“Where are we going now?”she asks, falling into step beside me.
“I’m hungry.”
She blinks.“Hungry?You’re gonna eat at a time like this?”
“No good to anyone if we can’t focus,” I grunt, giving her a sidelong look as her stomach lets out a very well-timed growl.
She folds her arms over it, cheeks flushing.
“Traitor,” she mutters, glaring down at her belly like it betrayed national security.
I frown, not because of the noise, but because she looks embarrassed.
She shouldn’t.Not around me.
Not ever.
“Hey,” I say, softer this time.“We’ll eat, put our heads together, figure out what’s coming out of that crypt, and stop it before it makes a bigger mess.Deal?”
She hesitates, eyes searching mine.
Like she’s trying to figure out if I’m just saying what she wants to hear or if I actually mean it.
I mean it.
Every damn word.
Because this isn’t just a Hellmouth or a haunted house or another supernatural freak show brewing under the surface of Arrhythmia.
This is her.
And just maybe?This is us.
She doesn’t move right away.
Doesn’t speak.
And neither does my Wolf.
He’s still.Focused.Entirely locked on her.
For once, not snarling or howling or screaming to claim.
Just watching.
Because he knows.
Whatever this is—it’s real.
And whatever’s waking beneath the Crypt Mansion?
It’s not just threatening my town.
It’s threatening the one thing I never thought I’d have.
A mate.
A chance at something real.