struggled to keep my balance.
Holy fuck. I blinked, fighting to clear my vision. What the hell?
I didn’t get time to process what was happening as Madison pulled me toward the lighted corner of the bar. My wolf…recognized her. This had to be a mistake. Maybe I wanted it to be true so I’d imagined it.
When she stopped, I almost ran into her. She turned around, so close to me I could smell the Kahlúa on her breath, and I wanted to taste her lips so bad I could barely breathe. The full moon was still a week away, but my wolf was just beneath the surface, the animal instincts pushing me to claim my mate.
Mate.
Madison was my…
I vaguely noticed the applause in the background, and she tugged me into the bright lights. I winced, shielding my eyes as we stopped in front of a television screen. She handed me a mic, and for the first time, she must’ve looked up at my face. And the shock must have been written all over me.
“Are you okay? You don’t have to sing with me. I didn’t realize you really had stage fright. You can sit this one out.”
I stared into the ocean of her eyes as the guitar strings plucked out the first notes. Without thinking about it, I lifted the mic to my lips and started to sing. The crowd didn’t exist as I asked her if she was happy in this modern world. Was there something she was searching for? I poured myself into the lyrics. I hadn’t realized until this moment that I really was longing for change.
For her.
God, her smile. I’d sing all night to see her smile.
She lifted her mic and took the next verse. Her voice was clear and bright, but there was something beneath the surface. Passion. I couldn’t pull my gaze from her face. When she hit the chorus, she broke eye contact, facing the rest of the bar.
I’d forgotten we were even in one.
She was a superstar. I swallowed the lump in my throat before she turned to me again and we sang together. Our voices blended into a melody I never could have imagined—a union I never realized I wanted.
We were miles from the shallow. I was sinking into deep emotions.
And she had no idea.
What the fuck was I going to do?
CHAPTER 6
Madison
I loved singing karaoke. It fed a part of me that I couldn’t explain. I’d never been in choir in school and I hadn’t been in a play since elementary school, but there was a magic in belting out a song in front of an audience that I couldn’t find anywhere else. With karaoke, I could perform without any pressure because no one paid to see me. The energy exchange between me and the strangers in the room fed me. I poured emotions that I couldn’t articulate into my voice, and when they cheered and clapped, it filled an empty place inside my soul.
But I’d never experienced anything like singing with Cole. His voice was rough and unpolished and heartbreakingly honest. He sang to me as if he meant every single word, but we’d only just met yesterday. I would’ve chalked it up to him being a good actor or a well-practiced flirt like the bartender, but there was nothing fake in his tone. I wasn’t sure what to do with the bare emotion he kindled within me.
I searched his eyes as we sang about crashing through the surface, about falling, and all I saw was that honesty. This was real for him—maybe for both of us. It made no rational sense. We held the last note as the music faded, staring into each other’s eyes. The crowd started cheering and whistling, breaking the spell and reminding me where we were.
For a few minutes, I’d forgotten my brother was at the bar, stewing over me ignoring his warning about Cole, and about my worries about Deidra spying on me at the ranch. For those few precious moments, nothing in the world existed except me, Cole, and the music.
I blinked as the magic of the moment faded. We took a bow, and I walked out of the spotlight and returned the mic to the deejay.
“You guys were great. You should sing another one,” the man said.
Cole handed over his mic and patted the deejay’s shoulder. “I think I’m retired.”
We returned to the bar, but everything seemed different somehow. The bartender and my brother both stared at us as though they’d never