The rest was a blur. I hardly noticed the flurry of fangs and ws-all I saw was that face. Those lips. My mate kissing me in the alley.


    When it was over, I stood panting in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by the bodies of my enemies. Blood dripped from my fur, some of it mine, most of it not. The forest had gone quiet.


    “Alpha?” Gabriel’s voice came from the edge of the trees. He limped out of the forest in human form. “The rest have fled. We’ve won.”


    I nodded, too exhausted to attempt shifting back to human form just yet. My wounds were already beginning to heal, the deep gashes closing up, leaving behind matted chestnut fur sticky with blood.


    As I followed Gabriel back toward the others, my mind kept wandering back to those final moments during the battle. I almost lost. I should have lost. I was exhausted, outnumbered… And yet, I had closed my eyes and there was her face.


    Why had I thought of E during those moments? Why had her face driven me to push through the pain and fight back?


    “Because she’s our mate,” my wolf snarled.


    Right. It was biology. Of course a wolf would think of his mate when he needed strength to survive. It didn’t mean anything.


    “Keep telling yourself that,” my wolf scoffed. “But we both know the truth.”


    What truth? That I was starting to care for her? That the sight of her in my sweatshirt made my fucking heart pound? That I looked forward to our nightly chess games more than I’d looked forward to anything in years?


    No. I shook my head in an attempt to dislodge the thoughts. I wasn’t falling for her. I couldn’t be. If her family had anything to do with my parents’ death, if she was a spy… Besides, she had said she didn’t want me to mark her. She was the one who wanted a divorce. There was no future for us.


    “Alexander!”


    I froze as a familiar voice rang through the forest


    “Alexander!”


    It was E’s voice, calling my name. But that couldn’t be right. E was in the hospital, miles away. I was hearing things, my exhausted mind paying tricks on me.


    “Alexander, where are you?”


    The voice was getting closer. Gabriel whipped his head toward me, his eyes widening in panic, and I knew I wasn’t just imagining it.


    E was… here? How? She belonged in the hospital, not in a fucking battle zone!


    Without thinking, I raced toward the sound, heart pounding. If there were still rogues out there, if she was in danger-


    Suddenly, she emerged from the trees on the far side of the clearing. Her hair was wild, her feet bare and bloody, her hospital gown pping around her legs beneath my oversized sweatshirt.


    What the hell was she doing here? How had she even found us? And why in the name of the Goddess had she left the hospital in her condition?


    She skidded to a stop at the edge of the clearing, her eyes widening as she took in the carnage around us. The blood, the bodies. Her face paled, and for a moment I thought she might faint again.


    Then her gazended on me, and relief washed over her face. “Alexander,” she gasped, stumbling forward, arms outstretched as if to reach for me. “You’re alive.”


    As she staggered toward me, I shifted back to human form, racing toward her just as she stumbled and began to pitch forward. But in my haste, I shifted too quickly and with too little control.


    E’s eyes widened, her gaze dropping for a brief moment before she quickly looked away, her cheeks turning bright pink.


    I looked down and realized that my clothes had shredded during my careless shift, leaving mepletely nude in the moonlight.