Page 33

"I'm not just someone with dormant genes, am I?" Her voice trembled. "I'm part of this prophecy."

Kieran's expression shuttered, the vulnerability she'd glimpsed vanishing behind a mask of authority. "We need to go. Now."

"But we've barely scratched the surface?—"

"Now, Maya." His tone brooked no argument as he rolled the scroll and returned it to the chest. "This place isn't safe any longer."

The journey back east was tense and largely silent. Maya's mind raced with the implications of what they'd discovered. Not just that she might carry shifter blood, but that she could be the key to something that terrified Kieran enough to make him retreat behind his Alpha walls.

"Are you going to talk to me at all?" she finally demanded as the sun began to set.

"What do you want me to say?" His voice was clipped. "That finding out my mate might be the subject of an ancient prophecythat could upend our entire shifter world doesn't complicate things for me?"

"How about saying that this prophecy scares you?"

He stepped closer, his expression fierce. "What scares me is what they'll do to you if they find out about this prophecy. What scares me is that I might not be strong enough to protect you from that."

THIRTEEN

KIERAN

Maya stepped even closer to Kieran, her chin tilted upward in defiance. Her green eyes blazed with a fire that made his wolf howl inside him. The evening sun caught the copper highlights in her hair, turning them to liquid flame.

"I'll be fine," she insisted, jabbing her finger into his chest. "Nothing bad will happen to me. I'm not some fragile little human who needs protecting."

Kieran's jaw clenched, his teeth grinding against the force of his frustration. How could she be so brilliant and yet so blind to the danger she was in? "I can't guarantee that's true, Maya. The Council has killed for less than what we discovered today." His voice lowered to a low growl. "And I can't let anything happen to you because you are my mate. Do you understand what that means? I cannot lose you."

The word 'mate' hung between them, charged with a significance neither had fully addressed until now.

Maya's expression softened, though that stubborn spark remained. "I'm not going anywhere, Kieran. I'll be by your side while we figure this out together."

Something in the way she said it—the quiet certainty and the absence of qualification—made Kieran's carefully constructed barriers crumble. His wolf surged forward, demanding he finally claim what was his. The rational part of his mind, the part that had spent years navigating pack politics and hiding his true feelings, simply surrendered.

Without warning, he bent down and swept her into his arms, backpack and all, lifting her against his chest as if she weighed nothing.

"What are you doing?" she gasped, her arms instinctively wrapping around his neck.

"Showing you exactly what you mean to me," he growled, kicking open the cabin door and carrying her inside.

He set her down gently once they crossed the threshold, her backpack sliding to the floor with a thud. His eyes never left hers as he moved deliberately to secure the door, sliding the heavy wooden beam they'd constructed yesterday into place across it.

Maya watched him, her breath coming faster and her pupils dilating as he stalked back toward her. "Are you planning to keep me prisoner again?" Her voice carried a husky edge that belied the challenge in her words.

"No," Kieran reached her in two long strides, cupping her face in his hands. "I'm planning to worship you."

Any response she might have had disappeared as his mouth claimed hers, hungry and possessive. His hand slid into her hair, cradling the base of her skull as he deepened the kiss. She tasted like something sweet and something uniquely Maya—something his wolf recognized as home.

"I've wanted this since I first caught your scent," he murmured against her lips, walking her backward toward his bed. "You have no idea what you do to me."

Maya made a small sound of pleasure as his kisses trailed down her neck. "I think I'm starting to get the picture."

Kieran smiled against her skin, then gently guided her down onto his bed. She looked at him with those impossible green eyes, her red hair fanned out across his pillow, and something primal roared to life inside him.

Mine, he thought, lowering himself over her. His hands skimmed the curves of her body through her clothes, memorizing every dip and rise. His lips found the pulse point at her throat, and he dragged his teeth lightly over the sensitive skin there.

"Tell me you want this," he demanded, his voice rough with need. His wolf was nearing the surface now, demanding he claim, mark, and possess. But the man in him needed her consent, needed to know she was choosing this—choosing him.

Maya's fingers tangled in his hair, pulling his mouth back to hers. "I want this," she breathed against his lips. "I want you, Kieran."