Page 104 of Veiled Vixen

“For Luck.”

“For Luck,” I agree.

“But Luck doesn’t care about me.”

“No. Shit. Fuck! I’m telling you that I feel bonded to you now. And that bond is at least as strong as the one I have for Nyleena, via Luck. If that’s not good enough for you, then fuck it. That’s all I have.”

She draws in a long, tired breath, mulls all this over, then says, “If that’s the best you can do… then that’s the best I can hope for, I guess.”

“Great,” I say, letting out an equally long, tired breath of relief. “So?”

“So what?”

“Do you need to change?”

“Why?” She looks down at her outfit. “Is there something wrong with leggings? I see girls wearing them still. Are they out of style? Is my sweater too big and fluffy? Why are you so fixated on my clothes?”

“No.” I laugh. “It’s just… not you.”

“It’s not me? Do you really think I like wearing gowns every day?” She scoffs. “I went through a lot last night. I need to be comfortable. And I really hope you don’t need a fighting partner today because I have to be honest here”—she pouts again and the next few words come out as a whisper—“I don’t feel very good. I don’t feel very powerful and I’m not sure I’m really up to this. If I had my choice, I’d spend the whole day in bed crying.”

I step forward, wrap my arms around her back, and pull her in to my chest.

She melts into me. No resistance at all.

And I have a terrible thought.

What if… what if this is the first time she’s ever been hugged?

I hold her tighter after that.

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. But I don’t want to take the chance. I want her to remember this moment. Because this day… it’s not gonna be easy. No magic soulmate bond is gonna pull us over the finish line. Doesn’t even matter if these feelings are real or just something cooked up in a lab, it’s going to be hard.

And none of that matters anyway. We only have two choices here.

We either rise to the occasion and fight for tomorrow… or we don’t.