“I do, too.”
He strokes my cheek again, and I feel like I’m drowning in his eyes. All the emotion is slowly draining out of me, leaving me painfully aware of how tired my body is.
“Can we lay down for a while?” I ask. “I’ve been through so much stress just in this last hour, I feel like I’ve run a marathon.”
“Of course,” Shawn says. “Would you like me to stay out of your way, or maybe run a bath for you?”
“No.” I shake my head, twisting my fingers tightly against his. “Please, just come and lay down with me.”
Shawn looks surprised, but lets me lead him down the hall. We snuggle up on the big bed, and once I’m wrapped safely in his arms, all my old fears rise in me, but they don’t scare me anymore.
“I wanted to leave this place,” I confess. “I mean, I’ve wanted it for a long time, but today, I almost actually went.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed of a life out in the human world. A normal job, a little apartment. Just me and my freedom.”
Shawn chuckles. “I assure you, plenty of people living a life like that do not consider themselves to be free.”
“Then they don’t know how good they have it. They should try living in Father’s house for a week.”
“Was it really that bad?”
“Worse,” I mumble, wiping a tear from my cheek. “I was always up early to make breakfast and clean the house, then I’d work in the garden all day. In the evening, I’d have to serve Father, Melanie, and his men. I rarely got to bed early, and I was in a state of exhaustion all the time.”
“It’s the oldest trick in the book,” Shawn says. “Keep your prisoners tired and hungry, and they won’t have the spirit to rebel.”
“I don’t know if Father thought of it as a tactic. He just enjoys it.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
I sigh, snuggling closer to Shawn and feeling his arms tighten against me. “Father said if I didn’t agree to marry you, he’d let his men have me to do whatever they wanted.”
“That fucking asshole,” Shawn swears, his body rippling with tension. “I’m going to rip him apart!”
“No,” I say. “You were right. We need evidence. I want to know for sure that he sent Talon out to die. If we can’t prove it, the pack will never follow you, no matter how much aid you bring in.”
“I still don’t know how he managed to turn the pack against Talon,” Shawn says. “And why Talon didn’t work harder to understand his own people. He let this happen.”
“I wish I could tell you,” I say. “But as Father began to spend more time here, I came here, to Talon’s house, less and less. It was always painful for me to be here, knowing safety but also knowing I could never stay—and that at any moment, Father could decide to use me to hurt Talon. It was easier to just keep my distance.”
“Jess never took an interest in the other children?”
“Oh, she did, but I think the stigma was already pretty ingrained. The rest of the pack wouldn’t have their kids mingling with them.”
“There’s so much here that doesn’t make sense,” Shawn mutters.
“I know,” I say, tilting my head up to look at him. “But hopefully, we can get to the bottom of it, and if not, at least punish my father.”
“Amen to that,” he replies.
I reach up and touch the edge of his cheek, smiling as I brush back a lock of his dark hair. Shawn smiles back at me, and I snuggle even closer against his chest.
When he kisses me, fire blooms deep in my belly. His big, hard hands grip my hips, slide over my waist, and grope my breasts as we writhe against each other, our lips hot and slick as our kisses become more desperate.
Shawn pulls me even closer to him, and I wrap my arms tightly around his waist, feeling his hard muscles under his clothes. He rolls over, pushing me onto my back and thrusting his hips towards me.
I arch my back, opening my thighs and thrusting back against him. Shawn braces himself above me, and I feel his hands on my legs as he pushes my skirt out of the way.
