“I was practicing!”
“For what?Scaring away rival packs?”
She smacked his chest, but there was no real force behind it.“For the moonlight ceremony.Which you would have known if you hadn’t been too busy showing off for Jessica Miller.”
“I wasn’t showing off for Jessica.”His voice dropped lower.“I was trying to distract myself from how you looked in the firelight.”
Larissa’s breath caught.“Malcolm…”
“You wore that dress,” he continued, his thumb brushing her cheekbone.“The one that matched your eyes.And when Mr.Matthews asked who would lead the next generation of our pack…”
“I stood up first,” she remembered.
“Beat me by half a second.”
“Story of our lives.”
“Not anymore.”His other hand found her waist.“Now we move together.”
She placed her hands on his chest, not pushing away but not pulling closer either.“It won’t be easy.We’ve spent our whole lives competing.”
“Like that time we both tried to lead the autumn hunt?”
“We tracked completely different prey.”
“But somehow ended up at the same clearing.”
“Because you followed my trail!”
“Because I was always following your trail, Larissa.”The admission hung in the moonlit air between them.“Even when I pretended I wasn’t.”
She studied his face, seeing the truth there.“Is that why you sabotaged my date with Robert Mitchell senior year?”
“He wasn’t right for you.”
“And you knew that because…?”
“Because he couldn’t keep up with you.Mentally or physically.”Malcolm’s grip tightened slightly.“Because he didn’t understand why you spent hours practicing forms or studying pack law.Because he didn’t see how your mind worked three steps ahead while still noticing every detail around you.Because…”
“Because what?”Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Because he wasn’t me.”
The confession seemed to echo in the night air.Larissa’s hands fisted in his shirt.
“You were impossible back then,” she said shakily.“Always pushing, always challenging, always…”
“Always watching you,” he finished.“Always wondering if you sensed it too.”
“Sensed what?”
“This.”He leaned down, resting his forehead against hers.“The pull.The connection.The way everything feels more intense, more real when we’re together.”
“I thought it was rivalry.”
“It was.Is.But it’s more than that.”His nose brushed hers.“Ms.Everett knew.That’s why she kept pushing us together.”
“All those partner projects…”
