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His eyebrows rose. “So Belle’s guides come from the same world as the soul eater?”

“No, because spirit guides are a different beast altogether. For the most part, guides are powerful, knowledgeable witches who have either decided to dedicate their afterlife to the council of other witches, or those whose path it was always

destined to be.”

“Do all witches have them?” He glanced at me. “Do you?”

“No, thank God. I get enough crap from Belle’s guides without having my own to put up with.” My gaze swept the area ahead, but I still wasn’t seeing any gates. Those trees had to be it. “Of course, it’s extremely rare for someone from the Sarr line to have guides—it’s generally only the highborn witches who get them.”

“Sarr?” Aiden said mildly. “I thought her name was Kent?”

I silently cursed the slip. That’s what I got for endlessly weaving lies and being too comfortable around someone. “It is, but she obviously has Sarr witch blood in her. You only have to look at her to know that.”

“Indeed,” he said, even as his tone suggested disbelief.

Which meant it was time for a little up-front honesty—though not, perhaps, the type he was looking for. “Can I ask you a rather personal question?”

“Sure. No guarantee I’ll answer it, but feel free.”

“If you’re so convinced Belle and I are lying about our past, why the hell do you still want to fuck me?”

He laughed, a warm and oddly surprised sound that echoed loudly. Something stirred in response, something that was dark and angry. I frowned and swept my gaze across the mix of rocks, trees, and open ground that surrounded us. I couldn’t see anyone out there, but then, this was Marin territory; in wolf form, their red-brown coats would very much blend in.

“Like any regular man, I’m quite capable of separating logic from desire. In your case, the former has little hope against the latter.” Despite the lightness of his tone, his expression, when his gaze met mine, was deeply serious. “You’re lying about your past, Liz. I’m sure of it. I’ll find out why eventually. But I also trust my gut, which is telling me you have a good reason for the lies. So until you either trust me enough to confide in me, or I ferret the information out, I can see no reason not to pursue you sexually.”

I half smiled. “At least we both now have our cards on the table in that regard.”

“Indeed.” His answering smile faded as he looked back up the road. “That’s odd.”

Even as he said that, the feeling of wrongness increased. I flexed my fingers, trying to ease the tension gathering within me. “What is?”

“Our presence should have been acknowledged by now.” His nostrils flared as he drew in a deeper breath. “Someone is there.”

I studied the trees ahead with a frown. “There is?”

His grin flashed, though it held little in the way of amusement. “All buildings within werewolf compounds work with nature rather than against it. Look up.”

I did so, and saw what he meant. A small tree house sat in the canopy of the tree on the left, one that very much looked as if it had grown out of the tree rather than built onto it.

“You all live in trees?”

“Of course not. But we do build our homes both around nature, and from nature, which means logs, stone, and earth. Wait here.”

I stopped immediately, my tension level ramping up several more degrees. He’d barely taken three steps when he stopped abruptly and cocked his head.

A second later, I heard it.

A short, sharp noise that sounded like a car backfiring.

But there were no cars nearby and no cars approaching, from either up ahead or behind us.

And in that instant, between one heartbeat and the next, I realized what it was.

A gunshot.

Chapter Ten

Aiden swore and dove at me, twisting around as he caught me around the waist, so that his back was toward the sound. We fell as one, hitting the ground hard enough for dust to plume, and my breath to escape in a painful whoosh. A heartbeat later something burned across my thigh; I yelped, but the sound was smothered by Aiden’s growl. It was a deep and angry noise, one that had come from a wolf’s throat more than a man’s.

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