Wyatt’s arm snaked around the man in the soggy suit, and he tried to disappear, but the bear had him now. Rain pelted down, and a flash of lightning crackled across the sky, illuminating the splintered porch stairs. One long plank jutted upward, the end broken and sharp. Wyatt pulled the vamp from the thick smoke and slammed him down onto a long spike of wood with a sickening sound. The man’s mouth opened in a scream of agony before his face fell away in ashes as fire flared up his body. And then he disappeared in a firework of sparks that covered the porch like tiny fireflies in the early spring.
A long, satisfied rumble filled Harper’s chest, because yes, the beast in her required a boon for the blood Wyatt shed tonight. One down and the whole damned coven burned, so why was Wyatt looking over his massive shoulder with sparks of fury in his eyes?
With a warning click of her fire starter and a soft hiss of pain, she shrank back into her human skin.
Wyatt followed suit, but he was shaking and smelled of rage. “You shouldn’t have come!”
Harper huffed a shocked laugh and stepped back. He had some nerve. “I think you mean ‘thank you.’”
“I’m not ready for this!”
She held her palms up. “For what?” she yelled, her voice echoing through the mountains.
Wyatt inhaled deeply, gritting his teeth as he held his bleeding neck. He angled away, and now she could see it. There was pain in his eyes that he’d been masking as anger. He dragged his gaze down her naked body and back up to her eyes. “I’m not ready for you to be here yet.”
He turned to go inside, but she didn’t miss the fact that he stepped carefully over the thin layer of ash that remained of the vampire he’d staked. Harper stood in the rain as he slammed the door behind him. Pools of water gathered in her outstretched palms as she stood there, completely and utterly baffled on what just happened.
Maybe she should leave.
No. She’d come this far and would never make sense of this battle if she didn’t get answers from him now. Why the hell was a coven of vampires after him in the first place, and why was he facing them alone? Shifters didn’t work like that. Wyatt should’ve been an alpha of a crew by now. If he was, his crew had failed him epically.
She’d let him go before without explanations, and it had tortured her. Not tonight. Tonight she needed answers.
Harper bit back a curse and strode for her rental car. She pulled her duffle bag from the back seat and shouldered it. On the porch, she dressed as fast as she could with shaking hands.
She was here, and just inside was the man who had enamored her since she was a kid. Memories of people were tricky. It was easy to forget the bad and hold the good on a pedestal. And Wyatt Andrew James had been too far up there for her to settle for another man since.
It was time to let him go.
She pushed the hem of her shirt over her jeans and shoved the door open. Inside, it was much warmer and would’ve been homey if it weren’t for the disaster on the floor. His television lay face-up next to the fallen TV stand. Papers, books, broken glass, and shredded couch cushions littered the floor. Carefully, Harper righted a coat rack and hung the single jacket she found on the floor onto one of the pegs.
“Don’t,” Wyatt growled from the kitchen. His back was to her, and he was scrubbing his neck in the sink. Was he using soap? He was a shifter. Infection wasn’t a possibility. Wyatt’s shoulders tensed as he retched. “Fuck,” he said shakily as he rested his forehead on his crossed arms on the counter.
His skin was too pale, and the jeans he’d pulled on hung loose around his hips, but he was still a massive man. So different from the boy she remembered. As he turned slowly, an accidental smile curved her lips.
“What?” he asked, his brows lowering into a frown.
“I just thought…” She shrugged helplessly. “This is so weird, speaking to you after all this time. Outside, when I saw you fighting that vampire, I thought for a moment I recognized you. Your eyes maybe. But standing here in the light…it’s just strange seeing your eyes in this body.” She gestured to him as her cheeks flushed with heat.
Wyatt straightened his spine and rested the heels of his hands behind him on the edge of the counter. It made the hard curves of his arms look even more massive. Wyatt wasn’t a boy anymore. A slash of pain filled her. She’d missed everything.
His choice.
“Look at me,” he murmured.
Harper closed her eyes for a moment, sighed, then blinked them open and dared to hold his gaze. The boyishness had left his face completely. Now it was all chiseled lines and facial scruff. His nose flared slightly, and when he swallowed, his Adam’s apple dipped low into his muscular throat. His eyes were still the color of frost, and his dark hair was damp, spiked up from where he’d run his hand through it. Probably in frustration. He’d had that habit when he was a kid, too.
He shook his head, and Harper was helpless to decipher the look in his eyes now.
“This isn’t how I planned this. It’s not what I want.”
“You messaged me. You sent our code. Are you really surprised I showed up here?”
“After everything? Yeah. Hell yeah, I’m surprised.”
She offered a pained smile. “Everything. That was a long time ago. Are you going to tell me why you are at war with a coven?”
“I’m not at war.” Any softness that had been in his face disappeared when he snarled up his lip. “I’m their pet.” His eyes tightened at the corners. “I’m not like you remembered.”