Rowan
The woman was still talking.
I couldn’t rember her na or even care to.
She’d approached a few minutes ago asking if I was enjoying the festival.
I had tried to be polite at first, but when she droned on, I just stopped listening.
I had other things to worry about.
My attention would drift to scan the crowd, searching for a glimpse of dark hair and grey eyes. I wondered where she had gone, if she was enjoying herself, and if she was safe.
I had wanted to stay at her side. To walk through the festival with her, to see her reaction to the gas and the food and the lights. To watch her face light up the way it had when she’d first seen the capital.
But I’d given her space instead, along with the freedom to explore on her own, because I knew she wouldn’t have relaxed with hovering nearby.
It was the right thing to do.
Even if it left restless and distracted.
My senses stood on high alert when I felt her near.
Violet was close.
"She is watching," my wolf murmured, and my imdiate excitent gave way to discomfort.
If she was here, it likely ant she already saw with this woman or sensed with her. I wanted to check to be sure, but I forced myself not to turn and search for her.
The woman said sothing else and when I didn’t respond, she stepped closer.
Too close.
Pressing herself against my side, her hand ca to rest on my arm.
Sothing in snapped and I went very still, resisting the urge to fling her away.
A fraction of my energy slipped through and the air around us shifted.
"Careful," my wolf warned.
The woman froze. Her hand was still on my arm, but her fingers had gone rigid.
I watched her face change. Her smile faltered, then crumbled entirely as the colour drained from her face.
She pulled her hand back as if I’d burned her.
"I — I didn’t —" she stamred, taking a shaky step backward.
"You saw with my mate earlier," I said flatly, my voice stripped of the politeness I’d offered her before. "You should have so respect for that boundary."
She opened her mouth to talk and then closed it before rushing off.
By the ti I had cald down, Violet wasn’t around anymore, but I could still faintly sense her a distance away. My mood had soured completely, and I now felt irritated, along with a gnawing sense of unease.
Unable to shake that feeling, I started looking for her.
Before long, that unease shifted to a chilling sensation that crawled all over my skin.
I went still in the noisy crowd as I sensed the sharp surge in the air... along with sothing that shouldn’t be there.
Sothing was wrong.
Why was her Lycan energy peeking through?
She was ant to be suppressing it!
I moved faster, and pushed through the crowd with growing urgency as I made my way towards her.
When I finally found her, she was lying on the ground against a half wall, her arms and legs sprawled out lazily. She stared up at the sky with an expression of pure, vacant bliss.
And she was smiling.
A slow, lazy, utterly relaxed smile that made my blood run cold.
She wasn’t herself.
I rushed over and dropped to my knees beside her as I called her na.
She didn’t respond. Just kept staring at the sky like it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.
I got a faint whiff of sothing sweet. An almost cloying scent that clung to her breath.
Alcohol? No... this slled different. Herbs?
"She isn’t entirely intoxicated," my wolf grumbled.
"I can see that," I hissed, fury surging through as I grabbed her arm to pull her up into a sitting position.
What had she drunk and who had given this to her?!
"Violet, we need to move," I told her firmly, hoping my words would get to her. "Now."
She blinked slowly, her head lolling slightly to the side.
Then she looked at .
And giggled.
She actually giggled.
The sound was so unexpected, so utterly unlike the guarded, wary woman I had co to know, that for a mont I just stared at her.
"Ro...wan," she sang in a light tone as she reached out and poked my chest with one finger. "You’re here."
I clenched my jaw, trying to push down the panic clawing at my chest.
Her Lycan energy was still leaking out in faint pulses. Not enough to draw imdiate attention, but enough that anyone with heightened senses might notice if they got too close.
I needed to get her sowhere secluded and try bringing her to her senses so she can stop this.
At least a spot with enough intoxicated wolves so they wouldn’t be able to tell.
I grabbed her arm more firmly and pulled her to her feet.
She swayed imdiately, her balance completely gone, and I wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her.
"This won’t do."
"Uh?" Her head lolled as she looked up at and I imdiately lifted her, hugging her close to my chest as wove through wolves, scanning desperately for an opening.
People were everywhere. Laughing, dancing, drinking. The festival was in full swing, and finding a quiet spot was already starting to look impossible until I spotted a gap in the crowd.
A small open area where four wide roads intersected.
It wasn’t private, but it was less crowded than the main streets square, and there were barely any lamps there either.
I let out a sigh of relief and I had barely made it there when she moaned.
"I want to sit... down," she grumbled, her words slurred as she started kicking her legs vigorously and swinging her arms. "Walking is tiring!"
"You are not even walking—"
"Put down!"
The force of her trying to jump out of my grip completely caught off guard, and her movents didn’t stop, which offset my balance and sent falling backward.
I tightened my grip around her, preventing her from escaping as I landed on my back to shield her from the fall.
"Mmm." She made a move to get up from my chest. "The sky is beautiful tonight. Did you know that? The starrrrs are breathing."
What exactly did she take?!
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