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WREN

I felt the shift before I saw it. The claws that raked my emotional shields were fiery. Anger? No, rage .

It battered my invisible walls, making my head throb more. How could I have been so stupid? I knew better than anyone that letting your guard down for even a second could get you killed.

Or, in this case, put you in the clutches of an overbearing wolf shifter who smelled like…fresh mint and pine. And, God, I wanted to roll around in it.

Danger.

The thought emblazoned itself in neon red in my mind. This was touch-hunger and nothing else. I was so starved for contact with my species that I must’ve been in some sort of lust-induced haze.

That was also my justification for allowing him to lead me down the back hall to a door I’d never seen open in my month in Crescent Creek. The man released his hold on my elbow, and I suddenly felt cold, like I’d walked into a snowstorm wearing nothing but a tank top and shorts.

He pressed his palm to some sort of reader beside the door. I’d thought the thing was a tablet that controlled the heat and air conditioning, but it was clearly some sort of high-tech lock. The knowledge had my skin bristling.

I expected my wolf to lunge to the surface, dying to break free and run . Instead, I found she was…purring? Wolves didn’t purr . But that was the only way I could describe the sound emanating from her.

The man opened the door and ushered Clyde and me inside. The second I stepped across the threshold, I regretted coming with them so pliantly. Because that fresh mint and pine scent? It was all around me now, choking every breath I took.

Fucking hell.

It was almost more than I could bear. I struggled to breathe evenly and not bolt like a scared doe.

“Come on, girlie. Sit down. You look like you’re about to pass out,” Clyde said, pushing me toward the leather couch against the wall.

I stumbled back onto it. “I’m fine. Swear. Everyone takes a hard hit now and then.”

The man frowned down at me. “You need to go to the hospital to get checked for a concussion.”

If I had a concussion, it would heal in a matter of hours, thanks to my shifter half, but he didn’t need to know that. “It’s not a concussion. Trust me, I know what those feel like.”

The other man’s light-blue eyes flashed silver. “What. Does. That. Mean?”

Clyde slapped him on the back. “Easy, King. She’s been fighting a long time. She’s taken a knock or two.”

That had the silver shifting back to pure blue. Still, there was an assessing quality there, like he was trying to put the pieces together.

“Come on,” Clyde pressed. “Get her some ice and Tylenol. ”

The man let out a low growl. “Who’s the boss around here?”

Clyde chuckled. “Don’t worry. You still call the shots, but you’re also freaking Wren the fuck out right now. So, go get the goddamn ice.”

The man let out a chuffed breath but headed for the door.

I watched as he went, unable to look away. And for the first time, I really took him in. He wore a gray tee that loosely hugged planes of muscle and ghosted over broad shoulders. His dark jeans housed muscular thighs and were paired with scarred motorcycle boots.

He was tall—so tall I had to look up, up, up to get to his face. And that face. It was devastatingly beautiful. Thick scruff covering an angular jaw. A nose with a hint of a bump that told me it had been broken before. Dark-brown hair. And eyes I wanted to drown in. They were the sort of light blue that could hold you captive.

I stared at him for so long, the man disappeared, and I was still locked on the spot where he’d been. Right until a throat cleared. My head jerked in Clyde’s direction, and I let out a curse as everything spun.

Clyde chuckled. “Never known you to be distracted by a pretty face.”

“I’m not,” I argued. And it wasn’t a complete lie. “He’s just?—”

“King’s a lot. I get it.”

“King,” I echoed, rolling the sound of his name on my tongue.

“Kingston. The owner of the gym. Been out of town working a job.”

I stiffened. “He owns the gym?”

Clyde nodded swiftly. “The gym and a security company. They work high-level stuff. So, he travels quite a bit. I man the shop when he’s gone.”

A wolf shifter with a security company who owned the gym I went to daily? This was bad. So freaking bad.

And I knew I should run.