Page 43 of The Alpha's Shattered Bonds

We wasted no time and brought the potions out into the infirmary, distributing them to Kelly and Linda to administer. I forced myself to treat Linda as normal.

The ill pack members were feverish, but all were able to take the potion. I watched in awe as they gradually began to recover over the next hour. Logan’s pallid cheeks took on a hint of color, and he was able to sit up.

Blinking in disbelief at the change in all the packmates, relief flooded my veins, and my heart raced with gratitude and pride for Seraphina’s talent and skill.

With proof that someone had infected the herbs, I announced to Healer Linda, “I’m confiscating all sets of keys to the infirmary while I investigate who has infected the herbs.” I made a point of ordering Justin to go get the elders’ keys from all three of them, too.

Linda was as pale as earlier, but she administered the curatives with calm efficiency, handing over her keys without complaint.

Belatedly, I realized that now that Seraphina had successfully treated the packmates once again, the fleeting time we’d had together was over.

But, she caught my eye and drew over to the infirmary door. “We should bag up things in the cupboard, shouldn’t we?”

The way she held my stare had my heart knocking violently. For a moment, the joyous thought that she desired time alone with me, too, had a thrill shooting me.

“Yes,” I managed. The opportunity to be close to her again and mend some of the hurt I’d caused her of late was too good a chance to pass up.

In a moment, we were back in the supply closet. She found some plastic bags and moved the evidence of the black powder into them, and then she bottled up the dark magic in its liquid form.

She used her magic to levitate the substances, and once again, I was awed by her skill and efficiency. She didn’t need me here to accomplish this task. The thought had hope drumming through my chest. She’d asked me in here anyway. The air simmered between us, expectation hanging between us like whispers.

As Seraphina bagged the last of the powder, our eyes locked. My breath hitched. In that moment, I couldn’t fight the impulse any longer. I stepped closer, heart racing as I confided, “I need to tell you something about this dark magic. This powder reminds me of what Linda used to drug me the other night.”

Seraphina frowned. “Linda drugged you?”

I nodded, holding her gaze. “The other night, just before you and I were together. When I returned from seeing her, I was under the influence of a heat potion she’d slipped into my drink. I recognized that chili scent.”

“The kiva,” she interjected. “She concealed a heat potion in your drink,” she said, her jaw slack, looking stunned.

I nodded, my expression clouded, but I shook the darkness away. I needed to tell her everything. “The morning I woke beside you—that is whatI was sorry about. I was sorry that the heat potion brought about my desire—”

“So, it wasn’t real,” she blurted out. Heat rose to her cheeks, and her beautiful moss-colored gaze fell away.

“It was real,” I uttered, my heart drumming. “Everything I feel for you is real,” I vowed, wanting with every ounce of my being for her gaze to return to me.

When I got my wish, along with her eyes lightening—was that hope she was looking at me with? I wanted nothing more than to keep her gaze on me. “I thought you regretted it happening,” she said tentatively.

“I was only sorry for how it had come about. I wanted you with all my heart,” I assured her, my eyes burning with the sole desire to show her how much I wanted her.

I watched her lips part slightly. I took a tentative step closer, time suspending as I once more slipped into her orbit. I breathed in her honey perfume and felt something settle in my chest.

I touched her arm. She wore a pair of thick navy overalls, but even my palm on her upper arm sent a jolt of connection zippingthrough me. My palm trailed up, wanting more contact, but I gave her plenty of time to step away or tell me to stop. But she didn’t. She seemed to be searching my gaze as much as I was hers. As my hand grazed her neck, cupping her cheek, she leaned into my touch, a sigh escaping her mouth.

The sound had my heart pounding, want coursing through me, and my hesitation dissolved. My lips dipped to hers, brushing her with a feather-soft touch.Is this okay?my kiss asked. The graze of her own plush lips answered me, the little whimper she made telling me that this was okay, that it was more than okay.

I deepened our kiss.I want you. I told her as my tongue found hers. Her fingers found the back of my neck, grazing the back of my head. Her deepening kiss seemed to tell me that she needed me. I lost myself in the heat of her, the feel of her hands on me, reveling that this had come about through my truth, not by anything external. This was what I had yearned for—a connection that had nothing to do with anyone else and everything to do with the trust and need pulsing between us.

But then the fragile magic shattered like glass. The sharp sound of footsteps echoed through the space, cutting through our moment of intimacy. I barely registered the closet door swinging open before I felt Seraphina pull away, the warmth of her presence receding as reality crashed back in.

Chapter Twenty

Seraphina

My heart dropped like a stone as Logan pushed open the door, his tall figure looming in the doorway, cutting off the warmth that had enveloped Tyler and me. Confusion flickered across his features, quickly morphing into something heavier—hurt—like a storm cloud darkening the sky.

Oh, goddess, what was I doing?

Panic coursed through me, and I jerked back from Tyler, suddenly painfully aware of how getting close to Tyler now was terribly timed. The warmth between us sputtered like a flame caught in a breeze, leaving a cold void in its wake. Yet my heart still raced, a wild drumbeat echoing in my ears as the intoxicating heat Tyler had ignited within me refused to fade completely.

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