face heated, but I couldn’t look away.
He stumbled as he walked in and almost shut the door on the cat, though the massive feline hissed and swatted at him in warning before sauntering into the living room. Henry shook himself—a full-body shake, like a dog after a bath—and frowned as he looked around. “What happened?”
I couldn’t speak, my mouth dry with humiliation. I braced for the attack, the accusations, the yelling. Him demanding an apology or worse, maybe demanding that Deirdre kick me out or call the police.
Deirdre glanced toward the kitchen and the rising voices arguing over what “making lunch” actually meant, then sighed and shoved to her feet. “You got zapped and went into a shift. That’s it.”
“Oh.” Henry frowned at me and I flushed, trying to keep my attention north of his chest. His well-formed, slightly furred chest. “Is it lunchtime yet?”
“If your stupid alpha would get off his ass and do more than order people around, yes, it is.” Deirdre huffed in irritation and strode toward the kitchen, raising her voice enough that the occupants of the kitchen immediately silenced. “It’s past time for lunch, actually, and I’m getting suspicious about why it’s taking so long.”
Which left Henry looking at me and me avoiding looking at him, and the cat sitting on the stairs watching us both. Out of the three of us, it seemed like Henry was the only one not judging.
Chapter 14
Henry
It had been years since he ended up in an uncontrolled shift. Usually it took a lot to force a shifter into that sort of thing, at least once they were out of adolescence, and he didn’t like the implications for control of his temper. Henry couldn’t stand men who lost control, especially around women, and fought the urge to immediately go to the backyard for a round of boxing with Silas or one of the other guys to punish himself.
But he couldn’t walk away from the witch. She looked so small and lost, sitting there in Deirdre’s comfortable but antique-filled living room, still clutching that weird bag. Henry cleared his throat and tried to figure out a way to apologize that didn’t make him sound like a dangerous animal. “It doesn’t happen often, you know.”
She jumped, startled, and her entire face reddened as she looked at him. “Wh-What?”
“The shift, like that. It doesn’t happen often. Just…under extreme circumstances.” It didn’t make him feel any better, just like it shouldn’t have been reassuring for her. “I’m not sure what triggered it this time, but I’ll figure it out and deal with it.”
Her face paled instead, and after a long second of staring at him in panic, she collapsed forward against her legs and covered her face. “It’s my fault,” she said, voice muffled against her hands.
He edged closer, trying to hear. She still smelled remarkably good, despite a hint of perspiration and fear. Adrenaline and panic, no doubt. He didn’t like it, her smelling like fear. Especially around him. “It’s not—”
“I caused it,” she said, shaking her head though she didn’t move from where she’d doubled over in the chair. “I’m a freak. I can’t control my magic. It…jumped to you and it knocked you across the porch and then you…changed.”
Henry crouched down near the chair and touched her arm. “Say that again.”
She didn’t pull away, which he took as a pretty good sign that she wasn’t afraid of him, but she didn’t look up, either. “I’m a dangerous witch. I can’t control my magic, and I ended up…hexing you. I could have killed you. I’m so sorry.”
When she looked up, tears stained her cheeks and made her eyes shine with misery. He blinked and sat back on his heels, not liking the hot, tight ache in his chest from seeing her upset. He hardly knew the girl, yet each tear was like a knife in his guts. Henry struggled for control but couldn’t resist the urge to brush the hair out of her face. “No harm, no foul. Just surprised me, is all. No permanent damage.”
He tried to smile, even though he didn’t feel like it with her looking so miserable, and couldn’t stop stroking her hair. It was softer than he thought. Not that he typically spent a lot of time thinking about how a woman’s hair felt. Something about her, though… Henry pushed the thought away and found himself distracted instead by the gentle curve of her ear and the soft sparkle of an earring.
“It could have been so bad,”