Page 148 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

I stepped around the wall. She moved before I fully cleared it. She was not fast enough to outrun me, not in any world that obeyed the shape of our bodies, but she was fast enough to make the hunt real. She slipped through the narrow gap and into the next lane, one hand pressed near her bandage, jaw tight against pain.

I could have caught her in two strides, but I didn’t. I let her run six, then seven, enough for her to choose motion before I followed. Slowly for me. Too fast for the wolf.

She reached the low cypress line and turned, breathing hard, cheeks flushed, eyes bright with fury and fear and something that heated her scent enough to make my vision sharpen.

“Still found you,” I said.

Her chest rose and fell. “You didn’t catch me.”

“No.”

“Could you have?”

“Yes.”

Her mouth parted, and the bond burned warm between us. Every wolf on the ground watched us. Every law waited for me to turn instinct into proof.

Cassie watched only me.

“Why didn’t you?” she asked.

“Because you had not asked me to.”

The words crossed the distance and struck her. I felt the impact through the bond, not as pain and not only as surprise. Desire moved through her, immediate and human, and mine answered before I could bury it.

Her cheeks flushed darker.

Sava reached us before I could make myself step closer. “Enough.”

Cassie looked at her. “I’m not done.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Did the monitor say that?”

“No,” Sava said. “Your face did.”

Cassie opened her mouth, then closed it, which meant Sava had won more decisively than anyone on the council ever had.

Sava took her elbow, gentle but firm. “You made him search. You made him choose control. You made the point.”

Cassie glanced at me. She didn’t know what point she had made, but I did. So did Sava. So did Ronan, though he would call it useful and pretend it didn’t disturb him.

Cassie had run. I had hunted. I had found her. She had challenged. I had stopped. The bond had strengthened without pain, and that would matter tomorrow. Hell it might save her life.

It might ruin us both before then.

Sava led Cassie toward the shaded bench near the terrace. Cassie went reluctantly, and she only limped when she thought no one was watching.

I watched.

Ronan came down from the terrace, his eyes following Cassie before they turned to me. “That was reckless.”

“Yes.”

“Useful.”

“Yes.”