With a slamming sense of awareness, I realized what emotion that fragrance was—hope.

“You want us to be together.”

His throat bobbed. “And if I did?”

My breath hitched, and I glanced away. The cool wind still swirled around us, and the forest’s edge was nowhere in sight. Nothing surrounded us except towering pines, gnarled oaks, and slender aspens. Crunchy leaves crumbled beneath my feet when I fidgeted, and a slushy patch of snow brushed the tips of my toes.

“Don’t you want to make your own choices?” I finally said.

“I do make my own choices.”

“Not in this matter, you don’t. For you, it’s not real. It’s all from your wolf.”

He took a step closer to me. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”

My lips parted, and I searched his face. That hopeful fragrance still rose steadily from him, but something else did too, something I couldn’t put my finger on. “What?”

“It’s not just my wolf who wants you.” My heart beat as hard as a drum when Kaillen took another step toward me. “I want you too.”

I shook my head. “No, you don’t. I remember how you were. You weren’t attracted to me. You thought my arousal was funny.”

His thumb and forefinger pressed against my chin, tilting my head up to meet his gaze. “I found you amusing, because you’re actually quite entertaining, but I didn’t find your arousal amusing. I found it . . . unsettling.”

“You did?”

He nodded and his head dipped. He still held me captive between his fingers, and his lips brushed against mine so softly that I jerked back.

“I’ve found you attractive since the moment I laid eyes on you,” he said quietly. “And that isn’t something I’m used to feeling. In the past, I’ve been turned on by women, but I didn’t feel any attraction or interest in who they were. They were just a body to fuck. But with you, even during that first night at the Underbelly, you intrigued me. You were fearless and stubborn. That in itself took me by surprise, but I also felt something in that moment. That’s not something I’ve experienced before, which is why I turned down your job. Like I said, it unsettled me.” His tongue darted out and stroked across my bottom lip. “But now I’m not fighting it. I want you. My wolf wants you. Your wolf wants me. The only one left to convince is you.”

My breath shuddered, and then his lips sealed to mine, his kiss full of heat and fire. In a blink, he had me completely crushed to him, his hard body touching mine in a blaze of scorching limbs and flames.

I opened my mouth under his, my hand curling around his neck as his tongue swept in to dance with mine. Gods, he tasted good. So good. And I wanted this.

He groaned and deepened the kiss as my skin tingled, becoming alive with the feel of him. An aching pulse began low in my core, and my mind reeled as his boner brushed my abdomen.

My wolf yelped in excitement.

That sound was like a bucket of ice water being dumped over my head.

I lurched back, my hand going to my mouth in shock, as my wolf bunched and strained inside me. My heart pounded.

What just happened?

And then it hit me. It was our wolves driving our touches.

Panting, I gazed up at him, as longing filled me so deeply that I was drowning in it. “But don’t you think it was still your wolf that made you intrigued by me?” Because it had to be. These feelings . . . they were so overpowering, but they weren’t ours.

The glow in the hunter’s eyes brightened. He prowled another step toward me, but I jumped back just as fast. “I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”

“You don’t know.”

“Why are you focusing on that one sentence?”

“Because it sums up everything about us. You don’t know. You think you might like me, but your wolf has been interested from the beginning, and even more so since he caught my true scent, so that probably influenced your decision too.”

He took another step forward.

I took two back.

A sly grin lifted his lips. “Is it strange that I enjoy when I have to chase you?”

“Maybe. I mean, yes. You’re getting off track again.”

“But I’d much rather be chasing you than talking.”

“I wouldn’t.” I lurched behind a tree, and his deep chuckle followed.

Blurring, I ran to the next tree, not able to believe that I’d just moved that fast. “You should put some distance between us, see if you still actually want me when your wolf isn’t raging at you!” I called.

“Too late. I already know I want you!” he yelled from somewhere in the forest.

He blurred to my side, and I squeaked in surprise, then moved again just as fast, except this time farther, nearly a hundred yards away. My wolf yelped again, her tail now wagging since she obviously saw this as playing.

Oh shut up! I snapped at her.

She merely gave me a side-eye, her attention still focused on Kaillen.

“And you’re wrong about one thing,” he added, his voice close when he appeared directly in front of me, pinning my back to an oak tree. “It’s true that my wolf didn’t go insane with need for you until he’d caught your true scent, but I, the man as you say, had interest in you before then, before I think my wolf was even aware of you.”

“You did?”

“I did.”

My wolf leapt in joy, her barks and yelps so loud inside me that I was tempted to cover my ears. Hairs sprouted across the back of my hands and along my stomach and arms. I glanced down. My entire body was suddenly coated in fur.

Disgust rolled through me as I stared at myself. I looked like a freakin’ sasquatch. “Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods. What’s happening to me?”

Kaillen’s hands locked onto my hips, holding and steadying me despite my grotesque appearance. “It’s okay. She’s just trying to break through. She wants out, but you can control her.”

My entire body began shaking. “I . . . don’t know . . . how!” I managed through chattering teeth.

“Try to push her down. Make her submit. Show her that you’re the more dominant one.”

I closed my eyes and focused on her. Back down!

But all of her attention was on Kaillen, on the wolf inside him. She howled.

Claws emerged from my fingernails, the keratin elongating until sharp points graced all ten of my fingers.

“Kaillen!” I screeched in panic.

“It’s okay,” he said soothingly. “She really wants to shift. Maybe let her. She’s as new to you, as you are to her. And she senses her mate in me. She’s probably pushing as hard as my own wolf.”

“But you don’t look like Bigfoot!”

His lips tugged up, just a touch. “It’s because I’ve had years to learn my wolf. He’s pushing against me just as hard right now, but I’m fully dominant over him, and your wolf is obviously quite strong if she’s pushing this hard on you. You’ll need to gain the upper hand at some point, but right now, maybe just let her out. She wants to play, and all of this is new to her too. She might just need to work it out of her system.”

“But I don’t want to. I want to be like I used to be. I want to feel human.”

That ashy scent wafted from him again. “I know, my love. I’m sorry.”

Burning anger again flared inside me, so much so that I barely registered the endearment he’d just called me, because my wolf was now growling at me, snarling even. Her power was rising as she lunged toward Kaillen and his wolf. She wanted her mate, and I was standing in the way.

And that final leap of hers snapped any control I had. Before I knew what was happening, an explosion of magic overwhelmed me, and then I was a wolf on all fours, leaping onto Kaillen.

He caught my wolf just as she landed on his chest, and in another blink and swirl of power, Kaillen shifted too.

Since my consciousness was now inside my wolf, I railed and fought, as I tried to figure out how to shift back to a human. But I had no clue. All I could do was beg and plead with her, but my wolf snarled and pushed me back more, her wolfy mate completely bewitching her.