My phone lit up again and I actually laughed.
Elise Winters, right there on the screen, calling me back twenty minutes after we'd just hung up.
She'd saved it. Had to have.
I picked up, ready to give her a hard time about it. "Miss me alrea—"
"Someone sent me a photo," she said right away. "I think this has gone too far, Rhys."
My laugh died immediately.
Her voice didn't shake; it wasn't rushed; it was just flat. The kind of flat calm that people used when they were holding something down and didn't want anyone to know it.
Yeah. I knew that tone. I'd heard that voice before, usually from people who'd just had a bad fright and were refusing to let it show.
"What kind of photo?" I said, already moving.
"Of me. On the property today. Someone was in the tree line, Rhys. The whole time we were out there."
I grabbed my keys off the desk. "Stay in your room."
"I'm not going to—"
"Stay in your room, Elise."
"That wasn't a question, I know, and I'm still not—"
"Please, Elise, listen to me. I'm coming to you. Wait for me there." I was already in the corridor. "Don't open the door for anyone else."
She didn't argue that one. Which told me enough.
I drove fast. Faster than I should have on those roads, probably, but the image of someone in that tree line with a camera pointed at her while we were standing twenty feet away was doing things to my patience.
Whoever took the photo must be someone from inside the territory. Has to be. The angle she described, the timing. And I'm sure they were already positioned when we arrived.
When I got there, Elise opened the door before I even finished knocking. No pause, no standing there blocking the doorway, no comment about the time. She just stepped back and let me in.
Yeah. That photo got to her more than she'd let on over the phone.
"Here." She held the phone out.
I took it and looked at the image. Looked at the angle, the zoom, the specific position on the property. Worked out where the shot had been taken from.
I knew exactly where that person had been standing.
I kept my face neutral, kept it together. The rest of it—the part underneath—was already heading somewhere ugly, and she didn't need to see that.
"I want you to be honest with me, Rhys," she said. She was standing with her arms crossed, chin up, doing the brave thing. "Am I actually in danger? Because I didn't sign up for this."
"I know and I'm so sorry, Elise." Everything in me wanted to pull her into my arms and keep her there until she felt safe again. My hands almost moved before I caught myself.
"Look, I came here with a deed and a two-week timeline and now I'm getting photos of myself taken by people hiding in trees." Her voice stayed even but her eyes didn't. "Did my family steal this land from your pack? Is that what this is?"
"No," I said. "That's not what this is."
"Then what is it? Because you keep telling me you don't know things and you can't tell me things yet and I'm running out of patience for—"
"Elise." I crossed the room and she stopped talking, not because I'd done anything, just because I was close enough that the words seemed to run out. I put my hands on her shoulders, carefully, and felt her take a breath that was less steady than she wanted it to be.
"Rhys… I…"
"I don't have all the answers. That's the truth. There are things I know that I can't tell you yet, not because I want to hide these things from you, but because I need to be sure before I say them. What I can tell you is that whoever sent that photo is going to answer to me."
She looked up at me. Some of the bravado had come down slightly, and underneath it she looked worn out. She was a little shaken, even if she wasn't going to say it out loud.
Then my brain betrayed me.
The dream came back, clear as hell. She was in front of me, closer than she should've been, hands on me like she already knew exactly where to go. The way she'd tilted her head, the look she gave me.
Her mouth on mine. I could still feel it. The heat of it. The way she'd pulled me in like she meant it.
I dragged a breath in and forced it down, but it didn't help. It just sat there, vivid enough that for a second I had to remind myself where I actually was.
Shit.
"You're angry," she said quietly.
I forced my focus back to her. Took more effort than it should have. Anger was still there. Just not the only thing anymore.
"Yeah," I said.
"Not at me."
I looked at her properly then. She was watching me steadily, like she was trying to figure out what was going on behind my face.
I kept it locked down.
"No," I said. "Not at you."
And damn, we were close. Closer than I'd let it get. Her hands had come up at some point and were resting against my chest, and I wasn't sure when that had happened.
The wolf was very loud now. My own heartbeat wasn't much quieter.
I leaned down, just slightly, the way you do when something pulls you and you stop thinking about whether you should follow it. Close enough that I could see her exhale. Close enough that another inch would have—
"I'm going back home, Rhys," she said.
Her voice was soft. Not pulling away, not pushing me back. Just saying it, like she'd made a decision and wanted me to know.
I stayed where I was for one second longer than I should have.
Then I straightened up and took a small step back, and the distance between us came back like something snapping into place.