Elle needs cash. Rain needs to survive a pack war. The cards say they’re fated mates—but the pack wants her dead.
When struggling tarot reader Elle sets up her table outside a local club, she’s just trying to pay rent. She never expected to read the fortune of Rain, a lethal, newly elected Wolf Alpha on the verge of a brutal war. One touch sparks the fated mate bond, turning Elle's world upside down.
"You're in my way," he grunted, trying to slide past her.
But Elle lost all control. Her hand snapped out, gripping his arm. The moment their skin met, blinding electric sparks flooded her veins. Rain froze, his back still to her as he growled, "Stop it. We cannot."
Naturally, her brain took that as a green light. "What's your name?" Elle blurted out, a sudden, mortifying case of verbal diarrhea taking over. "I love your eyes, they are so hot... you're so beautiful. I’m Elle, by the way. I’m a tarot reader. If you like, I could pull some cards for you?"
Internally, she wanted to swallow her tongue. Did I really just call a terrifying stranger beautiful?
Flushing a deep crimson from her chest to her neck, Elle turned to walk away from his heavy silence. But Rain caught her, pulling her flush against his chest. He leaned down, his breath hot against her ear as his dangerous, deep blue eyes locked onto hers.
"Let’s do it," he whispered.
The tarot cards didn't lie, but they didn't prepare her for the raw, terrifying power radiating from him—or the way his touch made her feel like she was melting. Yet, just as the air in the room shifted and the primal heat between them snapped to a devastating breaking point, Rain suddenly ripped himself away, his chest heaving as he forced a brutal distance between them.
"Right now, we can't," he choked out, his Alpha voice tight with a desperate, agonizing restraint. "I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want you. You’re more beautiful than I have words for... but I fucking can’t."
Elle stared at him, feeling like her world had just been shattered into a million pieces. "What the fuck is this?" she demanded, a mix of hurt and fury flashing in her eyes. "Never mind. Stay the fuck away from me. I have bigger things to worry about than this."
Can a street-smart psychic and a hardened alpha bridge the gap between their worlds before the brewing war destroys them both?