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She was stuck for a moment, a teenie, shuddering growl vibrating against my chest as she tried to push forward before realising there wasn’t room, and then backing up.
I chuckled, gifted the image of her cute ass in nothing but a thong wriggling in the air before a chaotic jumble of static hair exploded haphazardly into my vision. Then, bleary violet eyes blinked wide, peering at me as she tugged her oversized T-shirtdown, and shoved her hair from her face. Plush, deep red lips parted in a perfect little ‘o’ of surprise.
For a long, long second, we stared at each other, and I couldn’t help eyeing the golden collar around her neck, connected to a thin, matching chain.
I refrained from reaching out and seizing it. Even more so as I gleaned the faintest open bite atop the faded scar of Ace’s claim.
Knox had bitten her?
Though it wasn’t deep enough to be a bonding mark. My mind flashed, pulse pounding, to the memory of her sinking her teeth into his neck while I skulked on the ballroom balcony last night. His eyes had met mine as it happened.
Had he made her do it?
He must have—she wanted me. She was here, after all.
The world shifted as I took her in, slipping from the axis it had been precariously balanced upon since the moment I’d seen her on that stage.
Every breath in which I tumbled into her eyes was like the wash of a tide, each footstep behind, the bleak journey stretching endlessly ahead, all vanishing.
The half-feral side of me was changing, evolving—becoming something new.
She was mine.
I didn’t notice I’d lifted my hand to her cheek until she sank into my touch, nuzzling it, scent changing, the tense petals of a moonflower unfurling for joy beneath.
If my sanity had been making a break for it before, it was nothing to the full meltdown that followed her skin connecting with mine like that. Not just casual sleepy contact, but something deliberate.
She was so fucking touch starved, and within me rose a desperate, urgent demand to fix.
To protect.
It was a demand that tried to choke the breath from my very lungs.
“Um…” She cocked her head, looking unsure. “Hi?” The word broke on the way up her throat like she second guessed it.
I opened my mouth, then shut it, completely lost as my reality continued rearranging to place her in the centre.
Her fingers curled around my wrist, frown on her face as she nuzzled my hand again as if it were an on switch that wasn’t working. “I… built us a nest—kind of. It’s not perfect—but I didn’t want to wake you, and I didn’t think you’d mind if I napped, too.”
Again, I opened my mouth and shut it, no words forming.
She didn’t sound like I’d imagined—but then, what business did I have, trying to imagine a goddess?
Instead of a gentle, innocent melody, her voice was lower: rough and tumble with colour to the highs and lows, and the occasional crackle like an excitable skip on a record.
“How did you get in?” I asked.
“Got a key from the East wing.”
“Those guys let you in here?” I asked, surprised.
“I don’t think they knew I wasn’t allowed.”
The half of me that felt a spark of pride at that was easily smothered by fear. That meant Knox didn’t know.
“Don’t worry,” she said, seeming to sense my concern. “I’m uh, I’m sorting Knox out.”
“Sorting him out?” I asked, eyebrows rising.
