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She’s fine.

I know she’s fine. So, why can’t I keep my distance from her?

I hide out in the trees for a second before shifting back into my human form, knowing I have no clothes to put on. Staying in my lion form after I’ve had so much to drink feels unnatural.

She must have just gotten in because I can hear her even as she closes the drapes and makes her way slowly to the back of her house. I listen intently for a few moments. She’s moving erratically. One moment she’s walking to the back, and then she stops and backs into the living room. Even her breathing seems to change the air. How I can hear her breathing is baffling. I’ve always had keen hearing, but this is different. It’s like I’m so attuned to Sibley that she’s a part of me.

“What the hell?” I slur.

I don’t know what’s going on, but even in my drunken haze, I scan the surroundings, looking for anything out of the ordinary. I don’t see or hear anything that doesn’t belong, however, I keep searching. As I do, I swear I hear her call out, as if she’s waiting for someone to answer.

Does she know I’m out here?

I don’t see how she would.

A few moments later, I walk around to the back of the house so I can get a better look at what’s going on.

Sobriety hits me hard when I realize I can hear her crying in there. I’ve never known the woman to cry. Not once in all the times I’ve been around her. Everything inside me wants to rush in there and console her, to fight whatever is hurting her, but I can’t. I swore I wouldn’t. She’ll call for help if she needs it. She said she would.

I need to get out of here.

This isn’t my problem. She isn’t my problem.

Before I can shift back into my lion form, something changes, and I hear Sibley jump to her feet. I try to focus through the haze a bit more, already feeling more sober than I should be, on what she’s doing and whether someone else could be in there, but there’s no one else in the house with her. There’s no danger, but she’s moving as if she’s on a mission.

There’s no time for me to get away. If I try to run now, she’ll see me.

Fuck it.

I make my way to the front of her house in all my naked glory and post up against a tree.

The door slams open, and at first I wait for her to be surprised to see me standing here. What I see on her face isn’t surprise, it’s pure rage.

“You unbelievable bastard,” Sibley seethes, storming toward me.

“I’ve been called worse.” I do my best to speak clearly.

“I’m sure you have, but I doubt anyone has meant it as much as I do. How dare you. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but if you think scaring me like this will keep me away from the clubhouse, you’re mistaken. I don’t scare that easily.” She lifts her hand and pokes me hard in the chest.

It takes me a full second to make out the words coming from her mouth, she’s talking so fast.

“What are you talking about? Why would I scare you? I didn’t come here to scare you.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “Like hell you weren’t. I know it was you. Don’t try to lie about it now. You’re caught, Kitty. Why else would you be out here? You’ve overstepped this time.”

“How? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She’s more upset than I expected just because I stopped by.

“Oh, now you don’t know what I’m talking about? Are you trying to tell me you really want me to believe you’ve only stopped by to check on me? That you’ve only been here once before? You’re here now. You went into my house tonight. You were in my bedroom, touching my personal things. What gives you the right . . .” Her words trailed off as she kept staring at me.

She must be seeing the confusion. The confusion and the anger.

I haven’t been in her fucking house.

I wasn’t out here for hours.

“Sibley, I only just got here. Literally right before you walked into your house.”

“You’re lying,” she speaks more softly, shaking her head as if she doesn’t believe me.