My stomach dropped. This was not the direction this was supposed to go.
“We could use that,” he continued, thinking out loud. “If there’s another threat out there, we could warn them. Or they could warn us.”
I glanced at Nico. He was watching me closely. My palms felt damp.
Daniel’s voice echoed in my head.Stay low. Don’t improvise.
“I—I can reach out,” I heard myself say.
Why was I doing this? I shouldn’t have said any of it.
Levi’s expression lit up in a way that made something in my chest ache. “You’d do that?”
He sounded hopeful. I nodded slowly, even as dread coiled tight in my stomach. “Yeah. I mean… if it helps.”
Nico’s gaze lingered on me for a moment longer before he went back to eating.
Levi let out a breath, relieved. “That would mean a lot.”
Our eyes met. His were warm and grateful and I hated what it did to me.
Because he was looking at me like I was someone good. Someone he could trust. Like I’d just done something right.
Not someone who had almost been caught with his ear pressed to a locked door, someone who was lying straight to his face.
Under the table, his knee brushed mine again. Probably accidental.
But he didn’t move away. And neither did I.
My coyote stirred, drawn to the steady heat of him, to the the quiet sincerity in his face, to the way he leaned in without thinking,
It was dangerous, the way part of me wanted to do the same.
The way part of me already had.
Chapter 6
Levi
I was uncomfortably, undeniably full. Which was a problem, because ten minutes ago I’d told Mason with a straight face that I hadn’t eaten lunch yet.
Yeah. Real smooth, Levi.
The truth sat heavy in my gut right alongside the chicken and the stir-fry. I hadn’t needed the food, not really. I’d just wanted an excuse to stay with Mason a little longer.
That realization should have annoyed me. Instead, it made my pulse do something stupid. Mason stood near the door, hands shoved into the pockets of Nico and Tony’s borrowed jacket, looking like he wasn’t quite sure whether to stay or bolt.
The late afternoon light cut through the trees outside Tony and Nico’s house, striping across his face in bands of gold and shadow. My wolf stirred, interested. An idea came to mind. I cleared my throat.
“You feel like walking a bit? Help settle lunch,” I suggested.
His gaze flicked up, searching my face like he was trying to read something there. For a second, I thought he might say no. Was I being too much?
Then he nodded. “Sure.”
We stepped outside together, the forest air cool and clean. Pine and earth wrapped around my senses, familiar and grounding.
Normally it would have settled me completely. Today, not so much. Because Mason walked beside me, close enough that every small shift of his body registered in sharp, distracting detail.
