And that fire-wielding Erich is hot as fuck with those black flame tattoos and piercings, but he’s a fecking cunt in need of an attitude adjustment.
How does a man both want a woman and treat her so badly?Wanker.
Nyx, though… she’s magnificent. Like an angel come to earth. Gorgeous and kind—I know from the way she interacts with friends and strangers alike—and all I want is to be near her.
It’s strange enough to know I have a pack, but even stranger that they all knew each other long before I arrived, yet they move around like there’s an invisible barrier between them, never getting too close.
When I feel the rawness of my lower lip, I realize I’ve been gnawing on it, staring Nyx down from my hiding spot in the woods. I watch as her shoulders rise high, then drop dramatically.
She lets out a long sigh and looks up from her tablet, gaze settling in my direction, almost right into my eyes. “I knowyou’re there,” she calls smoothly, if a bit agitated. “Even if I can’t see you, I feel you watching. Plus, I can smell you.”
I grimace. Guess I’m not as stealthy as I thought.
Begrudgingly, I rise to my feet from the bushes, watch as her eyebrow rises in question, head tilts, a bemused smile plays on her lips. With a glint in her dark eyes, she waves me toward her.
Well, if she’s amiable to my company…
I shuffle over the brush and weeds, and when my feet touch the stone pathway below, I make a show of straightening my shirt and brushing off my jeans.
I approach this goddess and gingerly sit on the bench beside her. When I peer at her from under my eyelashes, my breath gets caught in my lungs.
She’s even more beautiful up close.
Her pale skin is smooth, her cheeks just barely rosy. Her eyes are the color of dark chocolate—my favorite treat—and her hair, long and straight, the color of fresh spilled blood with bits of copper strands mixed throughout.
She bites her lower lip, and I’m not proud of the little gasp that escapes me at the move.
This woman will be my undoing.
She already is.
“So,” I sing on a cough. “Come here often?”
She lets out a puff of laughter to pity my horrible line, then her head shakes. “I do, actually.”
“Ah. Are you studying?” I gesture at her tablet.
She nods in the affirmative. “I’m looking into the history of packs.”
My eyebrow twitches. “Find anything interesting?”
“Packs are fated, and always have been. They were only outlawed in the past few hundred years.”
A growl builds in my chest. “Betas.”
Nyx frowns, head bobbing in agreement. “Anything for power.”
I scoff, let my head drop as I look at my feet. “Tell me about it. If you would, please.”
She shifts beside me, and in my peripheral, she places her tablet on the other side of the bench. “I don’t know what you’ve been through, Zephyr. But I am always here if you need someone. And I’m not just saying that because of our connection.”
My head shoots back up to look at her. The way she says my name is like a warm balm to my soul. “May I tell you something?”
“Anything.”
“I…” I swallow, my eyes grow tight. “I never knew what love was, what it felt like, until setting eyes on you.”
She gapes a bit, lips parted.
