Page 129 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

“Oh, I’m sure that’s much prettier on your business cards.”

Ian spoke from across the corridor. “You do not have to do this.”

I looked at him. “I do, actually. That was the whole meeting.”

His expression tightened.

I softened my voice before I could think better of it. “I know what you meant.”

The mark warmed enough that I felt his answer before he gave it.

Gratitude. That one was new.

I turned around as Ian went to go through one of the doors.

All three doors closed and the corridor became too still. I waited for some dramatic tug in my shoulder, but nothing happened.

I frowned.

Ronan watched me. “Anything?”

“No.”

Sava crouched beside my chair. “Close your eyes.”

“I hate that instruction.”

“Close them anyway.”

I did. The darkness made everything too loud. My heartbeat. The soft drag of air through the corridor. Ronan’s breathing. Sava’s sleeve brushing her wrist. Lucien shifting his weight.

Ian.

No.

Not just Ian. More like…something warm behind the center of the corridor. Like my body remembering where calm belonged and resenting that it was behind a door.

My eyes opened. “Center.”

Lucien checked the watch. “Twenty-one seconds.”

The center door opened and Ian stepped out. The mark warmed in greeting before I could stop it and his eyes changed when he felt it. Not gold. Softer than that, though Ian didn’t seem built for softness. The hard line around his mouth eased and his shoulders dropped by a fraction.

Seeing him react to that tiny pulse did something to me. Not desire exactly. More like noticing a hand had been reaching in the dark and found another hand reaching back.

I looked away.

“Don’t look so impressed,” I said. “There were three doors. I had excellent odds.”

Ronan said, “Again.”

They ran it six times. By the fourth, my head hurt. By the fifth, I could tell when Ian was behind the left door before it fully closed. By the sixth, something changed.

Ian went behind the right door, but there was something else behind the center one.

I pointed right anyway. “He’s behind the right door. But there is someone behind the center door.”

Ian opened the right door.