hunt and didn’t like to be reminded of it. Enormous, black-furred wolves prowling through town with unusually sharp teeth and intelligent eyes were a pretty big reminder. She’d never agreed with that point of view, but she didn’t say anything.
“It’s my own rule and the others picked up on it. Not a big deal really, I scared a little girl when I was a teenager. She was my cousin, but she never looked at me in quite the same way after she saw me as a hound.”
For someone like Fen that would be hard. Raquel still didn’t like the idea of him having to slide around the edges of town hiding what he was when he was out there risking his life to protect these people. She patted his knee, a weak comfort but all she could offer. “Go,” she said. “You meant what you said in there, right? You won’t try to cross?”
“I don’t know if I could force the portal open anyway. I just need...to get away.” He hopped off the porch, walked backward for a step or two. “Are you still planning to come over tonight?”
“Yep. Christian too.”
His smile fixed. “Sounds good. It’s your turn to make dinner, remember.”
“You didn’t
“I had pizza,” he agreed. “Until you lit it on fire, along with my house.”
She laughed. “You’re not going to let me forget that are you?”
That flashpan grin. “Not a chance, Rocky. See you later.”
And he was gone. She stared at the sky for a few minutes, trying to work up the will to go back inside. She didn’t want to watch Christian comfort his friend or whatever the hell she was to him.
Something clamped down on her foot and she jumped, letting out a yelp and scrambling back until she saw Fen.
Sleek black fur. All bone and muscle, just like the man. His eyes were the same too, and she knew he was laughing at her when he sat on his haunches and let his mouth gape open to reveal curving, finger-length fangs. Hound was a misnomer. The oldest legends called them wolves, which was closer to the truth but not entirely accurate either. They were bigger than wolves for one thing. Faster and stronger too, and they could rend flesh as easily with their claws as with their fangs.
“Fen. You scared the crap out of me.”
His tongue lolled out, and the door opened up behind her. She didn’t need to turn around to know it was Christian.
“I thought I heard you yell.”
She lifted her chin. “Fen snuck up on me.”
A note of amusement in Christian’s voice. “He’ll do that.”
Fen pressed his cold nose to the back of her hand, uttered a short yip and then took off for the field. She wished she could follow him, run like that, hard and fast, all powerful grace and controlled menace. He was surely a sight to behold.
Christian touched her shoulder. “Are you ready to leave?”
“Yeah.” She tore her gaze away from Fen and smiled at Christian. “Let’s get out of here.”
Fen opened the door and his heart lurched when he found Rocky standing there all alone in the circle cast by the porch light. He looked past her hoping to find Audrey or Christian out parking the car, but there was no one. Just Rocky. Looking nervous and hopeful and so unsure of her welcome that he didn’t have the heart to turn her away.
She gave an apologetic smile. “Aiden asked Christian for some help. Audrey is still out shopping with my mom.”
He hesitated but pushed the door open wider. “We can do this another night.”
She held up a recyclable bag with the grocery store logo on it. “I brought dinner, but we can reschedule if you want.”
Even as she said it, she moved inside. Setting the bag on the table, she frowned when she saw the burn mark on the wood surface. He didn’t think she’d noticed it the other night. She shrugged out of her coat and he took it from her, resisting his instinctive urge to lift it to his nose. The smell of her filled him anyway. Sunshine and magic. The same sort of summertime smell as Lois’s shop. He’d always thought it was the herbs, but apparently it was the magic after all.
When she looked up, he felt a sharp bite of panic. Troubled eyes, pale skin, tight mouth. She wasn’t here for the runes. The run this afternoon had mellowed him somewhat but if he’d still been in his wolf form, his hackles would have raised.
“Fen?”
He was sure he didn’t want to hear what she was going to ask, so he grabbed the bag and started for the kitchen, flipping on lights as he went. “Let’s get started on this, I’m starving. What is it?”
“I cheated,” she said, voice subdued. “My mom made meatballs today. I stole some and picked up rolls at the grocery store.”
“Sounds good.” He put the bag on the table. “Sit, I’ll get the plates.”
The scrape of a chair, the rustle of clothing as she sat. “Fen.”
“I think we need to talk.”
“About the runes,” he ventured hopefully, crossing the room and taking the seat across from her. Safer to leave at least one chair between them.
“About Christian.”
He winced. “Christian is my friend.”
“That’s why I’m asking you about him and Elin.”
He let out a shaky breath, relief and annoyance mixing bitterly in his stomach. He’d thought maybe... Well, hell, it didn’t matter what he’d thought. “Maybe you should ask Christian about that.”
“Yeah.” She hesitated as if she might say more but then nodded once. “You’re right. I hoped we’d have time to talk this afternoon, but Lois was waiting for me at the house.”
He took the split roll she handed to him. Her fingers brushed briefly against his, making the skin tingle all the way to his wrist. She was soaked in power. It leaked from her, but that was all she had access to—this bit that seeped through that enormous barrier.
“What did Lois want?”
“One of the stones had been disturbed. It was causing an imbalance with the wards.”
“Because of Rane.”
Rocky finished chewing and swallowed. “I should have gone back to check. She wanted to make sure I knew I’d made another mistake and that she’d fixed it for me.”
“Witch.”
“Yah. At least one of us is.”
“Aw, come on. You’ve got loads of potential.”
Those sweetly mobile lips quirked up at the corners. “Big steaming piles of it.” He laughed and she jerked her head up. “What? You think it’s funny?”
He held up his hands in surrender. “My first pity party. I didn’t know there were rules.”
“This is serious.”
“It’s not. The future of our clan is
