The entire world seemed to grind to a halt in the middle of the Wolf Council hallway. Kira's body went rigid.
The moment her chest collided with his, the moment his scent flooded her nose—that sweet citrus she had come to love—her beast came roaring up from wherever she'd been sulking these past weeks.
The animal pressed against the inside of Kira's skin, yearning, straining toward him, and would not stop howling one single word.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
Kira's stomach clenched. She'd walked out of that council room feeling ten feet tall, and now her own body was betraying her in a hallway, aching toward the very man she'd sworn never to lay eyes on again.
Derek stumbled back a step, staring at her as though she were a ghost risen out of the floor.
And inside him, Leo, who had been silent and withdrawn for weeks, who had shrunk down into some cold corner of him and refused to so much as stir, suddenly surged forward with such force that Derek nearly lost himself to it.
