Page 94 of Nikolay

“It’s time to run.”

That was all.

He didn’t need more.

The room came alive.

Chairs scraped back. Wineglasses were set down half-finished. A grin split Tristen’s face for the first time all evening, brief and wolfish as sin. Loralee rose with quick excitement and reached for the hand of the woman beside her. Somewhere near the fireplace, someone gave a low whoop that kicked off two more. Energy surged through the room so fast I felt it under my skin like static.

And just like that, whatever this night had been before became something else entirely.

A run.

A real one.

My pulse answered before my thoughts did.

Chapter 15

Maddie

The house emptied like a held breath finally released. By the time I stepped off the rear terrace, my skin already knew what was coming and had begun to ache for it.

The grounds behind Ironwood sloped away from the house in generous dark lines—stone paths giving way to grass, grass to softer earth, and then to the great black ribs of old forest under moonlight. The air bit cool against my face, clean with pine and leaf mold and that wet green smell the ground kept after sunset.

Wolves streamed past me in twos and clusters and family knots. Adults spoke in low, excited voices. Children darted and doubled back at the edges under watchful eyes, too full of energy to move in straight lines.

It should have felt foreign.

Instead, it hit me low and immediate, almost painful in its familiarity. Pack anticipation had a smell. Not just wolf, not just sweat or adrenaline, but that sharpened, collective hum right before a run when everybody around you had begun orienting toward motion.

Sage fell into step beside me as naturally as if there had never been a question that he would.

His shoulder nearly brushed mine. The night silvered one side of his face and left the other in soft shadow, sharpening the line of his jaw, the dark sweep of his hair. He had traded none of his composed ease for the outdoors. If anything, he looked more at home in it.

“You have an out,” he said quietly.

I turned my head. “An out?”

His voice remained low enough that it belonged only to the two of us, despite the pack all around. “If you are uncomfortable stripping among wolves you do not know, no one will think less of you. You may shift privately and meet us in the treeline.”

The offer landed more gently than I expected. I looked around. Sloan ran ahead of us with a few of her friends. Moriah and Loralee walked with several men and women I had chatted with over the meal.

Sage offered me an out. Not a test. Not a trap. A real door left open.

I considered lying for half a second, something breezy and light, but the wine and the night and the pack heat around me had stripped some of my usual caution clean away.

“I was a little apprehensive at first,” I admitted.

He did not interrupt.

“But I’m fine now,” I said. “Better than fine, actually.” My mouth curved before I meant it to. “I want all of it.”

Something moved in his expression then. Not triumph. Something quieter and more dangerous because it looked so much like satisfaction honestly felt.

He held my gaze a beat longer than necessary.

“Good,” he said.