Echoes

WILLOW

My heart thundered as I waited to feel Connor’s lips on mine.

“Oops! Shit!” Lisa’s voice ricocheted off the walls, and I jolted. “Sorry! I didn’t know anyone was in here.” She stood in the doorway, her braid slung over one shoulder.

Her eyes went from me to Connor and back again, widening with what looked suspiciously like glee and then immediate regret. “Ugh, I’m sorry,” she muttered, already retreating. “I’ll, uh, just take my embarrassment and go. I saw nothing. Please continue.”

She vanished the way a responsible adult should after ruining a highly charged near kiss with the subtlety of a stampede.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and shifted. Connor was still under me, and suddenly the closeness felt too intimate, too intentional.

The moment was gone.

After I stood to let him up, he rose before reaching for the knife I still clutched in my hand. I handed it over with a sheepish grin.

“Do you want me to walk you to your room?” he asked.

I nodded. “Sure. Probably safer if I don’t wander. I’ve gotten lost three times already. Once, I accidentally walked into a pantry full of raw meat. That was a fun sensory moment.”

That earned me a grin, but man, was it unfair how it affected me. I tried not to look directly at it, as if his smile might cause retinal damage.

As we stepped into the night air, Connor said, “You were really good tonight.” He shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Yeah? Thank you.”

“Your form’s excellent,” he continued. “That last takedown you did on me? Impressive. And you clearly know how to handle blades.”

Warmth twisted my stomach. Praise from the alpha hit differently. It was less a “star student gets a gold sticker” thing and more a “my wolf purred so loud my heart might explode” thing.

“Thanks,” I said. “Not sure I can take all the credit, though. Fighting tonight felt different.”

He arched a brow. “Different how?”

I hesitated. Words felt inadequate for what had been happening inside me for the last two days, but I tried to articulate it. “For starters, I feel stronger, more agile, and definitely more aggressive. My endurance is way up, and my reflexes are quicker.

“Also, my senses are sharper, and I don’t mean my five senses—well, those too. But what I mean is a sixth sense, like I could anticipate what you were going to do before you did it. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” he said, chuckling, and gestured toward the night sky. “That’s why.” He pointed at the nearly full moon. “Our wolves are stronger during the full moon. Heightened senses, reflexes, and instincts.”

~Shit~. ~I completely forgot about the full moon!~ The hair on my arms lifted. “That means I’m gonna shift.” Despite knowing there was no reason to freak out, my pulse began doing that panicky-fluttering thing.

“Yes, you’ll shift,” he said. “How do you feel about it?”

“Terrified, actually,” I admitted.

“Of what?”

“That I might lose control. Hurt someone, or worse.” I waited for him to say something comforting, but when he didn’t, I realized he was giving me space to keep talking. “That fear has gone down, though. And I do want to get closer to my wolf, to meet her properly.”

“You will,” he said. “She’s waiting for you. And trust me, when it happens, it won’t feel like losing control. It’ll be more like remembering who you were. She’s always been there, Willow. Even if they forced you to shut her out, to fear her.”

My throat tightened, so I gave him a small nod of appreciation.

We walked the rest of the way in silence, but the weight of our unfinished kiss grew loud between us. When we reached my door, alone in a quiet hallway, I fumbled with the handle, suddenly aware of how fast my heart was beating again.

Connor took a step closer and leaned down. Just when I thought he might kiss me—this time hopefully without interruption—he brushed his lips against my cheek instead. It was soft, featherlight, and intentional, a slow burn of contact. “Goodnight, Willow.”

He stepped back, and by the time I could breathe again, he’d already turned down the hall. I stood there, rooted to the floor, my cheek tingling with the spark of his kiss.

CONNOR

The road north to our allied pack cut through pine-choked ridges and skeletal trees, their twisted limbs backlit by the pale morning sun.

A thick silence filled the car, the kind that came from too much open sky and not enough pack noise. Ben flipped through radio stations until I growled, and he gave up, muttering something about alpha ears being “too damn sensitive.”

We were about an hour out when I pulled into a corner gas station that looked like it hadn’t been updated since the Cold War. Its paint peeled, a neon Open sign only flickered o—n, and a rickety awning groaned with every gust of wind.

It reeked of spilled diesel, melted plastic, and bad choices.

Ben headed inside to grab coffee, and I stayed by the SUV, stretching my legs and watching the pump tick up in lazy numbers.

That’s when I saw the girl in the back seat of a beat-up sedan that was already halfway through the intersection. She looked out the window in my direction, her face pale with shockingly green, hollow eyes.

For a heartbeat, I was convinced I was staring at a younger Willow. The two had the same angular cheekbones, haunted eyes, jet-black hair, and lips that forgot how to smile—or had never learned.

The breath snagged in my throat like barbed wire. I blinked, and the car was gone, disappearing around a bend in the road.

I shook my head. ~Get a grip~. I exhaled and rubbed a hand over my jaw.

~Maybe this is what happens when you don’t act on the mate bond. The Goddess haunts you with the image of your mate until you accept Her will.~ The thought came unbidden, sharp-edged and unkind. ~Damn cruel way to drive the point home.~

Still, something twisted in my gut, a slow, cold coil of unease. My mind darted back to Clara and the older woman before her in Seattle.

That first time, I’d doubted myself—I’d only just met Willow, and her face had been so swollen and bruised that I couldn’t have been sure. But now, seeing this third girl who looked remarkably like her, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence.

The only question was, was a pattern forming here, or was the Goddess manipulating me? Either way, I didn’t like it.

“Hey.” Ben’s voice pulled me out of the spiral. He handed me a steaming cup that smelled vaguely of coffee and mostly of artificial vanilla.

I took it without comment.

“You good?” he asked, scanning me with the same scrutiny he used on enemies. “You look like you saw something.”

“It’s nothing.” I shook my head. “Let’s just get this meeting over with so we can get back to the pack.”

Ben didn’t push, but he raised an eyebrow—his look that said, “I’m watching your ass, and not in the fun way.”

We climbed back in, our doors slamming in unison.

After I put the SUV into drive, I peered down the road where the car had vanished. An emptiness gnawed at my ribs while questions once again filled my mind.

~What the hell is going on? It can’t be the Goddess; plenty of wolves don’t act on their bonds right away, and she doesn’t torture them. That means it must be real, but did those women actually look like Willow, or was my mind seeing what it wanted to?~

~Damn, I wish Ben had seen the girl.~ I glanced over at him, actually considering turning around to find that car so he could tell me whether or not I was crazy. I didn’t, though, and continued north.

Willow had never mentioned a family, but that wasn’t surprising. Her captors wouldn’t have told her she had living parents, siblings, or cousins. Why would they? So, it was possible those women were related to Willow in some way.

It was useless to speculate, so I tried to let it go, to chalk it up to bad sleep and a lovesick wolf. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something else was happening—that there was something I wasn’t seeing.

I gripped the wheel tighter as a cloud drifted away, revealing the nearly full moon in the blue sky. A sudden desperation came over me, and I felt the urge to say a prayer.

~Goddess, let me be wrong about what I’ve seen. Because if I’m not, if these women are Willow’s family, then I’ll have to tell her. And risk losing her.~