I never meant to let Sabrina get this close. Her defiant chin and those lush curves have been testing my control since she walked into the compound, but when our hands collided over the dropped ledger in the gatehouse, neither of us pulled away.

The rival keeps circling the fence, and my beast stirs beneath my rune-inked skin, demanding I claim her as mine to protect the territory and bind her to me. Her past betrayal scars make every brush of her shoulder against mine a challenge, daring me to prove my dominance won't shatter what she can barely trust.

I need her surrender, the kind that lets me claim her against the archive shelves and mark her where the pack will see. The terror is that my inner predator turns on her first. I am going to ask her for it anyway.