Her room was at the end of the hall.Alice had prepared it, soft linens and fresh flowers on the dresser, a lamp left burning low.Not my room.I still had some lines I wouldn’t cross.
I laid her on the bed.She murmured something, reaching for me when I tried to pull away.
I should have left.
Instead, I knelt beside the bed and removed her shoes, setting them neatly on the floor.Pulled the blanket over her body.Brushed the hair back from her face with fingers that were too gentle, too careful.
I leaned close, my lips nearly brushing her ear.
“You’ll dream about me tonight,” I murmured.“And when you wake up, you’ll be wet.You’ll wonder if it was the whisky or if you actually want this.Want me.”I pulled back just enough to watch her face, slack with sleep and whisky.“The answer is yes.Your body already knows it.”
She made a soft sound, shifting toward my voice even in sleep.
Stay,the wolf urged.Guard.She’s vulnerable.Someone hurt her today.Stay and protect her.
I stayed.Watching her sleep.The way her lashes fanned against her cheeks like dark crescents.The soft parting of her lips.The steady rise and fall of her chest beneath the blanket.
What was I doing?
This was a pawn.A tool for revenge.Nothing more.
“You’re not as scary as you want to be.”
Her voice was a mumble, barely audible.Her eyes were still closed.She was talking in her sleep, already drifting back under.
I froze.
“You pretend to be a monster,” she continued, the words slurring together, “but I think… I think you’re just lonely…”
Then she was asleep again, truly asleep, and she wouldn’t remember saying any of it in the morning.
I stood there too long.Watching her breathe.Fighting the urge to crawl into the bed beside her, to wrap myself around her, to keep her safe from whatever had sent that dead animal to her door.Fighting the wolf’s insistence that she belonged in my bed, in my arms, in my life.
Mate,the wolf whispered.She belongs with us.
No.She was a pawn.Revenge.Nothing more.
I left the room.Closed the door quietly behind me.
In the hallway, I let the mask fall back into place.Tomorrow, the training would continue.Tomorrow, I would be the predator she feared.Tomorrow, I would be the monster she expected.
But the dynamic between us had shifted.The ground beneath my control had cracked, and I refused to examine the damage.
I walked back to my own room alone, her scent still clinging to my clothes, her words echoing in my head.
You’re just lonely.
She was wrong.She had to be wrong.
I stripped off my shirt and caught myself pressing it to my face, breathing her in.Apples and cream.Innocence.Trust she had no business giving me.
I threw the shirt in the corner and lay down on sheets that smelled only of myself.
She was a pawn.A means to an end.Her father had helped destroy my family, and she would help me destroy his legacy in return.That was all she was.All she could ever be.
The wolf whimpered in disagreement, but I silenced him.
I didn’t sleep for a long time.
