“I know, you should be. I’m awesome.” She slithers off my arm and curls back under my pillow.No one has looked at me the way that wolf looks at you.
After tugging Orion’s shirt on over mine, I leave the bedroom and head down to the living room. It still smells like alcohol, but the bottles are all gone, and my stomach turns at the smell. Then I smell something else. I don’t trust my senses. I might have completely gone insane. I walk into the kitchen in a trance and see a cake on the counter. A big chocolate cake with rich chocolate frosting and loads of fuck-ass sprinkles all over the top of it. Reed is still covering it in more sprinkles, there is chocolate frosting on his shirt, and he turns to me.
I feel tears falling down my cheeks, and Reed’s eyes widen. “Did I get the cake flavour wrong, or do you not like it? Don’t cry, please, I’m messing everything up. I thought this would make you smile.”
“Happy tears,” I explain softly, but it’s more than that. Reed sees me, he listens, and he made me a cake. No one has ever done something for me just to make me happy. “How did you get the ingredients for the cake?” He smiles and winks. “You know what? I’m not even questioning your secret skills.” I stumble over my words. “I’m just in heaven. I’m just figuratively in heaven. You have no idea how much I wanted a cake.”
“Yeah, I do. You talk about cake a lot in your sleep, and actually when you’re awake and angry. You may have a concerning addiction to it, but I begged the goddesses to give me the ingredients for a cake at some point, and they finally listened.” He could have asked them for anything for himself. Goddess knows they don’t listen to my pleas for cake. “I’m not the greatest baker, but I tried my best and I hope you like it.”
“Reed.” I breathe out his name, and I wrap my arms around his waist, and I hug him. I don’t know what else to do, but he hugs me back before lifting me and putting me on the counternext to the cake to pull me closer. I sink my head into his neck, and he strokes my spine, both of us content just to hold each other.
When I finally feel like leaning back, I can’t help myself, and I run my finger over the frosting and dip it into my mouth, closing my eyes and moaning as I taste the frosting. Oh, sugar and cake gods, I missed you.
When I open my eyes, Reed has frozen where he stands between my legs. His eyes are on my finger as I slowly pop it out of my mouth. “Do that again.”
I laugh and put more frosting on my finger and offer it to him this time. He happily sucks my finger into his mouth, swirling his tongue around my finger, and my body clenches. He groans as I move my hand away and watch him closely. “Meredith.” He says my name like he is begging a goddess at an altar, and I love it. “What you said when we were playing the game last night, thejust funthing? I can’t stop wondering if you overheard me in the kitchen with Blackfire?”
“Yes,” I whisper, and I clear my throat. I can’t hide the vulnerability in my voice as I continue. “And it hurt, Reed. I don’t think this is just fun between us. I don’t think it ever could be, so if you’re looking for that, you need to stay away from me, because I can’t give you that kind of relationship. I’m not that kind of person. When I let people in, I love them with everything I have, and I don’t know how to do anything other than that. It’s all or nothing with me, and I’m not ashamed of being that kind of person. But I get that, for you, it’s different. I know that I’m human and you’re a wolf and our lives are so far apart outside of the Folkland. We are not ‘destined to be’ or anything like that, and I want you happy, Reed, because I actually really like you.”
“I lied.” He slides his hand into my hair, tugging our faces inches apart.
“What?” I whisper.
“I lied to Blackfire when I said that.Just fun. Such bullshit.” He runs his other hand up my arm, like he can’t help but touch me. I don’t even think he realizes he’s doing it. My heart is pounding. “You have knocked me off my feet from the moment I met you, Meredith Crone. This isn’t just fun for me, and I’d never met a woman I wanted more than just fun with until you. I don’t want something temporary between us. I want you to be mine, marked and bonded to me, and I’m going to fight for you. We can figure all of it out when we get out of the Folkland, and I will take whatever you will give me.I just want you.”
Reed, the wolf who saved my life twice. The wolf who makes me smile, makes my heart beat fast and kisses me like he is the one drowning. This is Reed, and he even made me a cake. For the first time in my life, I want someone more than I want cake. I wanthim. His fingers drift across my face, curling behind my ear, his fingers underneath my jaw. “Tell me you want me back. Tell me you think of me all of the time like I think of you.”
“Okay. I want you too. Just don’t hurt me, Reed,” I whisper back.
“I won’t.” His lips fall onto mine with a gentle tenderness, an exploring, and I cling to him. Every bit of passion, every bit of longing, I feel it in his kiss. I feel it in the way that his mouth devours mine. It’s the way his hands sink into my hair, and I don’t want it to stop. I don’t want this to stop between us. This isn’t just passion; it’s so much more. It’s l?—
A cruel laugh rips through my ears, and Reed pauses. My legs are still tight around his waist, and I look over to find Orion leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed tight. “Don’t stop on my account. I’ve watched Reed fuck many,manywomen. I usually fuck women right next to him too, or at the same time. Did he tell you he fucks men too? It’s not mine or Blackfire’s thing, but it is his.”
I lift my chin. “I wasn’t under the impression Reed is inexperienced.” My face is burning hot as I imagine what Orion just said.Holy goddesses.
“Orion, fuck off,” Reed growls, his hands tightening on my hips to hold me to him. “I don’t think she wants you to watch or join.”
Orion doesn’t heed the warning; he doesn’t care. The bastard never does. He doesn’t care about anything, and he is here for a reason. I see the determination in his green eyes. “Aw, you don’t want me to interrupt your fun? Shame that I don’t give a single shit. Reed, buddy, I didn’t know we fucked humans. We’veneverdone that. I always thought they’d be quite useless at it, to be honest. They won’t be able to keep up with us, and they break so easily. But if this is what you want to do until we get home and you go back to your job…”
Orion looks at me. “Did your new boyfriend tell you about his job yet? Do you know how the Maiden Pack makes so much money? Why they’re the richest pack?” I shake my head. Reed growls. “Because they fuck everyone, and they get paid for it. That’s why they have so many royals and bastards. They need more profits, and everyone wants to fuck a royal. Lucky for everyone Reed is the good-looking one of his family, and they can pay to fuck him. He is a legend because of his skills. The royals fuck all the nobles in every pack and keep them in line. Reed here was taught to fuck the minute he turned sixteen. He’s been doing it for hundreds of years, and he is paid very well for it. He’ll go back to doing it the minute that he leaves here, and he will drag you with him. I imagine many will pay to fuck the Folkland human. Is that your plan for her, buddy?”
My blood goes cold. Ice cold. “Reed?” I don’t know how to feel about what Orion has said.
I just freeze because I know it’s true. I can see it all over Reed’s face. The shame of his life outside of here. Why didn’t hetell me about this? I want to reach for him and get him to talk to me, but I can’t move. Orion isn’t done. “Did you think you were special, Mere? You’re not. This is just the first time Reed has gone without pussy or dick in months.”
“Shut the fuck up and don’t speak to her like that.” Reed is across the room in a blink, and he slams Orion into the wall. He punches him hard, and blood sprays across the wall. “This is why no one likes you. Why even your mother hates your existence and fucking hates that you are all she has left! There isn’t a single woman in your life that wants you, you fucking asshole. What is wrong with you? I am your friend and you are ruining that too.”
Orion punches him back and slams him into the door. “What? You hate me now because you didn’t want to tell her the truth? What did you think was going to happen when you left here? You can’t get out of your responsibilities. Just like I can’t get out of mine, and Blackfire can’t get out of his. At least she knows the truth, and she isn’t going to leave with you. Mere would be safe with me. I won’t shove my cock down her throat and feed her pretty lies to hide the truth. She might hate me, but I don’tlieto her,” Orion snarls back, spitting out blood onto the floor.
“She is not leaving with you!” Reed punches him again. And again. I can’t move, the violence freezing me to the counter. My heart is pounding, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. I can’t move. I feel like I can’t breathe.
Blackfire storms through the back door. “What the fuck is going on?” He looks at me and then to them as they fight. They smash through the counter, and my cake slides right off onto the floor with a thud. I feel like my heart dropped with it. “STOP!” Blackfire lunges onto them, trying to wrestle them apart. I walk to the back door in a haze, and the world goes still.
The air sparkles like gold dust, and a familiar letter falls into my hands. I feel numb as I rip it open, seeing silverscript elegantly drawn across the gold paper. They have stopped fighting, and I feel them staring at my back. I can’t look at them right now. I need time to think, and it looks like I’m running out of it. “Tomorrow, we all go home.”
The question is, to what?To who?
Chapter Thirty
