Knox snorted.
I felt heat flood my cheeks and reached over to pinch his side hard. “You did not just say that in front of your mother,” I hissed.
“What? It’s true.”
“Knox!”
He just laughed and grabbed my hand, pulling me out the door before I could die of embarrassment.
And that was how I found myself being dragged through Ravenshollow by my overly excited mate, with no idea what I was walking into.
I’m not going to lie. I was slightly anxious. What was he planning? The last time Knox had surprised me with something,it had been a recreation of my bookstore in wolf territory. The man did not do things by halves.
We reached our house and greeted the guards at the entrance. Knox pulled me inside, through the living room, and into the kitchen.
“Are you planning on cooking?” I asked, watching him move toward the counter.
“I’m planning on eating,” he said, winking at me.
Oh.
OH.
Heat flooded my cheeks. My mind immediately went to all the ways Knox liked to eat, and none of them involved food. My body responded instantly, warmth pooling between my thighs, my pulse quickening.
But instead of pushing me against the counter and getting kinky, Knox chuckled and shook his head.
“But first, I want to show you this.”
He moved to the knife holder on the counter, a wooden block with six slots for various sized blades. He reached for the third knife, the medium-sized one in the middle, and instead of pulling it out, he pushed it down.
Like a lever.
“What...?” I started.
The counter split down the middle.
I stared, mouth hanging open, as the marble surface separated and slid apart, revealing a set of stairs going down into darkness. Low railings lined both sides of the walls, and LED lights flickered on automatically, illuminating the entire space in soft white light.
“What is this?” I breathed.
Knox grinned. “It’s a panic room. Come on, follow me.”
He stepped onto the first stair and held out his hand. I took it, still too stunned to form coherent sentences, and let him lead me down into the hidden passage.
Behind us, he pulled down a red lever on the wall. The counter above slid back together, sealing us in with a soft click.
“Knox. What the hell.”
“Just wait. It gets better.”
We walked through the tunnel. The space was tall enough for Knox to stand upright without ducking, and wide enough for both of us to walk side by side. The walls were smooth concrete, reinforced with steel beams at regular intervals. The air was cool but not damp, clearly climate controlled.
Ten minutes of steady walking. Ten minutes of following the LED lights through the underground passage.
Finally, we reached a thick metal door. Industrial strength, from the look of it. The kind of door you’d find in a bank vault or a military bunker.
Knox punched a code into the panel beside it. I watched his fingers move. Numbers I recognized. The twins’ birthdays. Blake’s birthday. All combined together.
