13-APEX PREDATORS

Kaelyn didn’t look back at the direction the inquisitors had fled, as if they had already ceased to exist the moment he had sent them away.

“It would have been the fights,” he said, his manner easy, as if it were minor, not the fact she had just been hunted by inquisitors.

Rose felt her anger shift inward.

“What about the fights?”

“I watched you,” he said. “You controlled your energy, but I saw it. Small, but enough to be noticed.”

Her stomach tensed hard.

“If I noticed it,” he continued, quieter now, “others would have.”

The implication fell heavily between them.

Luke stayed silent, but Rose could feel the force of his attention.

Kaelyn didn’t linger on it.

“We had plans,” he said instead.

Rose blinked, thrown by the sudden turn of conversation.

“My bike is here,” she replied, her manner brisk. “I’m not leaving it.”

Kaelyn didn’t hesitate to take control of the situation.

“Give the keys to Sebastian.”

Her jaw set immediately.

“I’m not just…”

“Rose.”

He didn’t raise his voice, but the word landed with enough force to cut through her resistance.

For a second, she held his gaze, stubbornness flaring, then she reached into her pocket and pulled out the keys, throwing them toward Sebastian.

“Look after it.”

Sebastian caught them easily, turning them over once before pulling out another set and handing them straight to Kaelyn without question.

“I’ll deliver it back to Howl at the Moon,” he said. “Lucas can look after it once we arrive. I will wait at Howl at the Moon.”

Kaelyn gave a slight nod, already moving away.

Moments later, engines roared to life, the sound tearing through the quiet night as the bikes pulled away. Lucas and Sebastian disappeared onto the highway.

The silence that followed didn’t last.

Bianca moved toward the SUV like she had every right to be there, her steps unhurried, her expression composed, that knowing edge still sitting in her eyes.

Rose felt it immediately, that sharp, rising urge to go after her, to drag her back and make her answer for what had just happened.

She held it down.

Barely.

Bianca reached the passenger door and pulled it open.

Kaelyn’s voice stopped her.

A low, cold threat barely veiled there.

“What do you think you’re doing, Bianca?”

She turned to them, as if she hadn’t already decided where she intended to sit.

“I assumed that we…”

Kaelyn snapped at her then.

“Then you assumed wrong, Bianca.”

Bianca held his look longer than she should, then stepped back, adjusting course toward the rear door.

Kaelyn didn’t move.

“Leave us now.”

Bianca blinked.

“I beg your pardon?”

“I am on a date,” Kaelyn said, as though that explained everything. “We don’t need a third.”

For a second, anger broke through her composure.

“And how,” she asked, her voice pinched, “am I supposed to get home?”

Kaelyn's expression was unreadable.

“Do I look like I care?”

She looked at him in stunned silence.

“You’ll figure it out.”

Bianca’s jaw tightened, her gaze flicking briefly to Rose, something cold and cutting passing between them before she stepped back.

“Of course,” she said smoothly. “Enjoy your evening.”

She turned and walked away without waiting for another word.

Rose watched her go, the anger still burning, but something else beginning to take its place.

Satisfaction.

Kaelyn opened the passenger door.

“Get in.”

Rose didn’t argue this time.

The door shut behind her with a solid click, sealing her inside the quiet, enclosed space.

Kaelyn slid into the driver’s seat, the engine humming to life beneath them as he pulled away from the docks.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Rose stared ahead, her fingers curling into the oversized sleeves of his shirt, her anger slowly loosening its grip now that Bianca was no longer there.

“I never knew about them,” she said finally. “The inquisitors.”

Kaelyn didn’t look at her.

“Most don’t,” he said. “Not until it’s too late.”

She swallowed.

“I grew up in a wolf pack,” she said. “That life… it was never part of anything I knew.”

His gaze flicked to her briefly.

“Which one of your parents is a witch?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I always thought I was just a wolf. The energy… it just came naturally when I was young.”

“No one taught you?”

She shook her head.

“Then you’re a natural,” he said. “Which means you’re likely more powerful than you realize.”

The words settled uneasily.

She shifted slightly.

“Thank you for the roses,” she said, deflecting. “How many florists did you buy out?”

A faint smile touched his mouth.

“I thought enough of them might compare to your beauty. It doesn’t.”

Before she could respond, his hand found hers, his fingers closing around her own.

The contact sent something through her, deep, slow, and consuming.

A vision rolled through her mind, heat and pleasure tangled together in a way that made her breath hitch as she leaned back slightly, caught off guard by the intensity of it.

He said nothing.

Just drove.

The city lights thinned around them as they moved further out, the roads narrowing, the world growing quieter, darker.

Rose’s unease crept back in.

“Where are we going?”

Kaelyn didn’t answer immediately.

He turned onto a narrow road, the headlights cutting across a stretch of land that looked untouched, abandoned.

A barn came into view, old and weathered, sitting beside a slow-moving river that reflected the faint light of the moon.

This didn’t feel right.

“This is where we’re having our date?” she asked, her voice quieter now.

Kaelyn cut the engine.

Silence settled around them.

“You have to trust me, Rose.”

The words didn’t soothe anything.

She stepped out of the car anyway, the night air cool against her skin, her senses sharpening instinctively.

The place was empty, and a feeling of uneasiness crept in.

She barely had time to turn before he was there.

Fast.

He moved around the car and closed the space between them, one hand bracing against the door behind her, the other settling at her waist, trapping her in place without needing force.

His head dipped slightly, his breath brushing her neck as he inhaled slowly, deliberately.

Her pulse kicked.

“You are right not to trust me, Rose,” he murmured, his voice low, something darker threading through it now.

“Vampires are apex predators for a reason.”