Chapter 42

“Sam’s coming,” I said. Ezra’s hands dropped, but they lingered behind me, and I reluctantly pulled myself off him.

I didn’t get or send a note, but this is where I held council now. I realized it was also where I felt the safest at this pack.

Ezra stood and looked back at me with longing and the briefest, brightest smile I thought I might have imagined before he faded into the shadows of the bookshelves near the door. “Leave the letter in our book,” he whispered and then disappeared as if he were a shadow himself.

Sam knocked and opened the door. Ezra was a blur on silent feet behind him. Sam didn’t even notice him a few feet away. I shivered; he was a honed killer, but the shiver was more of delight and lust than fear.

“I was hoping you were here,” Sam wore a smile, but it was shallow. “You look flushed. Are you okay?”

I instinctually touched my warm cheeks. “I was standing too close to the fire,” I said, trying not to smile at the too-recent memory.

I straightened my skirt and m