I sit. The stone is cold through the thin silk of the robe, but I ignore it. At least until Villeneuve shrugs out of his jacket and drapes it over my shoulders.
My spine stiffens as the scent of smoke and incense surrounds me. It occurs to me that it’s the first time I’ve ever noticed any scent about him that isn’t his usual aftershave and soap. Killian and the others have always been unnerved by thefact that they can’t tell what he is by his scent, but he clearly isn’t bothering to cloak it anymore. At least not here.
It’s… pleasant. Obnoxiously so.
I’m tempted to tell him to take his jacket and shove it wherever he keeps his wings when he’s not using them, but itisfreezing.
“Let’s start with the basics,” I say. “Why did you add yourself to the bond?”
He hesitates a moment too long.
“So much for your ‘candor.’”
“It’s not a lack of honesty. It’s simply complicated.” He moves to stand across from me, hands clasped behind his back. “It might be easier if I explained what I am first.”
“Okay. I’ll bite.” I almost laugh at my own word choice. “You’re a dragon shifter, right?”
“No.”
I blink. “What? I saw you.”
“There is no such thing as a dragon shifter.” His voice is measured, the way it gets when he’s explaining a complex topic in class. “Technically, I am a dragon who can take human form. The distinction matters.”
“I don’t understand.”
He gestures to his face, to his body, to the perfectly tailored suit that somehow shifts with him. “A typical shifter is a being with two souls, merged as one when the first shift comes. A symbiotic relationship between human and beast. Two halves of a whole.” His dark eyes meet mine. “I am simply a beast who can occasionally wear this mask.”
That’s… menacing as fuck.
Villeneuve chuckles.
“Stop that,” I hiss.
“My apologies. This is all new for me as well.”
“Oh, so youdon’tsecretly force your way into pack bonds on a regular basis? First time?”
His lips twitch. “Shocking, I know.”
I sigh, trying to maintain the appropriate level of exasperation when I’m just…exhausted. That makes two of us, I guess. “How long have you been able to read my mind?”
“Only since I took your energy for the healing last night,” he answers with such immediate sincerity I’m actually tempted to believe him. “Which is why I thought it was important for us to have this conversation sooner than later.”
I take a second to process that. Is that why I can smell him? Whatever he uses to mask his scent must be magical, then. Like a glamour of sorts.
It occurs to me that I haven’t bothered to put the glamour back up since… when did it slip, exactly? While I was running in the woods on Killian’s back, wild and free? During the battle? Hard to say.
“Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“The excuse,” I answer. “The reason you did it. You must have one, so give it your best. I’m all ears.”
“You don’t strike me as a person who’s convinced by excuses.”
“I’m not. But try anyway. I think you owe me that.”
He’s quiet for a long moment. When he finally speaks again, his voice is different. It’s softer and uncharacteristically uncertain. “You don’t have to believe me, and I have certainly given you no reason to. But I did it to protect you.”
