Maybe it was the asshole statement, or maybe it was just a moment of clarity, but Shadow’s growl snapped us out of our dazed state long enough that I latched on to what remained of myself and my wolf, rolling to the side and calling on the change back to human.
For the first time—in our very limited shifting experience together—my wolf truly fought me. She didn’t want to relinquish control, and our silent battle continued for much longer than I’d expected.
“Shift!”
There he went, commanding me again, but this time, I appreciated the help. My wolf dug her claws in, though, as Shadow placed his hands on me. “She belongs to me! Release her.”
My scream was low and guttural as the change ripped through me, tearing, searing, and burning me alive. The pain I felt when I touched Shadow without permission had nothing on this new form of torture. But when it was all said and done, I returned to myself, panting and sobbing on the spotless floor, naked and exhausted.
Shadow was still touching me, his power surging across my skin. “You have some explaining to do, Sunshine. If you don’t die before I get you warmed up.”
Shivers wracked my body, almost to the point of convulsions. Shadow must have lifted me because the next thing I knew, crashing rivulets of hot water poured over my frozen skin.
“Stop,” I cried. “It hurts.”
I was struggling, but the steel trap that was Shadow’s hold didn’t give an inch. “Let me go.” I sobbed on his chest. “It’s too much. Return me to the darkness.”
“I will fight the darkness to keep you,” he murmured against my skin. Maybe it was my delirium, but for once, he sounded possessive in the way a man would toward a woman.
Not the way a god did with his pet.
Or maybe I was just a really important pet.
“Shadow.” I groaned, my head clearing as the bone-shattering chill eased from me.
“You just need to warm up,” he said softly, and my aching head appreciated the low rumbles of his voice.
When he released me, I expected to fall to the floor, but instead, he wrapped one arm around my waist to stabilize me, while the other rubbed against my back, sending more heat circulating through me, using his particular brand of fiery power.
It was then that I realized I was naked as fuck, and he was in the shower with me, completely soaked. “Your clothes,” I murmured inanely.
“Not important,” he replied. “You almost died; might be worth focusing on that.”
“Asshole,” I muttered back, my eyes fluttering closed as an exhaustion, pure and consuming, sent me to the land of dreams.
“You know it, Sunshine,” was the last thing I heard before everything went completely dark.
* * *
I’d wokenup with a few hangovers in my time. Not a lot because an alcoholic mother did kind of deter me from drinking to excess, but Simone had managed to sneak—from her parents’ collection—a bottle or two. Both times we’d finished it all, and since it had been before our first shifts, we’d definitely suffered the aftereffects.
Waking from the Shadow Realm door trying to possess me was nothing like that. It was more like death was tugging me closer to the afterlife, one painful drumbeat of my brain at a time.
As I opened my eyes, the light split my head in two, and I rolled over to vomit off the side of the bed. Vomiting with a raging headache only made the pain worse, so of course, I threw up again. Vicious cycle right there.
“You’ll be cleaning that up.”
He sounded unamused, and I felt the same way as I propped one eye open to glare fucking death at him. “What did you do to me?” I croaked, wiping at my mouth as I hung listlessly from the side of the bed. A bed that was most definitely not mine.
I should have known straight away because while there was nothing wrong with my mattress—it was amazingly comfortable—this one was a cloud of luxury. The sheets were too soft to be any material on Earth, and they smelled so good, like…
I jerked upright, groaning as I did. “I’m in your bed.”
Looking around as quickly as my broken head would allow, I attempted to see everything in the “forbidden bedchamber.” I’d searched for this multiple times, but there’d been no sign of another bedroom in the entire lair.
“This was the closest room to get you into,” Shadow said. “A few more seconds, and the dark spell on the Shadow Realm door would have consumed you.”
He was sitting in a wide, olive-colored leather chair, with a back so high, it was even taller than him at his eight-feet height. His arms were relaxed on the armrests, a white long-sleeved shirt wrapped around the impressive muscles. His long legs were clothed in faded denim, man-spread before him. And all the while, those gold-and-red eyes examined my face.
