Enzo’s POVScarlett was asleep by the time we reached the medical centre. I laid her down gently on the crisp white bed and started carding my fingers through her hair, plucking out dry leaves and snapped twigs. Even in sleep she didn’t look peaceful, her full mouth twisted with pain and shadows hollowing out her closed eyes.“So, this is your mate?”I looked up, my fingertips stilling on her scalp. Medic Emila was a harried-looking woman in her late twenties, though the first streaks of grey in her brown hair and the permanent frown line between her eyebrows lent her years she was yet to live. “Yes.” I worked my jaw, but before I could fill the silence Emila set to inspecting Scarlett’s head.“I feel quite fortunate to be the first to meet her. Well – not quite the first.” She paled, her gaze flicking up to meet mine. “No.” Why had this incident rendered me an idiot? “And,” I added, “these are not the circumstances I wished for anyone to meet her under.”“Of course not, Alpha.”Sil
Scarlett’s POVEnzo kissed me. I was hyper-aware of every minute detail of it, from the heat of the hand in my hair to the hard press of his mouth to mine. It tasted of sweetness and raw desire; there was nothing chaste or soft about it, though there was an underlying gentleness that was always present in him when he looked at me.And, damn it all, I froze. Like an idiot my muscles locked; my lips parted and pursed against his but remained utterly unmoving. My heart beat fast and my lungs struggled to get enough air.He pulled back slightly, his eyebrows pulling together. His dark eyes glittered with guilt and, beneath it, hurt. I ached for him, and for what we could’ve been if only I hadn’t been– No. I wouldn’t let my past ruin this for me, too.I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back down to me. His lips were cool, but they warmed quickly; he groaned into my mouth, his tongue sliding against mine, his fingers tightening in my hair, on my waist. I pried myself away, pressing li
Enzo’s POVScarlett trembled in my arms, staring fixedly at my chest. A single finger reached for the whorl of ink that crested my collarbone, and she traced it, her touch feather-light, as she began to speak.“I realised I couldn’t shift into my wolf form when I was fifteen.” She inhaled shakily, even though this was a part of her story I’d already heard. Dread knotted in my belly. “My parents told me to hide it for as long as I could, but Alpha Ryker has us join training the day after our fifteenth birthdays. So he knew, as did everyone else, as soon as I was forced out onto the training field and just stood there.” Her breathing hitched, and she paused, her fingertip stilling at the hollow of my throat. It felt an oddly intimate, and memories of her – perked breasts, heavy breathing, flushed lips – shot straight down my core. I ran a hand down her side, settling it in the curve of her waist. “He gave me a week,” she continued, her tone going flat. “A week to shift, and prove that
Scarlett’s POVI jerked awake as the door slammed open. My head throbbed and my mouth tasted like cotton wool. I ran my tongue over the backs of my teeth and the seam of my lips, blinking dazedly as my eyes focused on the intruder.It took me a moment to feel scared, so sluggish was my weary brain. But the woman leaning against the doorframe didn’t look scary – her brown skin was creased around her eyes and mouth, though she didn’t look much older than me. It was a face well used to smiling, then, I thought, and the prick of fear in my chest eased.“Marla,” Enzo groaned, burying his head in the pillow. Any residual worries I’d had dissipated. He knew her and, by the looks of things, trusted her. Not another Warrior Wolf come to kill me, then. “Go away.”She scoffed, flicking her dark ponytail over her shoulder. “I’m doing you a favour. Half of the pack is downstairs. You wouldn’t want to be late to the Mates’ Luncheon, now, would you?”Then her gaze drifted to me. I wet my lips, sudde
Enzo’s POV I was barely aware of what I was doing as I stood up, so abruptly that my chair was knocked backwards – with such force that it smashed on the floor. My fingers trembled as I reached for Scarlett’s hand, but my glare was firm as I looked out upon the jeering bunch of idiots that my pack had suddenly become. “Don’t run,” I murmured to her, squeezing her hand. “If you run, they win.” She nodded mutely, shaking so much, with such wide eyes, that she looked more like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a truck than a werewolf. A single tear tracked down her cheek, coming to rest just above her lip. I leant over and wiped it away. And then I rounded on my wolves. “Scarlett is my mate,” I said, my voice clipped. “And I am your Alpha. My judgement is not to be questioned on this. I cannot believe the way you have all behaved today. I am disappointed in every one of you for treating a new member of our pack with such a lack of respect.” Silence swelled. Good. “Since you are
Scarlett’s POVMy laughter died slowly, the echoes of it holding my jaw in a grin as my gaze softened. It roved over Enzo’s face, tracing his night-dark eyes and the silver sheen to his tanned skin. I could smell brine and salt on the air, the breeze stirring about our heads and lifting strands of my hair to play across my cheeks. Below, mighty waves crashed into crumbling white stone, sending splinters of it tumbling into the sea.Everything felt important to me in that moment. There was no detail too insignificant, and no part of the picture was inconsequential. Each breath I took held weight. Time seemed to slow around us, the moon halting in the sky.“Oh,” whispered Enzo, the smile sliding from his face. The expression that rose next was not unkind, or unhappy in any way; it was awed, a deer locked in a hunter’s gaze. And I… I had been the one to make him look that way. My core tightened and a shiver wracked through me, raising goosebumps on my arms.“Oh, indeed,” I murmured, sli
Enzo’s POVI couldn’t decide what looked better: Scarlett, with her hair loose down her back with five strands braided intricately around her head, interwoven with clovers and lavender and daisies, her cheeks flushed with excitement and her eyes wide with wonderment, or my pack grounds, every inch of them glittering with lamplight and flickering candles.Well. Obviously it was Scarlett, I thought, a smile pushing at my cheeks. She smoothed her hands over the deep green velvet bodice of her dress – the least practical thing I’d ever seen her wear – and blushed as she looked up, catching my gaze.“You look beautiful.” I swallowed hard before correcting myself, an almost painful yearning gnawing at my chest. “You are beautiful.”“You’re just realising this now?” she teased, spinning in a loose circle, letting the skirt of the dress fan out around her. Fallen leaves crunched beneath her boots.“I knew it from the moment I saw you.” I pulled her close, my hands snagging her waist. “And I l
Scarlett’s POVI flung my head back and laughed loudly, revelling in the feel of a hundred feet all pounding the floor, making the music physical as it reverberated up through my bones. Enzo’s hands were warm in mine, and his cheeks were just as flushed as mine surely were.His masquerade mask was the spring to my autumn: dried wildflowers wound around his eyes and over the bridge of his nose, stopping short of his devious smirk. A beat later he was spinning me again, my skirts flying, my heart lifting so high in the moment that I thought it might never come down.“I didn’t know it could feel like this!” I laughed, letting my grip on my champagne glass go limp. I pressed closer to Enzo, his body heat radiating out through his black velvet suit, the heather in his lapel askew. It tickled my chin.“What, dancing?” He beamed down at me, his face alight with the same joy that burned in me. “Living!”Someone tugged my champagne flute free; another hand pressed a full glass into my grip, w