I draped them over my kitchen table as best as I could.
Right on top of a small, dark, shiny stone in the shape of a heart.
CHAPTER 5
Shade
She looked over her shoulder often—almost like she sensed my presence.
Ginger. I had already learned her name, spoken casually, tossed from mouths that did not deserve to speak of it so freely.
It was even the name of her drinking establishment.
Ginny, they called her. What a disgrace to shorten such a lovely, perfect name.
They shamed her, these folk. Tarnished her.
Mine.
She was on edge, my wife. My mate. Some part of her, some baser instinct, sensed my presence. She knew she was being followed.
She knew about me.
Smart woman. I enjoyed that about her—her head was firmly planted on her shoulders.
Unlike some of the other dim-witted fools in this town.
My mind was still stuffed with useless, cloudy knots. Muddy and frustrating. I struggled to stitch my fragmentedthoughts together, form them into a quilt of substance, but the effort was futile. My thoughts flitted away like birds on a breeze.
The effort of chasing them was painful, throbbing between my ears. Hot and insistent.
I let them go, for now.
So I could focus.
On my lovely, smart, resourceful wife.
My wife and her beast, who she had wrangled into impressive submission.
Even the waters from the heavens couldn’t wash away my determination.
She grew more fascinating every day.
She was my favorite thing to watch.
CHAPTER 6
Ginger
“Are you excited for the ball?”
Linc idly gathered goblets into a bucket, clanking them together a little harder than I was comfortable with. I cringed at the sound.
The human wasn’t thebestemployee, but he occasionally drifted in begging for work, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him no. I wasn’t the only sucker in town that employed him, either. He seemed to have a multitude of small jobs throughout the years.
He was another body in the building, and he always wore an apron. That was about all I could say of his merit.
I liked him, though. With his goofy good nature. His spirit was light.
