I couldn’t believe it. She’d won. Charlie had won the Test of Knowledge.
It didn’t matter that the questions had been about mostly vampires—a subject neither of us could be expected to know much about. It grated that somehow Charlie did know, although I suspected where she’d gotten her information from. But mostly, I felt shock. I’d never expected her to win. Or the competition to be this close.
She actually had a chance at becoming alpha. Which meant I was closer than I liked to losing.
It would all come down to the Test of Endurance.
I kicked at a pine cone that had fallen from the massive canopy of needles. I was antsy to get home but Dad and Sheridan were behind closed doors with the vampire king and queen and had been ordered not to be disturbed. Until they emerged, I was stuck here in vampire-land. I’d slipped away to the woods for privacy—and to brood.
“I thought I’d find you here.”
I jumped and then scowled. “Carter, what do you want?”
He faced me squarely, his chin jutting out in a determined look. “You want to run or fight?”
“What?”
“I know your guts are twisting about what just happened. I also know we’re facing an hour car ride home. In case it’s me who’s stuck riding with you, I’d much prefer to help you cool off this way than take my chances in the confines of the car.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. I wanted to argue with him, tell him he was wrong, that I was fine. But I couldn’t. Not honestly. “It was rigged,” I said.
I kicked another pine cone. I was fully aware my missed question had everything to do with being a werewolf, not a vampire—a fact that gave me no leg to stand on if we were being technical. Which, I wasn’t.
But Carter didn’t mention it. Instead, he snorted in agreement and said, “Since when does an alpha competition include vampire facts?”
I could’ve kissed him right then—again. “Since never! I was robbed.”
Carter’s expression turned serious. “Do you think it was a setup?”
I blew out a breath. “Wouldn’t matter. I can’t say anything. Not after what Brent pulled in the Test of Strength. She could argue that it makes us even. Damn him.” And that was where my temper flared. Knowing I couldn’t even speak up about the unfairness of the questions or how Mr. Rossi so clearly favored Charlie. Not after how my own pack had tried to sabotage Charlie.
“So you want to fight then?” Carter asked.
“No, I want to … I want to…”
“What?”
I stopped pacing and faced him squarely. I was just mad enough to eliminate the fear. Just mad enough to bring it up. And I had to know because the confusion ate at me even through all this competition stuff.
“Why did you kiss me?” I blurted.
His eyes widened. “You want to talk about this now?”
“I’ve wanted to talk about it since it happened,” I admitted. “Now’s as good a time as any.”
He ran a hand over his hair, a gesture that looked foreign on him. I rarely saw Carter rattled. He was almost as quick as me at recovering his emotions. I liked that about him. Although this was interesting to watch.
He rolled his shoulders in a tense sort of shrug. “Lots of reasons.”
“Pick one.”
“Fine. I was sick of not kissing you. And you were crying. And then you were looking at me with your insanely huge eyes and … what else was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know. Pat me on the back. Make fun of me. Whatever we usually do.”
“What if I don’t want to do that anymore?”
I opened my mouth, closed it again. “You can’t answer a question with a question.”
“I can’t— This isn’t—” He blew out a breath and his features relaxed, almost as if he’d made peace with the conversation. “You aren’t asking the right question, Regan.”
“What’s the right question?”
His gaze leveled with mine and I was startled to see how close he stood. When had he moved? “The question is why didn’t you stop me?”
My breath caught. The way he was looking at me should’ve annoyed me. This was Carter. I’d known him my entire life and never thought about him this way before. Had I?
“Aren’t you going to say something?” he asked, his voice gruff and low. His face was bent so close to mine, I felt his breath on my forehead. All I had to do was raise my head and he’d kiss me. I’d feel the heat from before, spreading everywhere. My fingertips tingled at the thought.
Before I could move, Carter’s hand came under my chin and tipped my face upward. His lips met mine halfway. Light at first, then firm and warm. Just as I’d anticipated, the heat began. It built slowly, like the kiss, growing warmer and warmer as our mouths moved against each other. By the time we finally broke apart, I was positive I was going to burn from the inside out.
“Carter…”
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he whispered.
Without the heat to distract me, reality seeped in slowly. The competition. The alpha role. Owen. The wedding.
I groaned and reluctantly stepped back, putting some distance between us. It did nothing to dampen the fireworks currently exploding inside me.
Carter’s brows drew together. “What is it?”
“We can’t do this,” I said. “Us. The kissing. It’s horrible timing. I mean, why’d you have to go and say something now? We’ve been friends all this time, and then you go and do something like kiss me. And the problem is, I loved it, and now I have to win and marry Owen and—”
“Stop.”
I paused in my rambling long enough to look at him. “What?”
A grin threatened the corners of his mouth. “You loved it?”
“Yes, but that’s not the point. Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“Regan.” He closed the distance, taking my elbows in his hands to hold me still. “I don’t care about all that other stuff. We’ll figure it out later. Right now, I care about one thing.”
“What?”
He grinned and it was ridiculous how adorable I found him. “You love kissing me.”
I could’ve argued. I should’ve. But I didn’t.
Instead, I let him kiss me again.