“Yeah?”
“Burn that video.”
The gentle clicking of the door signaled his exit. I sank to my knees and broke once more. I would allow this, just one more time. Then I would pick my ass up and burn Eloise Roberts to the fucking ground, with or without the help of a god. Because there was something stronger than any ancient power—a woman’s wrath. And my wrath was no longer bound by mortality. I’d accepted the angelic part of my soul. My grandmother warded against Cora Roberts, the carefully presented elemental she’d helped shape from a girl to a woman. Now it was time for her to meet the new Cora Roberts, the no fucks left to give daughter of death who had the heart of a shifter and the soul of the devil at her mercy.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Our memories are our reality.
Istared at the shadows shifting across the ceiling. The evening Louisiana air drifted in through the open French doors of my bedroom as I tried to make sense of the horror I’d seen. The memories were within reach, the veil easily broken by my auntswho cast it. I needed to be ready and strong. I would also need time and therapy.
I shifted my bare legs and pulled the loose sheet down to the bottom of the bed. A creak on the railing was my only warning. The moonlight disappeared, and his scent washed over me as he leaped into the room. He was barefoot and bare chested, just a pair of jeans hung on his hips. He’d been in his beast form.
“Front door not good enough for you?” I grumbled. This was the first night he’d pushed to even be in the same room as me.
“Didn’t want to risk you warding against me coming home,” Hudson said while prowling around the edge of the bed. His gaze slid up my legs, gold rolling across his eyes as he cataloged every curve. I would never tire of the hungry way he looked at me, like I was both precious and someone he wanted to devour. It would be so easy to let go of all the hurt and the worry, to fall into him. But that road would lead to the ruin of our relationship. As much as he was an alpha, he didn’t need or want a woman who fell to her knees because he growled.
“I’m moving toward forgiveness, but unlike the memories you stole, I can’t just snap my fingers and remove the hurt.”
He froze at the end of the bed. “Meaning?”
“I need my space.” Indigo bucked against that idea.
“Something has changed.”
My brows lowered, and I sighed. “I watched the video.”
Silence stretched, and my chest tightened. “Fuck this,” he growled before climbing onto the bed and gathering me into his arms, surrounding me in his scent and safety. For a moment, I let myself be weak, to take the calm from him. I buried my head in his neck and breathed him in. Home. He didn’t offer excuses or point out the truth of their actions. It had been necessary for my safety and theirs. I understood that now. But the lies still wedged a barrier between us—the deals we’d made and the situations we’d become entangled in.
“Are we going to discuss the deal you made with a god?” he whispered into my hair as his hand slid under my T-shirt and stroked my spine.
“Tit for tat.”
He tensed.
That’s what I thought. “So many secrets,” I muttered.
“And just as many nightmares. We were all marked that day, Cora.”
I squeezed my eyes closed and dragged in a breath before rolling away from him. “I apologize for my pain and torture affecting you.”
“Don’t deflect with barbed words. They don’t suit you.”
They didn’t. I was being a childish asshole. “I need sleep,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with my hands so hard I saw a kaleidoscope of stars.
“Then sleep.”
“Alone.”
“No.”
“Not a request, Principal.”
“The house is at full capacity.”
“Then sleep at Dayna’s or at your own. You have options, but I am not one of them.”
“No.”
