“Okay, enough of your pitiful whining. Time to go bye-bye.”
Dennis raised the gun—and a mostly gray claw appeared from nowhere, slashing right through him.
To my shock, Dennis dissipated like smoke.
And a sudden feeling of familiarity washed over me.
I’d been here before.
“Calm... calm now, sweetheart,” a distant voice echoed. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get up here.”
Suddenly, I was back in my bed, being pulled into the bear’s warm gray fur. Safe. Protected.
“You’re safe,” the disembodied voice told me. I recognized it as Zion’s. “You’re safe.”
Yes, safe... and protected. They hadn’t left me to fight Dennis on my own.
My chest unknotted, and a warm feeling washed over me as the black of sleep welcomed me back into its peaceful cradle.
Everything went dark.
Until my eyes popped open the next morning to a direct hit of bright light.
The sun was shining directly into my eyes, letting me know that I’d overslept.
But at least it wasn’t dark, like when I woke up wrapped around Boone. I let out a huge breath of relief as I turned over because it had just been a dream. Just my mind trying to process?—
I froze when I found Zion lying on the other side of the bed.
In his human form, on top of the covers, one arm thrown over his eyes. And so, so naked.
His body was long and dark—all smooth skin and lean muscle. His chest rose and fell with slow, even breaths. And his length...
Oh, my God.
It lay fully erect against his stomach, long and uncut. The head glistened, a bead of moisture trailing down onto his abs.
Everything inside me squiggled and sparked like a power line dipped into water as I did that thing where I knew I needed to look away, but couldn’t stop staring.
Until his nose flared. And I realized he was awake.
“I extended a great deal of willpower to extricate myself from our hold last night without waking you,” he said, arm still covering his eyes. “However, that arousal scent issue Ravik discussed with you back in May has returned. With a vengeance.”
Okay, now I could look away.
I groaned and covered my face with both hands.
After everything—the anxiety from yesterday, that awful nightmare—this was how my body decided to respond to waking up next to a man I’d said I didn’t want in my bed… lying naked in my bed?
I heard him shifting to face me with a warm laugh, low in his throat. “Do not be embarrassed, sweetheart.”
This only made me cringe harder. I wanted to sink through the mattress and disappear.
But Zion just commanded, “Look at me. Look at me, Bell Winters.”
This must be the director’s voice he’d used to get his entire pageant cast off book—even Jacobi Baerlow.
I found myself reluctantly lowering my hands.
