Chapter 6: Black Fir Ridge

Conall's POV

She knocked on the door of the Alpha house at eleven that night.

I knew it was her before I opened it, because my wolf got up.

It had lain silent in me for eleven years.

I had stopped listening for it years ago.

Now it paced under my ribs and said her name again, and I stood in my own front hall with my hand on the lock and could not turn it.

Then I did.

Cassandra stood on the porch in a green sweater with her braid over one shoulder.

She had walked up the ridge in the dark, three miles, by herself.

"I didn't ask you to walk me," she said. "I walked."

"I see that."

"I threw the thermos in the dumpster behind the diner. Hattie cheered."

"Good."

"I couldn't sleep. I can hear the whole town. I can hear a man snoring on Larch Road."

"Larch Road is two miles off."

"I know," she said, and her mouth shook. "Everything is too loud, and I keep thinking about the bridge."

I should have asked her in for tea.

I should have shown her the guest room, and gone to my own, and shut the door.

"Is this pack business?" I said, and my voice came out rough.

"No."

"Then come in."

She came in, and she put her back against my front door and looked at me.

She smelled of lavender soap and rain.

She looked at me, and I could see she had already decided.

"I'm not your mate," she said. "I want to be very clear about that. I don't feel anything with a wolf's name on it."

"All right."

"I just want you. That's a different thing."

I do not know who moved first.

I had her against the wall with her hands in my hair, and her mouth was open under mine.

She kissed hungrily, with a kind of furious honesty, and I felt it in every part of me.

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