The number was a burner.
I ran it from the car, sitting in the motel parking lot with the engine idling, and got exactly nothing. Disconnected already, which meant whoever sent it hadn't planned on being traced. Disposable phone, probably paid cash, no carrier record worth pulling.
What I did get was the cell tower ping. And that told me enough.
Someone inside the territory sent the text message.
Not outside. Not some human advocacy group or rival pack running pressure plays from a distance. The message came from inside my territory. Which meant someone in my pack knew about this woman and this land and had decided, without damn telling me, to handle it themselves.
My jaw tightened. Who the hell thought that was a good idea? And what the hell do they know that I don't?
I went back up.
Elise opened the door before I finished knocking, which meant she'd been standing close to it.
"Burner phone," I told her. "Already disconnected. Don't worry, I'll look into it."
"You came back up to tell me that."
"Yes, I came back up to tell you that. Why?"
She looked at me for a second, and I could see her deciding whether to push further. She didn't. She crossed her arms and leaned against the table and I made the mistake of looking at her mouth while she was talking.
Don't do that.
The dream hadn't let go. It was still there, sitting in the back of my head where it had no business being, and it had been over an hour. Every time she spoke, my mind went somewhere it shouldn't. Every time I looked at her, I remembered how she'd felt in my hands.
What didn't help either was earlier—when she caught the chair and I grabbed her arm without thinking. It had barely been a few seconds, but it stuck. Two seconds, maybe three, her forearm in my hand, close enough that my brain immediately started going down the wrong path again.
Then there was the vibration. That low pulse moved through the floor, the lamp flickering just enough to notice. She'd brushed it off as pipes or her lack of sleep. I'd gone along with it because it was easier than saying what I was actually thinking.
I hadn't moved toward the door.
She noticed. "Is everything okay?"
I looked at her. She looked back.
Don't say it. Just think it and keep your mouth shut for once.
"I don't want to leave you here alone."
…Fuck.
She blinked. Just once, quickly, the expression of someone who had not been expecting that and needed a second to figure out what to do with it.
I watched her cycle through about three different responses before she settled on one.
"If you're waiting for me to invite you to stay," she said slowly, "I'm not sure I—"
"No." I cut in too fast, already regretting how that sounded. "That's not— I didn't mean it like that." I dragged a hand through my hair, irritated at myself. "I mean—just… safety. You shouldn't be here alone with this going on."
Smooth. Real smooth.
Elise held my gaze. "I'm fine here. I feel safe. What would actually help is if you tracked down that number and figured out who sent it."
We looked at each other for another moment.
"Okay," I said.
She walked me to the door.
I stepped out into the corridor and turned around, which put me closer to her than I'd planned.
She was looking up at me, the overhead light catching her face, and my wolf hit me like a fist to the chest. Not a rumble this time. A full hard pound, rhythmic and insistent, like something knocking from the inside of a locked room.
Can she hear that? Is that something she can hear?
"Can you hear anything?" I asked.
She looked at me like I'd just said something in a different language. "Hear what?"
No. She can't.
"Nothing," I said.
Then she said my name. "Mr. Gray…"
"Rhys," I said. "Call me Rhys."
She didn't say anything to that. Just looked at me with those eyes that missed absolutely nothing, and I needed to leave before I said something else I hadn't planned on saying. Or do anything stupid.
"Sweet dreams, Elise."
I left before she could respond.
The road opened up ahead, empty enough to push faster. I did, for a while. Then my hand hovered over the phone.
Don't.
I kept driving. But then I slowed anyway.
"Fuck it."
I hit her number. It rang once. Twice.
She picked up. "Who is this?"
"It's me."
"Rhys?" There was a slight pause in her voice, like she hadn't expected it.
"Yeah," I said, easing off the gas without thinking about it. "What, you'd rather I turn around, drive back there, knock on your door, and have you tell me I could've just called?"
That earned a small exhale on her end. Not quite a laugh, but close.
"So," she said after a second, "why are you calling?"
My answer came up too fast. "I wanted to hear your voice."
Silence. Fuck.
I stared at the road, suddenly very aware of how that sounded. "I mean—just to make sure you're okay. And um..." I cleared my throat. "And the text. That message you got—I don't like it."
Better, but still not great.
"Look, Ms. Winters, I know what you must be thinking right now. We don't know each other that well," I added, like that somehow made this make sense, "but you've been on my land. That… counts. You're basically a guest at this point."
Even as I said it, I knew how thin that sounded.
She didn't say anything right away, and I could picture the look she was probably giving the phone.
"That's your reasoning?" she asked finally.
"It's a reason."
"It's a stretch." Another small pause. Then, she sighed. "I'm fine, Rhys."
"You don't know that," I exhaled slowly, tapping my thumb against the wheel. "That message didn't come from nowhere. I can come back, you know."
She actually let out a quiet laugh this time. "And do what exactly? Stand outside my door until sunrise?"
"If I have to," she said before I heard her exhale. "Rhys, I'm fine. There's no evidence anything's going to happen tonight. And for the record, you're right—we don't know each other that well. I met you this afternoon. So no, I'm not inviting you in or offering you the couch. Obviously."
The silence that followed stretched a little longer this time. Not uncomfortable exactly, but close enough that I felt it.
Then she spoke again, "I should get some sleep."
Right. Of course.
"Yeah," I said. "You should."
"Goodnight, Rhys."
"Night."
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone for a second before tossing it back onto the seat and pressing down on the gas again; the car surging forward like that would undo the embarrassment I just did to myself.
Right before I turned a corner, I slowed down and called the elders. Maren finally picked up on the second ring, which was not something she did at this damn hour. She answered like she'd been sitting next to the phone.
"Maren," I said.
"Alpha." Her voice was calm in the way it got when she'd already decided what she was going to say.
I opened my mouth to tell her about the deed, the text, and Elise. She spoke first.
"Callum told us about the girl." She paused. "She's been here before. Well, not her. Her blood." Then she paused again. "We need to talk, Rhys, but not on the phone."