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Before I knew it, our bodies were right against one another, not a single inch of space keeping us apart. "I'm not supposed to trust anybody," I admitted. “I spent my entire life reminding myself of that.”

His breath, hot and constant, tickled my neck. He must have sensed this reaction, must have felt how he practically carried my body through the crowd as his hands roamed down my waist,gripping my ass in a way that I never would have allowed if I were sober.

When he pulled away to stare at my lips, I let him. Although his stare didn't send the same flare of heat through my body as Wolf's.

I wasn't sure how much time passed. Wasn't sure how many songs had come and gone as I lay enthralled in Lanson's arms, wasn't sure how many times his hands had wandered below my waist, wasn't sure how many times his lips had brushed my neck.

Wolf's figure was no longer near the back wall of the ballroom. I hated the way my stomach dropped when I noticed it, but I didn't pull away from Lanson.

Lanson actually cared about me. Actually liked me, even. He saw me as kind and special.

Unlike Wolf, who saw me as nothing more than a fraud. One who needed protecting and coddling, one he needed to swoop in and save.

I was beginning to relax at the idea of him leaving the ballroom, storming off to whatever brooding he had left to do this evening. Until he cleared his throat right next to us, causing both Lanson and I to stiffen.

"Excuse me," he said, his voice a sultry growl. "Do you mind if I have a dance?"

I froze.

"I do mind," Lanson said without taking his arm off my back.

Wolf’s eyes had softened. They weren’t as dark and distant. They were… warm. Pleading. “Huntress?”

“Just one,” I said, answering for myself.

Lanson immediately stiffened, but I shot him another glare, and he eventually backed down. “I’ll get us more drinks,” he whispered.

And then he was gone, leaving Wolf and I alone on the dance floor.

“You don’t strike me as someone who dances.” I let him guide my arms to his shoulders.

“I don’t.” His wings created a barrier, keeping the other fae at least three feet away from us as he moved us around to the pull of the music.

“Yet you couldn’t wait to get out here and interrupt me and my date?”

Wolf’s jaw tightened. “I don’t like him.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to dance with him, then.”

His fingers tightened around my waist, pulling me an inch closer to him.

“You’ve been spending too much time with him.”

My eyes snapped to his, a mere few inches lingering between his face and mine. “Excuse me?”

“You can’t trust him. Something about him isn’t right.”

“And why is that?” I asked. “Does it have anything to do with the fact that he likes me and I like him?”

Wolf scoffed, averting his gaze to the ballroom behind me. “You don’t like him.”

“You know nothing about me, Wolf.”

His eyes met mine once more. I caught myself staring at the white specks glittering in his blue irises, at the black hair that had grown longer since our time in Moira.

“I know more than him.”

Wolf spun me around, forcing a gasp from my lips as he pressed my body to his. I suppressed the laughter that threatened to betray me at the sudden strength of his dancing.