Shan had thought he’d taken every precaution.
He’d scrutinised the staff schedule so he could pick an arrival time when all the counselors would be safely occupied inside with training activities. He’d circled the camp three times, observing the entire site from the air. He hadn’t landed and shifted to human form until he was completely sure there was no risk of encountering his true mate.
He was not prepared for her to charge out of nowhere and tackle him like a linebacker.
She was barely half his mass, yet she nearly knocked him clean off his feet. He staggered, instinctively grasping her shoulders to steady them both.
His mate didn’t give him so much as a second to regain his balance. Grabbing his tie, she marched off with rapid, angry strides. Helpless to resist, Shan found himself stumbling at her heels like a disgraced dog on a lead.
She hauled him straight into what seemed to be a storeroom, the walls lined with rows of shelves and neatly labeled boxes. Releasing his tie at last, she shut the door behind them, twisting the handle with an ominous click. She turned to face him, folding her arms.
“You idiot,” she hissed up at him. “What were you thinking?”
At that precise moment, he wasn’t thinking anything. A kind of bright, ringing blankness filled his mind.
He’d resigned himself to never seeing her again. He’d tried to forget her warm amber eyes, the dimple in her cheek, the way the sunlight caught in her hair.
Now she was here, right in front of him, every perfect inch. Pure need gripped him. She was so close. So close to being able to taste, to claim, to have—
His mate, for her part, was clearly not afflicted with the same all consuming desire. She clicked her tongue, looking him up and down as if he was a used car she was already regretting buying.
“Not what I would have ordered,” she muttered. She went to the only window, peering out past a faded blind. “But we’ll have to make the best of things. Let’s just hope no-one saw you. Honestly, turning up in a suit and sunglasses? You might as well walk around with your badge glued to your forehead.”
…Wait.
His hand flew to his face. His sunglasses were still there, strapped securely to his head.
She hadn’t seen his eyes. She couldn’t have looked into his soul, and recognised him as her doom. So how did she know?
Unless… she didn’t.
“I think there may be a misunderstanding,” he said cautiously, not yet daring to allow himself more than the faintest glimmer of hope. “I am Special Agent Shan Zhao, Federal Bureau of—”
“Shifter Affairs,” she finished for him. She adjusted the blind, making sure the window was fully covered. “I know. I’m Leonie MacCormick, the camp’s head counselor. We met when you were here a couple of weeks ago, though I don’t expect you remember me.”
Every nanosecond of that encounter was burned into his memory. He restrained himself to a noncommittal nod, expression carefully neutral. “You know why I am here?”
“Yes, and I’m not happy about it,” Leonie said bluntly. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing personal. I appreciate everything that you Shifter Affairs agents do to keep the rest of us safe. I’d just rather you weren’t here. My job is hard enough already. The last thing I need is a hulking government agent stomping about camp, upsetting my counselors and riling up the kids.”
His mouth flooded with the taste of honey and cream. Truth.
Only long habit let him prevent any flicker of reaction from showing on his face. She’d accosted him in righteous fury, but not for the reason he’d feared. She didn’t know. She didn’t know he was her mate.
“So,” Leonie added in the same brisk, no-nonsense tone, “take off your clothes.”