“Will you come stargaze with me?”
“I would love to. I just have to be back by six so I can sneak in before anyone wakes up.”
He opens the passenger door of the pick-up for me and helps me up onto the bench seat. “Let’s not waste a single minute then.”
I sink my fingers into something soft and silky on the leather seat and recognize the blanket he bought me so I could nest in his room. He hops in the other side and meets my eyes across the cab of the pick-up.
“You were so upset when we spoke, I thought you’d want something familiar. A comfort from home.”
From myrealhome, not the house I grew up in.
“I washed it and tried to de-scent it so you wouldn’t have to smell my scent, but it’s been in the pick-up, so…”
“I want it scented like you.”
The relief on his face, the pride and possession in his eyes, is enough to send me across the seat to curl up against his side. He tugs the blanket up around me and then pulls out onto the main thoroughfare. As soon as we hit the highway, he lets me go just long enough to grab for the spelled thermos that rolled under the seat.
“Whole milk double-chocolate hot cocoa. Well, hopefully the spell kept it hot. It brought you some comfort before, so I asked Alyssa to make it up for you, and I thought… well, anyway, there’s leftover Yule cookies in here somewhere too.”
I hug him tightly around the middle. How did I ever believe this alpha could betray me? Why did I let my hurt blind me for so long? I lost so much time telling myself that there was no good explanation for him having the Baphomet mask, only for the explanation to beme.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmur.
“You’resorry? Why?”
I snuggle closer to him and squeeze his hand. “I should have trusted you. I should have heard you out. But I was… I was…”
“You were scared. Saints, of course you were scared. After what those bastards have done to you, I can’t fault you for that. You felt betrayed. I didn’t understand it at first because I would never betray you. But you probably thought your father would never betray you either, and look what he did.”
“It’s worse than I thought,” I admit in a low tone.
The hand not holding mine tightens on the leather-wrapped steering wheel and his scent spikes, all of his protective alpha instincts rushing to the surface. “I’m sorry, my instincts are all over the place tonight. I want to burn the world to the ground for you. I want to hold you and never let you go. I want to see you fuckingshine. And it’s wreaking havoc on my instincts. I promise I’ll get them under control.”
“Don’t,” I tell him. “Not for my sake. I’m not afraid of you. Not anymore. And I… Ilikeit when you alpha out because of me.”
“Princess, you’re killing me. Can you not say things like that, at least until we make it to Pawling?”
I smile to myself and curl into his side, pulling my blanket tighter around my shoulders. “What’s in Pawling?”
“A nice little lake that should be frozen at least a foot down by now. Perfect for ice skating before we drink cocoa and watch the Quadrantids shower.”
“Oh! I haven’t been ice skating in years!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll catch you if you start to fall.”
He’s talking about ice skating, but I know he means so much more too.
“Um, I’m going to smoke you. I did competitive figure skating for years.”
“I’d like to see you try. I’m from Nova Scotia. I learned to skate before I learned to walk.”
“Oh, you’ll see me try. As I’m skating circles around you.”
He unlaces his fingers from mine and slings an arm around me, hugging me close. “Saints, I’ve missed you, princess.”
CHAPTER18
We pull off near the dark lake and he digs a pair of skates out of the bed of the pick-up. “Darika got these for Alyssa who said, and I quote, ‘There’s no fucking way, you knife-footed ice gremlin!’ so they may still be a bit stiff, but she said you’re about the same size. And that you can have them because the only way she likes ice is when it’s ice cream.”
