After my lovely afternoon with Emma, the last thing I wanted to do was shift and run after Zarrius. The fire came to life as I shifted the logs around, then closed the screen before sitting back in my chair. Emma had gotten lost in one of her notebooks earlier in the evening and was now tracing a finger over lines of code she wouldn't allow me to see. She hadn’t asked about Zarrius, and I decided not to tell her. He’d kept himself hidden, retreating into the woods where he knew I wouldn’t follow. I couldn’t risk getting pulled in or turned around. Not when Emma was by herself. I'd caught sight of his gray pelt as he circled me a few times, covering every mark I left on the territory. Toward the end, it had become a contest to see who could mark faster. He'd been challenging me, daring me to go out into the open. In the end, I'd called his bluff and came back inside. So long as Emma was safe, I didn’t care what he did to our shrubs. It wasn’t just that, though.
