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    Cleo POV


    Goosebumps erupt all over my skin, my body stilling from shock.


    No, it can''t be, I have to be imagining things.


    The hairs on the back of my neck stand up as his breath fans between the nape of my neck and my ear...


    Jace.


    My heart stops beating, my body longing to turn to face him...to see him.


    That call to him I have felt all my life threatening to engulf me.


    I know as soon as I turn I''ll lose all self control around him, I''ll want to touch him, to hold him...to make sure he is real.


    I prepare to act on my relief in knowing he is safe, that he is alive...until my wolf sends me a shback of thest time I saw him...of how he humiliated me in front of all those people at his parent''s wedding.


    My body stiffens as painful memories filter through my mind, he had hurt me...hurt me and abandoned his family.


    After all this time it''s still there, that gravitational pull to him. Like a silent call to be his, to be only his.


    With an exhale of air, I gather myself...pushing back on that pull to him, instead letting anger take control.


    My arm stretches out, not to touch him...but to help the barman out of the pool. My hand stills, freezing mid-air as a menacing growl erupts behind me...daring me to defy him.


    "I mean it Cleo....I will kill him where he stands if you so much asy a finger on him.”


    He''d be a fool to start something in front of a hotel full of humans.


    "No, you won''t...because I won''t let you." I whisper out knowing full well he will still be able to hear me over the loud music and singing of the partygoers.


    "Are you alright?" I ask out to the barman as he reaches out to sp my hand, continuing to climb out of the pool.


    He''spletely drenched, his lips part to respond only for his eyes to lock on the male behind me.


    There can be no denying the aura emitting behind me, Jace making no attempts to rein in hismand to the human, who will struggle to make sense of it.


    His eyes roam the length of me...only for him to fetch his polo shirt off the sunbed and back away. Back towards the hotel.


    I turn...frustrated, as he moves back towards the bar area. Not once ncing back as he makes a swift exit.


    That anger within me only ignites once more, spreading further throughout my body.


    "Careful." My wolf warns in my mind as I turn my line of vision back to the tall, muscr male in front of me.


    He had spread out, but not as much as he would have if he had imed his alpha title by now. Piercing green eyes stare back at me as I drink him all in.


    He had always been handsome; his added charm being his wit and zest for life, only adding to his beauty.


    He was wearing a white fitted shirt, the buttons the hardest working buttons of all time, as they struggle to keep the shirt fastened with all the muscle his was packing.


    Blue chino trousers with smart leather brown shoes and those tattoos that make him nowpletely distinguishable from his identical brother Jaxon. If I didn''t know his true character I would perhaps think to take a step back in caution.


    Something had happened for him to not only leave the first time, but to return with a new bad boy image...one that does nothing to deter my undying love for him.


    If anything, it makes me want him even more. I''m torn between my anger from his stunt just now, to the need to pull him in my arms and check he was actually real, that he wasn''t a mirage I was imagining from prolonged heat and alcohol consumption.


    My heart continues to beat erratically at the sight of him. Almost a year since Ist saw him, since any of usst saw him...and so much has happened.