“Try one of these.” I grabbed one of the grilled cheeses. “It took me years to learn how not to burn them.”
He picked one up and bit into it. “That’s really good.”
It sounded like he was feeling better. I took that as a win.
Grilled cheese. Comfort food. Never failed on days I didn’t want to deal with the world.
I sat back and ate my sandwich in about three bites. I was happy. Happy? Wait, that didn’t happen with me. But sitting next to Cassius, feeling his warmth, watching him eat something I’d prepared was everything for me in that moment. Everything.
24
Cassius
The food did me good. I was still shaky but growing more and more relaxed as long as Malin stayed next to me.
The next big thing to weather was my oncoming heat. How had I not felt it? Until Malin said he scented it, I hadn’t thought about it. Did Bish and the other alphas scent it and go crazy?
I was still looking for reasons to blame myself for what had happened.
Malin still had only a blanket covering him. His chest was bare. I’d seen him once without a shirt at Bish’s party when he jumped into the pool. He had kept his jeans on but when he’d emerged dripping from the water it was like looking at some myth coming into reality. Even then I’d noticed his alpha beauty. And the strength of his muscles. When I’d watched him shift out the window of my bedroom, it was dark. I couldn’t see much. But now….
Now he was so close to me I could feel his hip against mine. He had brought me food. He had tucked the blanket around mefour or five times. It was odd behavior. If my heat was affecting him, I needed to isolate. But then I remembered he was acting this way before he sniffed the air to confirm my so-called honey scent. The biggest thing was when he admitted not-not liking me. Still coming off of the shock to my mind and body, those words were like magic. Instantly, I knew I was safe.
And what an incredible beast he had. The image of Malinekan rushing toward me with wings spread and front arms stretched out to grab me kept replaying in my mind.
Malinekan was the most gorgeous dragon I’d ever seen. I hadn’t seen any dragons in person, but I’d looked at pictures online and seen them in movies. Malinekan had armor like an aurora crystal. It reflected light in prisms of all colors. Now I understood Malin’s glass hoard. All the colors. All the shapes and figures. His hoard was like a mirror to his beast within. He’d told me his dragon had gone silent for many years. I wondered if the hoard was a way of calling him back.
Calmer now, with food in my belly, my old self returned. Tons of emotions lined up to be examined. One was outrage. I couldn’t believe this had happened to me. Another was sadness. While I usually directed that feeling inward, this time it encompassed more. Malin was part of it. His life had been privileged but not emotionally stable. He might’ve come across as a dick alpha with attitude at first, but I’d learned a lot about him, and a few times I saw the boy he used to be before his father died emerge. Once he’d been a sweet child allegedly taken from his egg too soon. He’d been vulnerable but protected. When he lost that, he forgot how to be himself.
That was the story I was telling myself, my reason for unreasonably liking him.
Something clicked into place inside me. I made no secret about staring at him now. His gaze caught mine. He leaned in, peering at my face.
“Does it still hurt?”
I brought my hand out from under the blanket and lifted it to my eye, feeling the slight bruising and swelling. “No.”
“Malin….”
“Cassius.”
We both started to speak at once. Then we both simultaneously said, “You first.”
He laughed softly, like a wave of release. I took that momentary pause to speak.
“Well, I finally got to meet Malinekan. He’s incredible. I think I love—”Him. I gulped. That wasn’t what I meant to say.
“He wants me to tell you again he went out of control because he got scared.” Malin’s voice rumbled through me. “Scared for you.”
“I couldn’t see it in the moment. Stuff was coming at me from all sides. I panicked. I—I thought I was going to die.”
“He would never allow that.”
My throat was dry and I picked up my water and took a sip. “And you?”
“I would never allow that, either.”
“I’m safe now.”
