“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Commander Klebus said as she walked me to the door.

“How much longer will she need to do this?” Tessa asked as she linked arms with me.

“Only another day or two. If we can’t make any headway on answering our questions about that portal, we’ll try a different route that doesn’t involve your sister.”

In other words, they’d begin investing more time in Jakub’s warehouse, even though nobody wanted to go near the actual portal. I didn’t know exactly what the SF was doing with it, but I knew that it was guarded twenty-four seven by a dozen SF members. If anything came through it, they would know.

Tessa and I walked down the hall, almost reaching the front, when a familiar figure stepped out of a room.

“Tala, how are you?” Carlos gave me a small smile, then reached for my hand.

His fingers enclosed around mine, his werewolf’s nature to touch and show affection so apparent that my throat tightened. My ex-boyfriend had shown no hesitation in touching me even though I’d changed, yet Kaillen . . .

I managed to smile, and then squeezed his hand in return.

“Another long day?” he said quietly.

“Very.”

He squeezed my hand again. “Can I do anything for you?”

I quickly shook my head. I still hadn’t had that conversation with him. The one in which I firmly told him that we didn’t have a future together. Quite frankly, even the thought of expending any kind of energy in something that emotional made me want to curl up into a ball and sleep forever, but I knew sooner or later I’d have to. Just not today.

“No, I’m okay. Thanks though.” I squeezed his hand again, then let go.

As Tessa led me toward the front, I felt Carlos’s gaze on me linger.

In the entryway, Shelley bid us goodnight before we stepped out the door to wait for our ride. I pulled my phone out to let Prish know I’d be home soon, just as a blazing yellow portal swirled in front of me.

I dropped my phone, the sound of it clattering to the ground filling the air around us.

Kaillen stepped out of the portal, his hair tousled, three days’ worth of beard coating his cheeks. I quickly stepped to the side and awkwardly picked up my phone. I kept my attention on the ground, though, so I wouldn’t have to see him enter the SF office to meet with Klebus or whoever he was here for.

But he didn’t move. His feet stayed planted to the spot as his portal disappeared behind him. “Tala?”

The sound of his deep voice made tears prick my eyes, so I blinked rapidly.

He stepped closer, the energy off him soaring when I continued to gaze at my feet.

“Tala,” he said more gruffly. “Please look at me.”

Tessa mumbled something about forgetting her purse inside, even though her purse was hanging from her shoulder, before she disappeared back through the front door, leaving me alone on the sidewalk with the hunter.

“Tala,” he growled, the sound pained.

I finally did as he asked, raising my eyes to his.

His breath sucked in when our gazes locked. I could only imagine the plethora of exploding stars and power shining from my irises.

But this was who I was now, perhaps had always been. I couldn’t hide it or stop it.

To his credit, he didn’t look away. He held eye contact, not backing down.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he finally said. His jaw locked, his expression impossible to read.

I scoffed softly. “I think it’s actually the other way around.”

He tore a hand through his hair, his chest rising in unsteady breaths. “I know. I’m sorry about how I was initially. It’s been a weird few days.”

“No shit.” Bitterness crept into my tone.

Pain flitted across his expression. “My wolf thinks his mate died.”

“As I’m aware.”

“It’s been affecting me.”

Pain needled my heart. “As I’m also aware.”

He took a step closer, then reached forward until his fingers touched mine.

My breath stopped.

“I . . . don’t know how to act, with a wolf howling forlornly nonstop in me, but I—” His throat bobbed. “I know that I don’t want this. I don’t want to never see you again.”

It felt as though my throat were closing in, but I managed to swallow and reply hoarsely, “But your wolf doesn’t want me anymore. You can’t fight that.”

A low growl rumbled in his chest. “No, he doesn’t not want you. He’s simply very confused. He still recognizes your scent, but he also knows the wolf inside you died. He’s—” He took a deep breath. “He’s pretty fucked up right now, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want you, even if he’s confused.”

My heart stopped. “What?”

“I said that I still want you.”

Surely, I’d heard him wrong. Grief was obviously making me hallucinate. “But male wolves don’t ever want another when their mate dies—”

“Fuck all of that.” He lifted his hand to cup my cheek, his eyes blazing crimson. “I meant it when I said that you intrigued me from the beginning. It wasn’t just my wolf. And even if he never comes around, he’s not in control. I am.”

I swallowed the thickness in my throat and shook my head back and forth. How? How could this be? “You still want me?” I repeated, only because I was still certain I’d heard him wrong. “You actually want me even if your wolf doesn’t?”

“Yes.”

My stomach shot into my throat as hope surged in me so brightly that I knew it shone through my eyes. My biggest fear, my worst nightmare had come true. I’d thought Kaillen didn’t want me, that everything he’d felt for me had been manufactured by his wolf, but here he was, at odds with his wolf, and he still wanted me. He was fighting to keep me.

A tender look crossed his features, and his thumb traced along my cheek. Heat flared in his eyes when his gaze dipped to my mouth, but something else did too. A warring emotion. A battle within.

He abruptly looked away and snarled, but I could tell that his snarl wasn’t directed at me. No, it was meant for his wolf, who was probably howling at him to stop because in his wolf’s confused world, his mate was dead.

Some of the hope inside me withered. Even though Kaillen—the man—stated that he wanted me, his wolf was in mourning and conflicted. And his wolf side would always rule him to some degree, whether he liked it or not.

“Is it as bad as I think?” I asked hesitantly as I swallowed the dryness in my throat.

The hunter let out a deep breath and dropped his hand. “Yeah. It’s been . . . hard. But dammit, Tala, I’m not letting you go.” Scarlet fire rolled in his eyes again, and I knew his demon was battling his wolf at this very second. “I know I avoided you initially after everything went down, but that was then, and this is now. I’ve had a few days to get my head around it, and I know one thing. I want you. I’ll fight for you if I have to. I’ll fight my wolf. I’ll fight the SF. I’ll fight that new fucking realm. I’ll fight whoever tries to stand in my way. I’m not letting you go.”

My stomach dipped at that fierce declaration, and I tentatively touched his waist.

For the briefest moment, he stiffened.

I hastily let go, my heart ripping at the thought that what we’d had before when our wolves had been a part of us was over, but dammit, I could be stubborn too. I wasn’t going to give up on Kaillen just because his wolf now had some issues. But I also knew it wasn’t going to be all roses, and that it could very well end in disaster.

But I was willing to try.

I gave him a small smile and kept my hands to myself, even though I itched to touch him and pull him close. “Maybe we should take this one day at a time.”

I tried to broaden my smile, tried to show him that I understood that some things were beyond one’s control, and if it became too hard for him, too unbearable to constantly be battling his wolf, that I wouldn’t hold it against him. I wouldn’t hate him for conceding to those instincts.