Like I mattered.
I sit up, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes again.
“This is dumb,” I say to the empty room.
I’m not anyone’s toy. I know that.
But maybe—justmaybe—I want to behis.
Another cold shower might be in order.
I barely take a step into the room before the air shifts—thickens.
My towel’s still clutched around me, damp and barely covering anything. The light from the bathroom spills across the floor like a lifeline I’ve just stepped away from. And then I feel it. That sense—no, that certainty—that I’m not alone.
I freeze. My breath hitches.
He moves before I even see him. A dark mass uncoiling from the shadows. Black skin, gleaming faintly in the overhead lights. Bone spurs catching silver. Red eyes lit like embers in the dark.
Vokar.
My back hits the wall before I can even cry out. Not rough, but firm. Controlled. His body presses close, the towel caught between us. One massive hand comes up—slow, deliberate—and closes around my throat.
Not squeezing. Just resting there. A reminder of how easily hecould.
“I could shatter you,” he growls, low and primal.
I swallow. Or try to. His hand’s warm, dry. I can feel the power thrumming in his fingertips.
“I know,” I whisper.
That makes him pause. His grip doesn’t tighten, but his red eyes narrow.
“Then why are you not afraid?”
I blink up at him. My pulse is thundering so loud I’m surprised he can’t hear it.
“I guess… I don’t believe you’re going to destroy me.”
A slow rumble curls from his chest. A sound like an avalanche starting in the distance. His head dips. Closer.
His breath ghosts against the shell of my ear. Hot. Wild.
“You’re not afraid I’ll hurt you?”
I suck in a breath, skin sparking under every inch of his proximity. My lips part before I can stop them.
“I’m afraid you won’t,” I say.
He goes still. Like the silence right before a supernova. Then his chest rises sharply—once. Twice. His clawed thumb brushes my jaw, just barely.
“You say dangerous things, little human.”
I meet his gaze.
“You do dangerous things.”
That earns a grin. It’s savage. Beautiful. Terrifying.
