Seraphina's eyes widened. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Just a hunch," Macie said with a mysterious smile. "Let me guess – your thirtieth?"

A chill ran down Seraphina's spine. "Yes. How did you?—"

"And I'm willing to bet things haven't been quite... normal since then, have they?"

The visions. The premonitions. The feeling that she was losing her mind. Seraphina's mouth went dry.

"Do you know what's happening to me?" she whispered.

Macie placed a warm hand over hers. "You're changing, awakening. And people might want to use what you're becoming for their own benefit."

Seraphina looked around the dining room at these people who seemed so normal yet claimed to be something else entirely. Across the room, Orion stood with casual dominance, his broad shoulders and commanding presence drawing every eye when he spoke. There was something primal about him, something that called to a newly awakened part of her she hadn't known existed until now.

"And what exactly am I becoming?" Seraphina asked.

"That's for Orion to tell you," Macie replied, squeezing her hand. "But I think you already know something special is happening."

Seraphina exhaled slowly. She was a scientist. She believed in evidence and logical explanations. But what was the logical explanation for seeing things before they happened? For the king of wolf shifters bringing her to his island?

"I haven't had a vision since I got here," she realized aloud.

"That's interesting." Macie's eyebrows rose. "Perhaps being this place is stabilizing you somehow."

For the first time since waking up in this strange place, Seraphina felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe these people did have answers. Maybe staying wasn't the worst idea, at least until she understood what was happening to her.

Across the room, Orion's gaze caught hers again. His eyes – those impossibly gray eyes that seemed to see right through her – held an unspoken question. And despite everything, Seraphina found herself wanting to answer it.

Suddenly, as if sensing her unexpected longing for him, Orion excused himself from his conversation and crossed the dining room with purposeful strides. The crowd parted for him naturally like waves before the prow of a ship. Seraphina's heartbeat quickened with each step he took, and she found herself straightening in her chair.

"Would you care for dessert?" His deep voice rumbled over her, sending an unexpected shiver down her spine.

Seraphina's mind instantly conjured images that had nothing to do with cake or pastries – his hands skimming her waist, his mouth capturing hers, and those strong arms pulling her against his broad chest. Heat bloomed across her cheeks and spread downward, warming her from the inside out. She swallowed hard, mortified by the direction of her thoughts.

"I... um..."

Orion's lips curled into a knowing smile as he set before her a glistening confection – layers of dark chocolate and what looked like berries, topped with a delicate gold leaf.

"Our chef's specialty," he said, settling into the chair Macie had vacated moments earlier. "Chocolate infused with local berries that only grow on this island."

Seraphina felt utterly foolish. Of course, he meant actual dessert. What was wrong with her? She'd just met this man – this king who'd essentially abducted her – and here she was having inappropriate thoughts about him.

Yet she couldn't deny the pull she felt between them. Despite his age – she guessed at least twenty years her senior based on the distinguished gray at his temples – something about him called to her on a primal level she'd never experienced.