Page 17

My wings burst out before I hit the bottom of the porch steps. I drive up hard into the night and leave the community lands beneath me. The wind whips at my face while I hover over the lights of Wintermoon glowing between the trees below.

From the air, the path is easy to follow through the forest to the clearing where their cabins sit. I know what we agreed. I tell myself I’m only checking on her.

My dragon flies us straight toward pack territory, and I’m not the one steering. I try to turn us around, but he fights me for it. My wings won’t take my orders. He beats them and carries us lower over the treetops.

“What are you doing?” I growl at him. “Stop, we can’t just⁠—”

He ignores me and drops us into a big oak at the edge of the House of Zorah clearing. Leaves scrape my cheeks on the way down. I shift my hands into talons to grip the bark and tuck my wings in tight against my back. If anyone catches me here, I’m finished, but he’s damn proud of himself.

Aya is going off on someone down there. When I push my dragon’s sight into the dark, everything under me sharpens. She’s out in the open with her hands balled into fists. Jacob faces her, and Levi is braced beside him for a fight.

“I don’t want to hear it!” Her voice carries up to my branch. “You were supposed to take the position back, Daddy. What the hell do you mean he’s keeping it until Jonathan takes over? That could be years!”

I dig my talons in deeper. She’s shaking with it, and her scent reaches me even up here, wild berries gone hot and sharp with temper. She’s magnificent when she’s angry. My dragon strains against my skin. He doesn’t care who it’s aimed at as long as he gets her. Mother Fate help me, I’m hard as hell in a tree on her pack’s land.

“That is enough, Aya,” Levi snaps. “Watch your mouth. You are not going to keep disrespecting your alpha in this pack.”

Aya glares from Jacob to Levi. All my dragon wants is to dive down and fly her far away from them. He flares my wings against the branches before I wrench them shut again.

“I can’t wait until it’s time for me to leave this stupid pack,” she says. She hauls off and kicks Jacob in the knee. “You dusty fucking wolf!” she shouts.

“Aya! Goddammit!” Levi takes a step after her and stops.

She tears across the clearing to her cabin and slams the door. Jacob grabs his knee and hops around to keep his balance. “Goddammit, I hate it when she does that,” he mutters as he rubs his leg. “I knew it. I knew she was going to do it again. Goddamn, it hurts.”

I clap my clawed hand over my mouth and almost take my lip off. If they hear me laughing up here, I’m a dead man.

Levi bows his head. “I’m sorry, Alpha.”

Jacob gets in his face. His scent sours. “How many times have I told you to stop calling me that?” he barks. “You lied to me. We had a deal that this would only be temporary.”

Levi holds his ground. “It still is temporary. Jonathan will still be taking over as alpha.”

“But the deal was after Aya paired with Ezra.” Jacob jabs a finger at him. “I am tired of this position. I never wanted it in the first place.”

Levi gives him a thin smile. “It’s a thankless job, isn’t it, Alpha?”

Jacob bares his canines. “You are a selfish wolf, Levi.”

Levi doesn’t flinch. “Nia is everything to me. Giving up that position gave me the happiest years with her. I don’t want to give up what I have.” He keeps his eyes on Jacob. “I’m just doing what any man in love would do. Is it selfish? Hell yes.”

Jacob stares him down and storms off between the cabins. Levi stands alone in the dark and drags a hand down his face. With no one left to fight, he looks old.

I’ve always thought of him as the wall between me and Aya, the father who will never let her be mine. Tonight he’s a wolf who gave up everything for Nia and is still paying for it.

When he lifts his head to test the air, the branch splinters under my talons. I stop breathing and clamp my wings down. Shit, can he smell me from here?

My scent has to be faint this far up, but he’s an old wolf with a nose better than most. Even my dragon keeps quiet while Levi turns in a slow circle with his nostrils working. My lungs are burning by the time he gives up and heads back to his porch on heavy feet.

I wait for him to go inside. Aya’s is the last of the cabin lights to blink out. I should go home. Trespassing on their territory without permission is a crime.

Except I do have permission. Aya is my fated mate. Old tradition says the bond gives me rights that outrank pack law.

So I stay and put my back to the trunk to watch over Aya while she sleeps. Even across the clearing, she’s a warm, steady tug under my skin. She has no idea I’m here.

There goes my stupidity again. But for her, I’ll be as stupid as it takes.

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