“Thank you,” I whispered, looking up into his face. His sharp canines made an appearance, and my breath caught. His smile was a rare thing, but it transformed his features from beautiful and deadly into something that stole every bit of oxygen from my lungs. I rubbed my chest with my other hand, trying to ease the ache.
“Has he gone?” Stone rumbled, not taking his attention from me.
That unwavering focus was a lot. I’d never been able to handle it. Whenever he made me feel out of control or nervous, I’d push back, but with my fingers now wrapped in his andnowhere to run, I couldn’t hide from the way every cell in my body pulled towards him. I cleared my throat.
“Yes. He disappeared as soon as you took his spot.”
Stone lowered himself until he was kneeling by the bed, not once releasing my hand. “Good. Remember that. You’ll tell me when he’s bothering you, and I’ll slay that fucking demon for you. Every. Single. Time. You hear me?”
There was no mistaking his command. And I wanted to comply. “But you're not always around.” Pointing that out made me sound weak, but it was true. Even Stone had to sleep.
He gave me a smile that was as possessive as it was reassuring. “I’m working on that. While I do, we’ll work on how you can fight him with me and without me.”
I didn’t answer, but I nodded. Was that even possible? I’d always fought to be physically strong, but no matter what I did, it was just physiology that shifter females weren’t as strong as most males. That didn’t mean we were weak; we just had to learn what our specific strengths were and work on them. I’d made sure I could fight and use weapons with as much skill as any of my male counterparts, but my weakness wasn’t physical. It went far deeper than that. And it seemed Stone knew it. Or at least some of it. No one knew exactly how my father had used what he thought were my best assets. Shame heated my cheeks, but I held onto my hope that Stone would think it was because I was embarrassed by my inability to handle this alone.
“We can do it, Shannon.Youcan do it.” The light brush of his fingers on my cheek was warm and soothing. “You just have to believe you can.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled through my nose. “It’s not that easy.”
“I never said it would be easy, but I believe in you enough for the both of us—for now.”
His words reached a broken and raw part of me, and I wanted to cry. No one had ever said they believed in me. Instead, I swallowed the ache in my throat and rapidly blinked the burn from my eyes.
Stone gave me another small, sexy smile. “It’s okay to cry, baby, I’m here to catch your tears. They’re mine anyway, remember?”
So that’s what I did. I cried for everything my father had said and done, for my loneliness, for all the years I’ve hated myself, because I still did, and because, for once, I had someone to cry with who didn’t think my tears made me weak.
Chapter 11
Stone
“They’ve given her the all clear to leave here?” B’nar leaned against the stone window frame and watched Blue and Shannon slowly walk through the frost-bathed gardens.
I stood beside him, unwilling to let Shannon out of my sight. It had taken weeks of rest and care to get her on her feet. Even with her shifter healing and metabolism, her body was ravaged by years of alcohol. It had been painful watching her try and eat when she didn’t want to. Her frequent glances at me while she ate under my watchful eye made me realise something. Shannon bloomed under my praise. Even when she really wanted to tell me to piss off, she’d do what I asked if it meant knowing she’d pleased me. That knowledge was both terrifying and empowering.
Today, after small walks around her room and the corridors, I’d decided she needed some fresh air. Instead of taking her myself, I’d asked Blue to persuade her to go for a short walk around the grounds.
I had to leave her at some point, and I needed Shannon to know she could still function without me. My instinct was to send someone else to sort out our accommodations for the foreseeable future, but I also didn’t know what to expect. I needed to make sure it was in a good enough state of repair and was safe for her. My heart ached as I allowed myself to think of Gwen. Her face was no longer the sharp representation of the female I’d known. It was hazy. I curled my fingers into a fist, my nails scoring the skin of my palms. It was strange to remember someone so acutely yet be unable to recall their exact image. I sighed. I’d come to terms with the death of my mate over the past years. Connor and my brothers had given me purpose. Especially Rawson, whose mate had also been killed by Doherty. It had made me realise that while grief was different for many of us, it was often the same. The pain and loss never went away, but I’d learnt to live with it. However, I’d never accepted the guilt of being the one who had put Gwen in danger in the first place.
Shannon’s head tilted back, and she closed her eyes, lifting her face to the sun. She looked so beautiful my whole body ached to go down there and pull her into my arms. I wanted to taste those soft lips so badly that it was becoming an obsession. But she wasn’t ready for that. Her emotions were too raw and delicate.
I huffed an amused breath. Delicate was never a term I thought I’d use to describe Shannon. When I’d first met her in the prison, she’d been selfish and stubborn, intent on fucking anyone who could give her enough power and status to stay safe in that world of shifter criminals and fight rings. My wolf had been drawn to her, insisting she was a potential mate, but I’d fought it. I tensed as they turned a corner and disappeared behind the widespread fans of an evergreen tree. There were many predators in Faery, and not all of them were obvious. Shannon was safer if I could see her. I stepped forward, my nosealmost pressed to the glass, not relaxing until they were back in view.
B’nar snorted softly. “Do not worry, my friend. They have plenty of guards watching them. She will be safe.”
I grunted. I trusted my friend, but part of me knew she wouldn’t be completely safe unless I was right by her side.
B’nar pushed off the wall and stalked across the room to his desk. “Come, let us share a drink together. You need to relax and trust me and my warriors to keep her safe.”
B’nar didn’t touch Faery-made alcohol or very rarely. He liked to be in complete control and aware one hundred percent of the time. Faery alcohol was strong enough to affect all supernaturals. Rose water was a watered-down version, so Shannon hadn’t been able to metabolise it like the human booze we all drank at times.
The aroma of strong coffee filled the air. I did my best to hide my grimace, not wanting to insult my friend’s choice of beverage. Connor had introduced B’nar to it, and the Fae prince had since developed a taste for the human drink. Personally, I hated the stuff. Fruit tea was more my thing, especially when made from the peaches grown in the Summer Kingdom. It had always been my favourite, and it showed how much of a friend he really was that he’d taken notice of that, and there was some in a pretty teapot, which sat on the blue wood side table. My brothers and Connor always shook their heads, mystified that I didn’t like coffee, but I liked what I liked and that was it…
“Let’s sit for a moment.”
Reluctantly, I forced myself away from the window and took a seat opposite him. He leaned back in his chair, interlacing his fingers across his abdomen and resting his elbows on the arms of his chair as he studied me. I let him, neither offended nor bothered by his scrutiny. He was my prince, but I wasn’t technically his subject. I was born in Faery, but I was a shifter.It was a rare occurrence in the Fae, but it meant I had never truly settled here. My father had hated that I was different, that I’d been chosen by the Mother Wolf to house a shifter spirit. He’d thought me an abomination that he’d needed to control. I’d managed to get away from him with the help of Gwen, but it had meant leaving everything behind. I rubbed at the familiar ache in my chest as I thought of Gwen.
“Tell me your plans.” B’nar didn’t shift his icy gaze from mine, and this time, my hackles did rise a little. I wanted Shannon out of here, where I could be alone with her, and I wasn’t about to explain myself or ask permission. She was my responsibility, not B’nar’s. My nostrils flared, and I bared my teeth a little, my wolf spoiling for a fight. Just like me, he was tired and unsettled. Even more so when I wasn’t next to Shannon, and he could feel my anxiety and need to go to her.
