~ MACK ~I wouldn’t make it easy for her. If she was going cold on me, if she rejected the bond outright, I was going to make her tell me. Face to face.Once I was resolved I went downstairs to the kitchen. I would cook. Natalie hated to cook, and she’d be famished—I was. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it had been a helluva day.An image of Rig’s face when Cara appeared from the house, the sheer joy—like he’d just found the sun—rocked through me. I wanted that moment. I wanted that day. And I wanted it with Natalie.Fuck.My hand trembled as I pulled out pans and started searching through the pantry and freezer to pull something together.

~ MACK ~Natalie gaped at me, stunned.The fact that she hadn’t immediately snapped me down gave me courage and I stepped closer to her, staring into her eyes, pleading with her to see me. To really see me.I took her hand from where it rested at her side and she turned her head to look down at where I touched her, following the trajectory of our clasped hands as I brought her sweet fingers up to my chest and pressed it there, right at the center. Her eyes got wider, then snapped up to meet mine again.“Feel that?” I murmured, embarrassed by how my heart pounded. How my hands were trembling. But that was the truth of the effect she had on me. “For three years it’s been beating for you, Natalie. My heart speeds up every time you walk in the ro

~ NATALIE ~It had been a relief at first to hear the door close behind him, to know I was finally alone and didn’t have to hold myself ready for his appearance. I’d spent the entire morning trying to act normal, but fleeing his presence whenever it appeared.Exhausted, after a night staring at the ceiling and hating life, I fell into bed and slept at last.But when I woke three or four hours later and the house was still empty, a tick of apprehension started in my chest.Where was he? What was he doing? Had he disturbed Rig and Cara?Fuck, was he telling them what I’d said?Cara wouldn’t like that.I

~ MACK ~I heard the front door close and closed my eyes. I was sprawled on top of my bed, still dressed, just staring at the ceiling.Part of me felt relieved to know she wasn’t just two doors away. That her scent would fade instead of strengthen. But my skin itched with the urge to go after her.I rolled onto my side and looked at the trees outside the window because I hadn’t closed the blinds. Even when I came back, pushing every thought and feeling down to my toes and growling at them to stay there, even when she’d talked to me, been worried… she still hadn’t come for me. Still wasn’t ready to give in.I was beginning to think it might actually kill me to be here in this house with her for a week and unable to touch her.

~ CARA ~ Rig’s breath sucked in below me, and I giggled, letting myself go so I dropped because I knew that I had just the right angle to catch the next branch down if I just turned my body slightly… “Cara, for fuck’s sake, you’re going to give me a heart attack.” I laughed and continued on my path down the tree while Rig growled and paced below. He was strong. He could climb the trees too—like a gymnast. But it was all sheer power. He couldn’t jump the way I could. His body didn’t… bend like mine. We’d tried racing and it turned out I was faster off the mark—shooting ahead and keeping my lead for a while. But when I