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Fee glanced toward the window. She licked her bottom lip. “I heard from Gert.” She couldn’t face him when she said it. The lies were getting bigger, building up, but she thought about her sisters and aunties. She imagined the trees burning.

She remembered Ruby’s dream.

And the X’ed out trees.

Theo’s eyes were narrowed when she turned back. “Really?”

“Yes, really!” She didn’t flinch. This was the right thing to do. Just one more day and she will have done her part.

“She thinks Lena ran off on her own. She could be halfway to California by now.” She was grasping at straws, making up lie upon lie.

“Why would she think that?”

“She … uh … just a hunch.”

“A hunch isn’t anything, Fee.” He huffed. “Besides, Lena’s not a nymph.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shook his head, running a hand through the unruly curls. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

“Fine. It means she doesn’t just leave people. She wouldn’t have just left Ruby like that.”

Phoebe stepped closer, her breath coming in angry bursts. “Half a day with your pack and you’re already spouting lies about my kind.”

“Your mother does it all the time.”

“I’m not my mother. Just like you’re not your father. Or your brothers.” She said it even as she was treating him like he was the same, like he would fall back into their old patterns. But she didn’t have time to dissect that hypocrisy right now.

He flinched a little at that but held her gaze. “I’m never sure with you, Fee. I never know if you need me like I need you.”

Her heart stuttered. After so many years protecting it, she didn’t know how to show it to him. She stepped closer. Theo grabbed her arms and tugged her forward until their foreheads rested against each other.

“I do need you,” she whispered. “It just scares me that I do.” The words burned her throat to admit it. What would her aunties say? Her dryad sisters who needed no one, especially not some pretty werewolf?

But it was the truth. It felt good to tell the truth.

His gaze flicked to hers, blazing and hungry.

The kiss happened in slow motion. His lips were warm and soft on hers, deceptively gentle, hiding the sharp teeth behind them. A low groan rumbled through him as he pulled her closer, his hands on her hips, but still he took his time, kissed her like he had forever, even though he’d just been telling her he needed to go.

Lena had been forgotten again.

Good.

Theo nipped at her bottom lip until she opened for him, his tongue sliding into her mouth. He tasted like promises, like past and future. His hands were moving now, restless against her body, up and over the curve of her hip, the dip of her waist. She was on tiptoes to reach him, her arms around his neck and even then he had to stoop to keep his lips on hers.

He pulled away only long enough to whisper how much he wanted her, how sweet she tasted, how he couldn’t believe they hadn’t done this sooner. Phoebe couldn’t help her smile, couldn’t help the way her foolish heart latched on to every word and tucked them away with the others. She was greedy for them, for him, for everything he had to give her.

He was right. It had been too long. They were crazy for fighting this for so many years. Whatever came of this little experiment, at least they could get this out of their system.

Her inner voice laughed; Theo would never be out of her system.

Theo groaned and kissed her deeper, grabbing her ass and nearly lifting her off the ground.

“You’re going to get a stiff neck,” she said.