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  “Nervous,” I said. “I feel like everyone is waiting for him to appear. I almost wish he wouldn’t, if for no reason other than so I can avoid the public display I’m envisioning. It’s unnerving.”

  Chelle shook her head and laughed. “I can imagine, but I don’t think things will be that bad. My sisters and Mandy are curious, but they won’t make it a big deal if he comes, or tell anyone what’s going on.”

  “You’re sure?” I asked, doubtful. If they’d made such a big deal about a brief visit, I didn’t think they’d be able to do anything but make a bigger deal out of his presence if he did appear. And if their reaction was anything to judge by, most of the other girls in attendance would be all ears if he sought me out once he got here.

  I groaned aloud, ready to bolt. I would get entangled with the one guy in town that everyone wanted to date.

  “How about we compromise? We’ll hang around for another hour or so, and if you’re still scared everyone will start gossiping if he shows up, we’ll head out.”

  I thought about her compromise a minute and then nodded slowly.

  “You’re on,” I told her, relieved that I only had to make it through an hour, and worried that he wouldn’t appear in that hour.

  I had no clue which I wanted more.

  Chapter Eight

  As the girls led me from group to group to introduce me, I found myself looking around to see if Dace had shown up without my knowing, but he never did. Soon enough, I stopped looking altogether. The girls didn’t bring him up either, allowing me to focus on the people being introduced instead.

  Everyone was friendly and welcoming. A few expressed condolences over the loss of my mom or inquired as to how living with my dad was going, but mostly, they asked what classes I was taking, chatted about professors, or about what to do for fun. No painful or intimate prying. They were genuinely nice.

  By the end of the negotiated hour, I had a slew of new pictures and corresponding phone numbers crammed in my cell, and I was freezing to death, but I’d recovered my earlier enjoyment of the night. One of the girls stayed by my side. That made meeting everyone easier. I didn’t feel so alone.

  Mia, the daughter of another professor, her boyfriend, and another couple were telling me about jet-skiing at the lake when Chelle tapped me on my shoulder to let me know she needed to head inside to warm up for a little while.

  “I’ll go with you,” I offered. “I’m half frozen, I think.”

  “Me, too.” She smiled around chattering teeth.

  I turned back to Mia’s group and said my goodbyes.

  “Where are the others?” I asked, looking around as Chelle and I headed toward the warehouse. I hadn’t seen her sisters and Mandy in a good fifteen minutes. Not since they’d introduced me to Mia and her group.

  “I think I heard them say they were going to go say hello to Ronan and the others.”

  “Ronan?”

  “Yeah.” Chelle frowned. “Ronan Lacrosse. He and Dani are old friends.”

  I’d heard that exact phrase before, about Chelle and Dace. Chelle’s frown made it evident she wasn’t as cool with the relationship as Beth had been when she’d said it.

  “You don’t like him?” I asked.

  She sidestepped a group of laughing girls. “It’s not that I dislike him. He’s real good with Dani. I don’t know. I get a weird vibe from him,” she said when we met up on the other side of the small group. “He makes me nervous for some reason. I don’t know why.”

  I turned that one over in my mind for a minute. Chelle didn’t seem the type to become unnerved easily. “Is he a student?”

  “No. He’s a few years older than us. He works at one of the bars in Little Rock, but I don’t talk to him enough to know the particulars.”

  “Oh.” I wanted to ask more, but I got the distinct impression that talking about him made her uncomfortable. I couldn’t help but wonder how close Ronan and Dani were, or if he was a source of contention between her and Chelle. I changed the subject instead of prying though. I owed Chelle that much. “Thanks for convincing me to stay instead of running off earlier.”

  “You’re having fun?”

  “I am,” I said, surprised at how true that was. I smiled. “Everyone has been great.”

  She didn’t say I told you so; she simply grinned and continued on toward the warehouse. When we got to the door, a group of older guys poured out, laughing and joking with one another.

  I’m not sure if Chelle stiffened or what, but her attitude changed the minute she caught sight of the group. One minute she was relaxed. The next, she wasn’t.

  I started to ask her what was wrong, but didn’t get the chance.

  One of the guys in the group glanced over and spotted her. His full lip curled upward in an “oh, it’s you” sort of way.

  “Chelle,” he said. His voice grated like gravel across my nerves.

  He wasn’t cute, but his features were oddly arresting. Scraggly jet-black hair fell around his shoulders, making him appear incredibly lanky. And his face seemed pale and too sculpted, not quite real. He looked like what I’d expect to see in a painting of an ideal, maybe. Too symmetrical to be natural.

  His eyes reminded me of Dace. They were as black as his hair, but as with Dace, that same something lurked there. Like this guy saw more than most people did. Knew more than most people did. Dace didn’t make my skin crawl, though. This guy did.

  “Ronan.” Chelle’s response fell flat.

  Ronan. Dani’s boyfriend.

  I moved closer to Chelle, and instantly wished I’d stayed where I was.

  Ronan flicked his eyes dismissively in my direction, and then he stopped. The way he stilled reminded me of the way carnivorous birds look at people. Their bodies don’t move, but they focus those beady eyes, as if trying to decide whether to attack or not. When I walked by them, I could never tell what they’d decided. That always unnerved me.

  Ronan’s nostrils flared like he’d caught my scent in the air and he found it familiar in some way. He turned his head in my direction. Chills crawled up my spine when his gaze met mine. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut and refuse to look at him. I felt like he’d peered through the bathroom window while I showered.

  My stomach roiled at the unpleasant sensation.

  Worse, I felt him prowling through my mind, rifling through my innermost thoughts and memories. Unlike with Dace, the feeling didn’t calm or soothe me. Nothing rushed into me, and I didn’t feel complete, either. But Ronan was in there, and I wanted him out immediately.

  “Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Chelle?” he asked.

  He made her nervous, Chelle said. I agreed wholeheartedly. He made me feel the same way, but I refused to let him see how freaked out I felt. He was sizing me up, trying to figure out where I fit. No way in hell would I let him know he scared me.

  I glared at him.

  He arched one dark brow, and the corner of his mouth twitched, like he found me amusing. His gaze didn’t leave my face, and that creepy, invasive feeling didn’t recede.

  “Arionna, this is Ronan Lacrosse,” Chelle introduced me, her voice still flat. “Ronan, this is Arionna Jacobs.”

  “Hello, Arionna Jacobs.” He said my name like he was getting the shape of it.

  I wanted to vomit.

  “Hello, Ronan Lacrosse,” I said instead, as coldly as possible.

  His answering smile didn’t reach his eyes.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my mind screamed warnings at me. The same feeling of dread my dreams had given me since meeting Dace beat at me, much stronger than before. Something was coming, something huge and dangerous. That knowledge wormed its way through me like a spreading disease. I wanted to grab Chelle and make a run for it. I stood my ground instead, refusing to give in to either desire as dread rushed through me like a river.

  “You’re new here.” Ronan’s comment wasn’t a question, merely a statement of fact.

  I didn’t say a word,
scared I’d end up whimpering or begging him to go away if I opened my mouth.

  He tilted his head back and looked at me through slit lids. The image of a bird came racing back to mind as if from a memory. Only this time, the bird was trying to decide whether the weak struggles of his prey amused him, or if he wanted to rip into it while it died.

  I shivered.

  Ronan grinned, obviously pleased at my reaction. “I believe things just got interesting,” he murmured to the four guys clustered behind him.

  The sound of their laughter sent chills racing up my spine.

  I narrowed my gaze, staring at Ronan. I started to open my mouth and say … something. Anything. Maybe tell him to go to hell. I don’t know, but his attention shifted away from me as suddenly as it shifted to me. Whatever he’d been doing to me stopped.

  His cronies tensed and looked over my shoulder.

  I didn’t have to turn around to see what captured their attention. Every sense I possessed screamed that answer at me. Dace was out there somewhere, and he was coming closer.

  Energy swirled and crackled around him even from a distance. The link between our minds flared to life as he approached, and I wanted to howl in fury at Ronan for invading my mind. I knew it wasn’t me who wanted that though. The animal I’d sensed in Dace from the very beginning pushed his desire onto me.

  He raged in my head, snarling and snapping in anger. He wanted to rip out Ronan’s throat for touching what belonged to him. It made me want to jump on Ronan and rip out his throat for messing with me.

  As soon as that desire raged to life, I knew exactly what the animal in Dace reminded me of. A wolf. And not the suddenly harmless seeming wolf in the woods, or the one I’d seen at Mom’s funeral, but a feral, savage, and absolutely territorial wolf. Big, fierce, and snowy white with gray streaks shooting through his silky coat.

  Dace’s shock hummed through me as the image coalesced, thrusting him out of my head in an instant. I stumbled a little at the force of him blowing out of my mind, and bumped into Chelle. She looked at me, her eyes wide and expressive.

  She sighed when she noticed Dace approaching from behind, obviously relieved by his presence.

  I couldn’t echo the sentiment.

  I didn’t turn around, move, or breathe when he reached us. His aura enveloped me, rippling like tentacles around us. The energy snapping against my skin was that definite something that made him different. Authority, power, control, self-assurance, and more all knotted together. Dace wasn’t someone you messed with. He wasn’t cruel or unkind, but he would rip you apart without hesitation if you gave him reason. He was in charge, and he knew it.

  I wanted to lean into him and the strength he offered. I wanted to bury myself in him and stay there, let him be strong and brave for both of us. I knew better though. If I touched him, he would go for Ronan’s throat, and no force in heaven, in hell, or on earth would be enough to stop him. He knew Ronan scared me, and that made him furious.

  “Ronan.” The name fell from his lips, cold and dark.

  The link between our minds widened, and fury came sizzling through like water poured on burning wood. Steam twisted through me and set my own anger aflame.

  Something deep inside me stirred, responding to my heightened emotions. The same bewildering ache I’d felt the first time I saw Dace swelled like music, higher and higher until I wanted to clamp my hands over my ears to get away from the rushing sound it made. My eyes watered, and I wanted to scream, if only to release a little of the emotion that painful sound sent sweeping through me.

  The rushing sound faded as quickly as it began.

  I stood there for a long moment after it faded away, too stunned to think straight. Whatever had been missing wasn’t anymore. The hole vanished, and I felt whatever took its place. The thing felt primal, ancient, angry … and awake.

  Part of me wanted to cheer as I stood there. The other part wanted to scream. There was something inside me. Something … not human. And it wanted to sink its teeth into Ronan and tear him apart.

  “Dace.” Ronan’s lips curled around Dace’s name as he spat it out, jerking my attention back to him.

  That sensation of something waking faded. The hole didn’t reappear though, and the desire to tear out Ronan’s throat didn’t go away.

  Dace and Ronan’s eyes met.

  My stomach churned again. Tension snapped between them a little more forcefully. A massive battle played out right at the edges of my vision, beyond sight, but there nonetheless. Fury poured from Dace and Ronan both, and seemed to engulf the few feet of space we occupied.

  Dace fought hard to keep himself under control, and I wasn’t at all sure he would win the battle this time. The animal he kept locked inside wanted out, and it was willing to do whatever it had to do to break free.

  Dace’s fear of that whispered through the crack in the door, tangled so tightly with his anger at Ronan and his desire for control that he seemed like little more than one big ball of sensation pulsing like the sun.

  I took a step back to offer him a little support. Compared to his strength, mine was miniscule, but maybe it would give him the edge to keep himself under control and wipe away his fear. The fact that he was afraid bothered me. He appeared larger than life to me, so confident and sure. So much braver than I would ever be. He shouldn’t have been afraid, especially not of himself. I didn’t want him to be.

  The heat of his body verged on feverish. It rolled off him in waves, scorching me all along my back as a rush of gut-twisting desire ripped through me. Not nibbling teeth this time, but the kind of desire that hits you like a hammer blow and leaves you aching all over in an instant. The kind I’d only read about.

  My mouth fell open, and I turned to him, unable to stop myself. He tilted his head so very slowly down toward me, like the Labrador had in the woods. His bright eyes met mine, his expression softening. Something equally as soft whispered through the crack in that door like a caress on my cheek.

  Ronan, his friends, Chelle, and the cold all faded away, leaving only me and Dace standing there, both of us wrapped in heat and aching. Like before, what he wanted swept through me like a storm, making me want the same things too. My fingers twitched up toward him, desperation to feel his skin beneath my fingertips one more time overriding everything else.

  No! His warning sounded like a desperate cry.

  I stopped moving, stopped breathing.

  Don’t touch me. Not now. Not yet. His voice was no more than a gentle whisper this time, so much softer than his actual voice.

  A muscle in his cheek twitched.

  All the questions I’d wanted to ask earlier came floating back up. I bit my tongue to keep them from pouring out and nodded once, heeding his warning. If I touched him now, the animal in him would break free, and that thought didn’t scare him. That thought terrified him.

  He looked at me for another moment and then flicked his gaze back to Ronan. Rage broiled between them even stronger than before. No one said a word, but Dace was implacable fury, pissed off and seething because Ronan upset me. He’d touched what didn’t belong to him.

  I felt half-awed at everything whispering along our bond, half-confused, and already half-addicted. I still couldn’t explain how the connection worked if my life depended on it, but everything was right there. Like shadow puppets playing inside my skull, I saw what Dace saw, felt what he did. His thoughts were precise, regimented, and more controlled than mine would ever be.

  Chelle stepped closer to me, and then leapt backwards, a pained cry dropping into the silence enveloping us.

  The tension seething between Dace and Ronan seemed to gather in upon itself and shatter. One minute their anger seethed right in front of me. The next, a tidal wave hit me, knocking me back into Dace as my breath whooshed from my lungs.

  Sensation poured through me again. Fear dug its claws into me and held on tight.

  I swayed beneath the onslaught.

  Dace wrapped one of his strong arms arou
nd me, holding me to his chest. He and Ronan stared at one another for another long minute, still not speaking, but leaving the impression that entire volumes were being written between the two of them.

  I wanted to cower behind Dace and hide from what those words implied. Whatever was coming seemed vast, endless, and incomprehensible, and it bore down on me, Dace, and Ronan. Didn’t matter if we were ready or not, danger was coming, and it was going to mow us down. We couldn’t run or hide. Nothing we could do would stop it. Nothing.

  Dread washed through me more strongly than before, pulling a breathless whimper from my throat.

  Dace tightened his arm around me. He looked down, his expression devoid of anything warm or recognizable. “Let’s go.”

  Chelle and I obeyed his demand without question, turning on our heels and walking away without a single word or look passing between us.

  My knees were weak, and my heart raced. I felt dirty, as if filth and grime covered me from the inside out. I’d never been so scared in my life.

  Dace walked at my side, his body a barrier between me and Ronan. His stance screamed I belonged to him, I was under his protection … and to deny that truth would be complete idiocy. He protected what was his, fought for what belonged to him, and whether I agreed with him or not, I was his.

  Knowing that didn’t make me feel any safer.

  I looked over my shoulder at Ronan, unable to stop myself.

  He stood right where we’d left him, staring in our direction.

  I shivered at the look stamped on his face.

  The cold expression erased that empty look from his eyes and replaced it with something else entirely. He wasn’t human. He was something else. Something darker, more malevolent, and infinitely crueler than the animal in Dace could ever be. Dace might rip someone apart for touching what belonged to him, but Ronan would do so without provocation, and he would enjoy every minute of it.