“That should give us time to analyze what’s actually in those vials,” Tess agreed.
Time. Always about time.
The thought carried bitter irony—she had only two weeks to solve a decade-long mystery, and now she might have even less if someone was actively trying to stop her investigation.
She closed her eyes and tried to will sleep to come, but adrenaline still coursed through her system. Every shadowseemed to hide potential threats, and every sound made her tense for another attack. Her mind raced with questions and possibilities, none of them comforting.
Why did they attack us? What are they trying to hide?
The bed shifted as Korran moved slightly, and she became hyperaware of his warmth radiating across the small distance between them. That strange connection she’d been experiencing pulsed stronger in the darkness. She could feel his protective instincts still running high, his need to keep her safe warring with his own internal conflict about their growing connection.
I’m leaving in two weeks. This can never work.
But her body had other ideas. Almost without conscious thought, she found herself inching closer to his heat and strength, drawn by that inexplicable pull that had been building since their first handshake. The logical part of her mind screamed warnings about emotional entanglement and professional boundaries, but the primal part—the part that had watched him fight three bears to protect her—wanted nothing more than to lose herself in his embrace.
Finally, she gave in to temptation and moved against his side, seeking the solid comfort of his presence. His arms came around her immediately, as if he’d been waiting for her to make the first move, and she melted into his embrace.
“Better?” His deep voice rumbled against her ear, and she felt the tension finally begin to drain from her muscles.
“Much.” She pressed closer, letting his warmth chase away the lingering fear. “Thank you. For tonight, for protecting me, for everything.”
His arms tightened around her, and she felt safe for the first time since her mother’s funeral three years ago. Whatever was happening between them—she couldn’t deny the rightness of being here in his arms.
Two weeks,her rational mind whispered.Two weeks and then you leave this all behind.
But as sleep finally claimed her, wrapped in Korran’s protective embrace, that timeline felt impossibly short.
FOURTEEN
KORRAN
The first thing Korran registered was warmth, then feminine curves pressed against his chest, and the intoxicating scent of rose and rain filling his lungs. His bear rumbled with deep satisfaction, a contentment he’d never experienced settling into his bones as consciousness slowly returned.
My mate. Safe in my arms where she belongs.
Tess lay curled against him, her silky brown hair spilled across his arm and her breathing deep and even. The morning light filtering through his chamber windows caught the delicate curve of her jaw, the sweep of dark lashes against her cheeks, and Korran felt something fierce and protective surge through his chest.
She asked for my comfort, the safety only I could give her.
The memory of last night crashed over him—those three bears emerging from the shadows like death incarnate, the lead attacker charging straight for Tess with lethal intent. The terror in her green eyes as she’d realized no human could survive what was coming for her had nearly driven his bear into a killing frenzy.
He’d shifted without conscious thought, abandoning strategy for pure instinct. Nothing mattered except putting his body between those attackers and his mate. The bears hadn’t been from his clan—their scents were wrong and their fighting style unfamiliar. Someone had sent them, someone who knew Tess was here and wanted her investigation stopped permanently.
They threatened what’s mine.
His jaw clenched as he remembered the satisfying crunch of bone beneath his claws, and the way the attackers had fled once they’d tasted his superior strength. He should have pursued them, demanded answers about who’d sent them and why. But Tess’s safety had taken precedence over everything else.
And when they’d returned to the estate, when she’d looked at him with those wide green eyes and asked to stay with him—his bear had practically purred with triumph.
She’s beginning to understand. We can protect her. We’re what she needs.
The logical part of him tried to reassert control, reminding him of all the reasons he should resist this connection. The mate bond theory. His father’s deteriorating condition. The political necessity of choosing Seraya to stabilize the clan.
But with Tess sleeping peacefully in his arms, her body fitting against his like she’d been made for him, those arguments felt increasingly hollow. Especially after the way she’d responded to his touch two nights ago, the way she’d kissed him with desperate hunger and welcomed him into her body like she’d been waiting for him her entire life.
If the mate bond theory is wrong…
The thought sent electricity racing through his veins. If Varix’s decade-long narrative proved false, if his father’s illness had nothing to do with loving a human mate, then Korran’s last resistance would crumble. He could finally tell Tess what shewas to him, could claim her properly and damn the political consequences.
