“It just seems a little ironic that you are aliteralshadow person and your name is light. If you would’ve told me your name was something that meant darkness, that would make sense.”
He gave her a brief glimpse of his curving white smile, like a sliver of the waning moon appearing briefly in the night sky, if the moon was graced with sharp-edged teeth.
“Shadows don’t exist in the darkness, little one. Shadows only exist in the light. Isn’t that funny? That something most of your kind think to fear is a product of that which you turn to for comfort. If there’s anything ironic afoot, it is that. Don’t you think?”
Her stomach flip-flopped at his words, another shining glint of that sharp-edged moon, and she ducked her head after a moment, not quite able to explain the way her core clenched as he chuckled. The solitude had finally turned her mind, she told herself, even though it had only been three weeks at that point. There was no other explanation for her actions.
After the day of the storm, after the day he’d stopped her from stuffing her things in a bag and running, Jude no longer hid away in the apartment.Make the best of what you have while you have it.
She went outside each morning after waking and kicked gravel across the parking lot, nursing a single cup of black coffee and filling her lungs with the early morning air and grey light.
When she came back indoors, she would stretch. The back of the leather sofa was her practice barre, and she would move through every exercise she remembered from her adolescent ballet studio, moving through positions, over and over, until she felt warm and limber. She would feel his eyes on her as she moved to the short runway, continuing to stretch and run through beginner exercises on the pole, being careful to not overextend her returning abilities.
In the afternoon, she cooked.
Her apartment had a tiny kitchenette and she had been making do as best she could, until she discovered the strip club’s facilities. She was hardly a gourmet, it wasn’t as if her family had ever had the money for extravagant ingredients, but she knew how to fend for herself and the increased space meant the ability to buy larger quantities in bulk, stretching her preciousdollars a little bit further. Canned soups and vegetables, rice and pasta, flour, an economy-sized bag of chicken. Being poor was a skill, one she’d had a lifetime to master, and she could stretch her meager budget as far as she would need it to go. She’d not needed to rely on the roll of cash, and she intended to keep it that way.
She would need to flee eventually. No matter what Lux said, no matter how comfortable a routine she’d settled into, the time would come when she would need to run, and she wasn’t about to fritter away another penny of the cash they’d given her.Let them see the charges on the bank card.They know you’re still here, know they don’t have anything to worry about or check up on.The time would come when she would either be forced back to the enclave as an unwilling bride, or disposed of in whatever nefarious way Vin’s uncle thought appropriate, and she didn’t intend on sticking around to find out which plan they had in mind.
Until then . . . the library had a well-stocked shelf of cookbooks and budgeting magazines, and meticulously planning out her meals had become a way to pass the endless days.
For his part, Lux didn’t seem to shy away from her company. Whenever she called out to the room, he answered, and now that she knew what to look for, she had begun to pick out the denser shadows, directing her words towards them each morning, gratified when he actually responded from one of them. Jude began to think of him as a companion in her imprisonment, rather than an instrument in its upholding, realizing that being alone here might have felt a bit like solitary confinement otherwise. He didn’t care that she didn’t turn at the full moon, didn’t care that she was broken. He didn’t seem to care that she was a wolf at all.
Keeping her company in the industrial kitchen as she worked on preparing her recipes had become their shared afternoonritual, and she found herself looking forward to the time with Lux in the small space each day.
Since the day of the storm when his form had shifted before settling, he’d maintained the sleek, human-shaped appearance he’d adopted for her. His horns curved back in impressive arcs from his forehead, and occasionally a whip-like tail slashed the air behind him, but the wings and multiple limbs had not made a reappearance. He gave the impression of being attired in a fitted black suit, a shade denser than his person, formal and debonair, despite the fact that he melted in and out of the corner of the room without warning.
The fact that he had a droll sense of humor, impeccable manners, and seemed to not care much for his employers were only further positive attributes.
“Soooo, do you need to eat? I’m making things in bulk, so there’s plenty to share.”
He sniffed in response. “You realize this is the sixteenth time you’ve asked me that question. I thought you bought storage containers that were on sale.”
Jude rolled her eyes, setting the pot she’d just filled on the stove top. “You would think in sixteen times you would’ve given me a sufficient answer. Since you haven’t, I guess I have to keep asking, huh?”
His soft huff of laughter was a tickle against the back of her neck, despite the respectful distance between them.
“This says that your chicken and heavy cream should both be brought to room temperature. Do you have everything you require? Is there anything I can fetch?”
She didn’t bother hiding her smile then. “I think I have everything I need. This recipe is for four, and I’m doubling it, so you’d better pretend to be hungry.”
“I am happy to join you, if it would please you. I already told you —seventeen times now — yes, I am able to eat.”
“Beingableto do something andneedingto do something are two completely different things. And since that’s the question you keep avoiding, just be prepared tomorrow afternoon when I ask it again.”
He threw up his hands in defeat and she smiled, an actual, genuine smile. Jude bit her lip, still grinning as her chicken sizzled at the bottom of the pot, unable to remember the last time she’d smiled unselfconsciously, a smile not fueled by malice or retribution. She was used to being at ease during the full moon, when everyone left her alone; she wasnotused to feeling this comfortable with another person on an average Tuesday.He’s not just another person though, is he?
***
“So you’re like, a security guard or something, right?”
Jude could barely hold in her laughter at the disgusted look he leveled on her. She went out of her way to goad him, to earn any reaction, knowing it would eventually lead to his moon-like smile. She had always felt at ease beneath the moon, and the crescent of his sharp, shining teeth was no exception.
“Personal security,“ he huffed. “And I don’t work for the pack, to answer the next question I can already tell is forming. I’m private security for Mr. Conti. I don’t normally have anything to do with pack dealings.”
Jude cocked her head, considering. She let the silence stretch between them, mulling over his response, one that created more questions than answers. The old man was paranoid, but she didn’t realize the pack’s coffers were deep enough for him to have a personal security detail, and certainly not one as elite as she assumed Lux must be.But why would you think that? You’ve never known any of his kind before, didn’t even knowthey existed.It was true, she was forced to admit.Maybe this is the only job he could get. He didn’t normally deal with the pack’s shady business . . . yet his presence in the room with her at that moment said otherwise.
“You don’t deal with the pack,” she mused slowly, keeping her eyes trained on the shells she was stuffing as he glided out of her peripheral vision, “and yet. Here you are.”
