er'

rly and immediat

sed my palm flat against my forehead and lay there staring at the ceilin

u

It was not the lazy back-and-forth of a bored wolf

right. "What now?" I groaned under my breath. "Why

ention was fixed on somethi

boots by the door, half-finished glass of eggnog stil

p," I told him.

I cau

dy awake. I frowned and pulled in a slower bre

rr

he kitchen. Something real. Something that had no

rigid without

tronger now. Definitel

, and my chest tighten

aight. "That's not how this works. We wo

ng around my senses and refusing to let go. My mind drifted

myself as I swayed. My skin felt too tight, li

said, his attention

-but I was already mo

et anymore. There was something else underneath it,

d the d

lway wa

n the air like it was taunting me. It f

looked both ways

ke said. Something almos

ing to work through it. She came to my doo

essed-of course he was. His eyes found mine across the hallway, and t

asked. It wasn't

r," he replied, his v

out, ran a hand through his hair, too

hallway and look

it. We did

ce. "Check if

k enough that it almost felt like a presence rather than a trace. Th

f us. The s

pacing. He was watching my brothers now with an intensi

e to us,

me in," Soren

ened. "But why w

irritated me more. We weren't the type of men who stood alone in

r," Duke

look I could feel pulling at me. "Track it,

us down the

edge immediately. Were we walking straight into something? I a

pped

o

y

f anymore-disbelief had lasted about three seconds. What replaced it was messier than that. Irritation. Con

gone rigid

't moved

ther we wanted it to or not. Which we didn't. Obviously. This was Ayla. The girl who hadn't sai

wn m

ing in me want to put a

knitting together, his voice tight in a way

, and pushed her door

he blankets, the air, and the floor. Her old schoolbag hung over the ch

that dropped into my chest at those two w

n though the irritation in my own voice was starti

'd be homeless today," So

ld stop it. "I never

Soren said.

room like he was cataloguing every trace of her. "She knows exactly wh

ide me. "She's ours.

ords came out with less edge than I intended because something

d have handled that; I could have dismiss

stood right outside mine and felt the bond and still turned around and ran-that wasn

de it p

rosses the boundary," Soren said.

e heat I could feel sitting low and restless in my own c

the corner of my mouth

e

Let he

eady moving for the doo

*