Page 18 of Ruby and the Wolf

Scents sharpened. The soil. The woods nearby. And under all of it, her.

My wolf wanted to turn back. He wanted to lie across the threshold and let nothing through. He relented when I insisted we bring her food.

We headed for the woods. The grouse were where they always were at dusk, feeding along the stream bank beneath the hazels. I launched forward and took down two before the third burst into the air and flew off.

When I came back across the clearing with the birds in my jaw, she was still near the window. When she saw me out there, she watched me.

I dropped the birds. See? It was worth it, I told my wolf before I shifted back. When I straightened back up to human form, back in the clothes I’d been wearing before I shifted, her eyes widened.

I picked up the birds and carried them inside, where warmth and light greeted me. She’d lit the lamp and built the fire higher. Then her scent reached me and I inhaled once more.

“That was…interesting,” she said.

“What? Watching me shift?” I brought the birds into the kitchen.

“Well, yes.” She peered around to watch me pluck the feathers. “What did you bring?”

“Grouse. You hungry?”

“Starving.”

“Good. You want to take that one.” I pointed to the other bird.

“Okay.” She stepped beside me and mirrored my actions. Strange. And yet…natural.

Once we plucked and dressed them, we roasted them on the spit, and the cottage filled with the scent of them cooking over the flames.

We were mostly quiet as the light settled outside the cabin.

Without looking up, Ruby asked, “Why did you open the door for me, Conan?”

I glanced up at her with surprise. “You knocked.”

She snorted as she turned a page over. “You had a bar on it and a loft and a shifter’s hearing and speed. It would have taken me time to get through that timber. You could have had me on the floor before I got my hand off the wood.” She glanced up at me. “You knew why I was coming for you. So why did you open the door and invite me inside?”

I could have given her some excuse, but she didn’t deserve evasion. The fire cast a soft glow on her face. “It’s gone on long enough. So many deaths, many at my hand.”

“Meaning?”

“I’d made my peace with dying in this room. I’d decided that I’d had enough of killing. It didn’t solve anything.”

Her brows shot up. “So you opened the door to an assassin?”

“I opened the door to a conversation.” I paused, weighing how much I should reveal at this point without overwhelming her even more. “And you came inside and had tea.”

The sound of a wolf came from the tree line. I had the bar off the door and opened it. Ruby had her blade in her hand before Imogene made the clearing.

Imogene came out of the shift at the door, breathing hard. She eyed Ruby with suspicion, then turned back to me. “They’re sending more operatives.”

RUBY

“How many?” I asked the woman at the door, my blade raised. Forty-something, a gray streak in her black hair, she stood a head taller than me.

She ignored me and looked at her alpha.

“How many?” I asked louder.

“It’s okay, Imogene,” he said gently while he lowered his hand in a soothing manner. “She knows the truth now.”