I dropped the phone when it rang. The screen was different from before, and when I pressedaccept, Wolfe was staring back at me.
“Oh, wow.” I knew my mouth was open.
His smile was slow and sexy. “Hey, princess,” he drawled, his gaze flicking over my shoulder. “You’re in bed.”
I nodded, and he pulled the phone away, and I recognized our bedroom. “Me too.” He was lying back against the pillows, one hand behind his head, the other holding the phone low. Shirtless. Hair a little messy. Half-shadowed but still unmistakablyhim.
I drank in the sight of him. “This is so…strange.”
His mouth twitched. “Good strange?”
I nodded again, seeing myself in the bottom right-hand corner. “How does it work?”
He gave a lazy shrug. “Too technical for my brain. I just trust that it does.” His upper lip curled. “You like it?”
Nodding quickly, I leaned back a little. “It’s a magic I don’t understand.” I saw him about to correct me. “I know it isn’t magic, but it’s like it.” I tried to relax further into the bed. “Why are you calling?”
“I wanted to see you.”
Oh.
I sat back against the headboard, suddenly more aware than I wanted to be of the way I looked—tank top, braid falling loose over one shoulder, face flushed from training out in the sun, and not bothering to care what I looked like before climbing into bed.
“I didn’t expect…” I trailed off. “To see you.”
Wolfe frowned. “I thought Killian explained how video calling worked?”
“Killian said a lot,” I murmured, trying to fix my hair as I spoke.
“You look good, princess. Relax.”
The bond buzzed softly. Not painful. Just…present.
I swallowed. “I guess this is handy when your pack is too far for the mindlink to work.”
Wolfe smiled faintly. “Screens have other benefits.”
There was a pause. A long one. Not uncomfortable, justcharged. His eyes moved over me. Not greedy. Not predatory. Just looking.
I shifted under the weight of it.
“You’re tired,” Wolfe said.
“Training with your betas is exhausting,” I muttered, but I wasn’t complaining. “Killian pushes me, but not just to break things, he shows me what I’m doing wrong.”
“Hebreaksthings?” Wolfe asked with a scowl. “Bones?”
“Oh, no!” I laughed. “Bad habits, he calls them.” I wiggled further down the bed. “And this afternoon I sparred with Thalia, and I think we drew. Maybe.”
Wolfe relaxed. “Sounds like home.”
I couldn’t look away from him.
“I heard about the fight,” he said. “Thalia doesn’t go easy on anyone.”
“She doesn’t,” I agreed. “I think I gave as good as I got.”
“You did,” he confirmed, and his voice dropped just enough to pull heat low in my stomach. “Cody appreciated it.”
