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“Right.” That made sense, but it also made me realize just because he was standing in front of me looking like a man, he wasn’t one, and never would be, the beast was always there.

“You’re still afraid,” he rasped.

I nodded. There was no point lying. He could sense it.

His hand coasted down my bare arm, his fingers curling around my wrist. He lifted my hand that still held the dagger and put the blade to his throat. “I would rather you slit my throat now, dove, than harm you. My strength in all things, including control over the beast, is unsurpassed. That is why I’m alpha. But sometimes I am driven close to the edge, and when that happens, I will always warn you, like I did tonight. I would never intentionally hurt you or frighten you, and the part of me that is capable of it only wants to get closer to you. I just want to get closer to you.”

He’d never said anything like that to me in all the time I’d known him, and I didn’t know how to react, what to say. It was easy to turn down the gruff male telling me he wanted to fuck me, but this was something else entirely. “Understood,” I whispered. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”

He stilled and scented the air. “You’re injured.”

“It’s just my feet, they…”

He lifted me off the ground, surprising me, and planted me on the hood of Iris’s car. My ankle was in his hand a moment later.

“Warrick, it’s fine.”

He growled, ignoring me as he brushed the dirt from the bottom of my foot.

“Honestly, it’s…”

He spat in his hand and rubbed it over the damaged skin. I shut my mouth and watched him, his absolute focus as he tended my wounds. It should gross me out, but it didn’t, it made my belly flutter and my heart clench.

Stupid goddamn heart.

He repeated the whole spit and rub routine on the other foot, his hold firm yet gentle. “They should be better by morning.” He glanced up at me, his thumb stroking my skin. “I can feel you trembling. You still think I’d harm you? You don’t believe me.”

I was, and yeah, that fear was still there. But the fear wasn’t about him physically hurting me, not anymore. God, I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t give into this force between us. It had disaster written all over it, but I didn’t want him beating himself up over this either. “I believe you.”

“Then leave with me. Spend the night with me, dove.”

The way he said it had my heart fluttering. “That would be a huge mistake, Warrick. I can’t ever let that happen. I don’t want it to happen,” I made myself say.

A muscle in his jaw jumped, then in a movement so fast I could barely follow him, he tugged me forward, his other arm banding around my waist, and hauled me up off the car and against him. Fitting my body tightly to his, he buried his face against my shoulder and dragged his nose along my throat. His lips following up to my jaw, and he sucked before lifting his head.

I stood immobile in his arms as his gaze raked over me. Then he breathed in again like he had in the woods, deep, letting his eyes drift shut for a moment, a rough sound vibrating through his chest. When they opened, the hunger in their depths made me quiver all over.

He licked his lips and his mouth curled up on one side. “Keep lying to yourself, if it makes you feel better, but your body sure as fuck doesn’t agree.” His fingers slid deeper into my hair and his lips were just a breath from mine. “Say yes.”

My gaze dipped to his mouth without my say-so. “You need to go.”

His jaw did that tightening thing it often did around me, then he released me as quickly as he’d grabbed me. He made a harsh, frustrated sound and walked away, swaggering back to his bike, and swung his leg over the seat. He was angry, it surrounded him like a red haze, his aura letting me know just how unhappy he was with me.

Then, firing the bike to life, he roared away without a backward glance.

I collapsed against the side of Iris’s car. Holy shit. How the hell was I going to survive this? After tonight, and what Edric did, there was no doubting we were stuck working together. But that kind of intensity was more than I knew how to deal with.

“That you, Wills?” Iris called.

“Yeah.” I rounded the corner and found my sister standing in the cobbled courtyard, Nia at her side as always, her big brown eyes alert, and Brody with them, looking more than a little disheveled.

My sister’s mouth dropped open when she got a look at me. “Are you okay? Pictures from the ball are all over Nightscape. There’s some of you and Warrick as well.”

Shit. “Edric showed up.”

Brody looked around wildly, as if he expected to see the giant hound walk out of the shadows.

I looked down at myself and guilt and sorrow hit when I took in the state of Gran’s utterly destroyed gown. “I’m okay, but let’s go inside, I have a lot to tell you,” I said.