Page 31

She shifted slightly, and immediately his hold tightened.

"Good morning," he murmured, his voice sleep-rough and impossibly sexy.

Maya turned to face him, momentarily stunned by the sight of his tousled black hair and the intensity of his eyes regarding her with undisguised hunger. "Morning."

"I've been thinking," Kieran said, his expression turning serious. "After what you shared last night about your childhood, and considering what Lena said about dormant genes... there's a place I should take you."

Maya propped herself up on one elbow. "What kind of place?"

"The Silvercrest archives. We keep records going back centuries—genealogies, shifting histories, and medical research." His fingers traced her jawline. "If you have wolf blood, there might be answers there."

Her scientific curiosity instantly ignited. "You'd take me there? Isn't that against your pack rules?"

"Spectacularly so." He grinned, the scar along his temple crinkling. "But I'm finding that a lot of rules seem less important since I met you."

Maya bit her lip. "Before we go, could we stop at my van? I need my clothes, my notebooks?—"

"It's risky," he frowned, suddenly all Alpha male again. "But it's on our way. We'll need to make it quick."

An hour later, they were making their way through the forest. Maya couldn't help noticing how different everything felt. The earth beneath her boots seemed to speak to her with each step. The scents of pine, moss, and nearby water registered with startling clarity. But most disorienting was her awarenessof Kieran—his scent wrapped around her like a physical entity, woodsy and wild with undertones of something uniquely him that called to her on a primitive level.

"You keep sniffing," Kieran observed, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Everything smells... more." She inhaled deeply. "Especially you."

His pace faltered. "What do I smell like to you?"

"Like... pine and thunderstorms and..." she hesitated, embarrassed by the intensity of her reaction, "...like something I've been looking for without knowing it."

Kieran's eyes flashed silver. "That's your wolf recognizing mine."

"But I don't have a wolf."

"Not yet." His voice dropped an octave. "But something's waking up in you, Maya. I can sense it."

When they reached the clearing where her modified research van was parked, Maya stopped abruptly. The driver's side door hung open, swinging slightly in the breeze. Even from a distance, she could see the destruction.

"No, no, no..." She broke into a run.

The interior had been systematically destroyed. Her specialized cameras smashed, hard drives cracked open, and maps torn to shreds. Even her carefully organized specimen collection had been scattered across the floor and stomped on.

Maya stood frozen among the wreckage, her hands trembling. "All my research..."

Kieran moved through the space with predatory alertness, his nostrils flaring. "Granite Ridge wolves. Same ones who attacked the cabin." His jaw clenched. "This is territorial marking—destroying what belongs to someone they see as an enemy."

Maya opened a hidden compartment she'd created for theft protection, where she kept her backup laptop and drives. She never thought it would come in handy against the wolves she was researching. She gathered her spare backpack from the hidden compartment, relieved to find her laptop and drives still intact inside. "At least I have this. Small miracles."

"Take what you need," Kieran said, his eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. "We shouldn't linger."

She quickly gathered clothing, toiletries, and a few treasured books that had survived the attack. As she worked, she caught Kieran watching her with a mixture of concern and something deeper and more possessive.

"What?" she asked, self-conscious under his intense gaze.

"You're handling this better than most would." Pride colored his voice. "Most humans would be falling apart."

Maya squared her shoulders. "Maybe I'm not most humans. Maybe I never was."

The truth of her words hung between them as they set off toward their next destination—and possibly, answers about who she really was.