As I undressed my aching limbs, I wondered if Slade was watching me via the cameras. There wasn’t a single place in this house now out of his view.
So long, prank wars. You were fun while you lasted.
The glow-in-the-dark dragon eyes were my last reminder, and while one day I hoped to continue our game, until then I’d just have to be happy with the memory of all those googly eyes onhisstalker wall. I wondered if he’d even noticed—he’d never mentioned it.
After my shower, I wandered into my wardrobe, unsurprised to find more hoodies from Kellan. He took great pleasure in swapping out whatever he’d just worn, leaving me with his scent.Such a good boy.In fact, my entire closet now smelled like all four alphas, in the best way possible.
A veritable sweets shop in my wardrobe. Except for maple, but we weren’t going there yet.
Mate, my wolf grumbled.
She’d been trying to get me down to Talon all week, and all week I’d managed to resist. The fatigue from training was enough to keep me focused on eating, sleeping—with only the occasional nightmare—and destructing under the very talented hands of two alphas every night.
Kellan and Hunter had fallen into a very delicious pattern of dragging multiple orgasms from me before they both fucked me until I screamed their names. Passing out between them, sated, protected, and loved was the best part of my day. A shifter could grow very used to having mates like them.
Deciding to stay casual for the therapy session, I dressed in jeans, a plain white shirt, with Slade’s leather jacket over the top. It hung to mid-thigh, but I loved how warm and heavy it felt.
Like the jacket had summoned him, when I left my room I almost slammed into the dragon himself, as he waited in the hall. “Oh, hey,” I said, swallowing roughly.
Slade might drag me from my nice warm bed most mornings, and he might watch me in training like he was stripping away layers until he reached my soul, but he remained distant in every other way. Which made this visit a little unexpected. “What’s up? Is everything okay?”
He took a long, slow perusal of my outfit, showing no immediate reaction to me wearing his jacket. “Where are you going?”
“Finley wants me to sit in on his therapy session this afternoon. Figured I’d upgrade the sweats so I didn’t embarrass the pack.”
Slade’s expression flattened. “The therapist should be payingyouto be in the fucking room. You’re that far above her.”
My brow furrowed as I processed his words. “If she’s so terrible, why are we letting Finley go there? This is a huge and positive step forward for him. We can’t risk him going to a subpar therapist.” Not that anyoneletFinley do anything, but my point remained.
“She’s the top therapist in Golden Claw. Her specialty is dealing in past trauma.”
Um, okay. So…
Slade noticed my confusion. “It wouldn’t matter if she was the queen of all shifters. You are worth a hundred of her, and therefore she should be paying for your presence. Not the other way around.”
I shook my head, even as it felt like I was slammed in the chest by a wrecking ball. “Maybe to you I’m worth a hundred of her, but out in the cities I’m no better than anyone else.”
Slade shrugged. “I only care about you and this pack. Everyone else could fade from existence and I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep.”
Okay, I was in love with my psycho stalker of a scent match.
My voice somehow remained even. “I think we’ve gotten off topic here. What did you come to my room for?”
“Reading,” he said shortly. “I know you’ve found it easier with the adjusted font and background color, but I want to work with you to keep improving.”
Slade’s offer to help me with reading had been before everything went to shit. And while improving my reading was important to me, after spending years feeling stupid, it wasn’t life or death.
“If you’re busy, it can wait,” I told him, only to find him shaking his head before I was even finished.
“I’m never too busy for you, Snow. It shouldn’t have been put off this long.”
He led me from the room, and we ended up downstairs in the library.
It was a room that I’d admired from the doorway but hadn’t spent much time in. Everything was big and darkly masculine to fit the alphas who owned the house. Black wooden shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling and were filled with thousands of books.
“Humans say if you own more than a thousand books you’ve got a library,” I said, recalling that fact from my book-loving co-worker. “You guys have a few libraries in here.”
“Twenty,” Slade replied smoothly, and I tried not to freak out that there were twenty thousand books surrounding us. I focused instead on taking in the rest of the room.
