Chapter 17
CALDER
I hadn’t seen the kiss coming. Not after everything she’d just laid bare. One second, Thorne had been sliding headfirst into a panic attack, and the next, she’d fisted her hands into my shirt and dragged me down.
The moment our lips met, all the synapses in my brain misfired. I forgot about everything, wound my arms around her, and hauled her hard against my chest. Like always, she fit perfectly against me.
I wanted nothing more than to take exactly what she was offering. I wanted to bend her over her father’s cracked desk and fuck her into oblivion. I wanted to erase every ugly, violent thing that bastard had done to her.
I’d played this moment out in my head on the darkest, coldest, loneliest of nights. I’d kept myself sane by remembering the heat of her skin, the sound of her breath catching, the feel of her body shattering whenever I made her come.
But none of those fantasies even came close to the real thing, to the feel of her in my arms now, her tongue eagerly stroking mine. And based on the soft, needy sounds currently escaping Thorne’s throat, it seemed safe to assume my wife was on the same page as me.
Unfortunately—and as much as it pained me to admit—we couldn’t do any of those things.
At least not tonight. Not after she’d just exposed the most vulnerable parts of herself. And it wasn’t because I thought she was fragile or weak—Thorne was the strongest of us all. Nor was it because I pitied her or didn’t want her. Fuck that.
No, we had to stop because I did want her.
I wanted her forever. I wanted everything she had to offer, scars and all.
But right now, she was running on absolute fumes.
She’d finally let me past her walls, and now she was crashing.
If I took her to bed right now, she’d regret it in the morning.
I wasn’t sure what our future held, but if we were to have one, or even just the chance at one, I wanted it built on stability. Not on the fallout of her trauma.
So, after dragging in a ragged breath and an inner strength I didn’t even know I possessed, I broke from the kiss and took a step back.
Thorne’s eyes fluttered open and met mine, glazed and confused, a moment before she frowned. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
I didn’t get a chance to answer before her face paled. She didn’t say a word, but I saw her thoughts as they played out across her face, how she gripped her side, how the warmth in her eyes vanished in a split second. She was already building her walls back up, bracing herself for rejection.
“Hey. No.” I closed the distance I’d just forced between us in a single stride and grabbed her hips.
I made sure my hands spanned her waist and deliberately placed my palm on top of her scars, showing her that they didn’t repulse me.
I knew Thorne’s love language. Words of affirmation meant nothing to her. Actions mattered most to her.
She stiffened, but she didn’t pull back. A step in the right direction.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” I said.
“But you stopped,” she whispered, her voice tight.
“I did,” I agreed without hesitation. I shifted my stance and pulled her closer, then cupped her cheek with my free hand. “But not for the reason I’m sure you’re thinking. Your scars don’t bother me, Thorne. And I’m not rejecting you.”
Her frown deepened. “Then why?”
“Because I want you so damn badly, I can barely think straight,” I said bluntly. “If I could have it my way, we wouldn’t be leaving this room tonight.”
A flicker of genuine confusion crossed her face. “But?”
“But you just unloaded a shitload of trauma.” I stroked my thumb over the curve of her hip, applying a gentle, grounding pressure.
“You’ve been carrying this nightmare around for months.
Neither of us is in the right headspace to sleep together right now.
We’d be using sex to numb your pain. Relationships like that don’t last.”
A faint smile curled her lips upward. “So you want our relationship to last?”
I chuckled. “Trust you to take note of that.”
“It’s just… you haven’t told me what your plans are once you steal the artifact. I don’t know if you plan to stay or go.”
Ah. With a soft smile, I bowed my head until our foreheads touched. “I never wanted to leave you in the first place, Thorne. Of course I want to stay.”
Her face lit up with a radiant beauty that stole my breath. Her glow chased away the shadows of all she’d revealed, leaving behind the fierce, vibrant woman I’d always loved.
Thorne’s hands slid slowly up my chest, and she rested one palm right over my heart.
Then, without a word, she stretched up onto her tiptoes and kissed me again.
Her mouth was incredibly soft, parting just enough to invite me in.
When our tongues met, slowly, sensually, my knees actually threatened to give out.
I was used to Thorne being more aggressive. To her hotter, more demanding kisses. But this? This slow and devastatingly tender exploration?
It destroyed me.
Every single drop of blood rushed south, and for a long moment, I forgot my own name. Hell, I almost forgot how to breathe.
When she finally pulled back, breaking the kiss with a soft, quiet sigh, my eyes were still shut. I was practically floating.
I forced my eyes open to find her watching me. The exhaustion was still there, shadowing her face, but the weight had lifted from her shoulders. And sitting right there on her swollen lips was a faint, undeniably teasing grin.
“Good to know,” she murmured, her voice sultry.
I opened my mouth to reply. I wanted to say something smooth. Something reassuring. But my brain was effectively offline, short-circuited by a kiss that had been softer than a whisper and hit harder than a freight train.
“I…” I started, blinking a couple of times. I cleared my throat, desperately trying to jumpstart my vocabulary. “Yeah.”
That was it. That was the brilliant, articulate response the big, bad alpha managed to scrape together.
Thorne’s grin widened just a fraction, a spark of genuine amusement dancing in her eyes. She knew exactly what she’d just done to me, and the little sadist was enjoying it.
“You’re a menace,” I rasped, my voice sounding like crushed gravel.
“I’m your wife,” she corrected softly.
“Same thing,” I muttered, though I couldn’t stop the corner of my mouth from ticking up.
I reluctantly forced myself to drop my hands from her waist, taking a deliberate step back before she kissed me again and completely ruined my resolve—which I suspected was her goal. Then I shoved my hands into the front pockets of my jeans, mostly to keep from reaching right back out for her.
“Come on,” I said, tipping my head toward the door. “Before I change my mind and embarrass myself by begging. Let’s get you home so you can finally get some sleep.”
Before she could argue, I took her by the hand and led her through her parents’ house, exiting through one of the side doors.
I had no interest in crossing paths with Cassian again tonight, and I suspected Thorne felt the same.
Now that I knew the truth, I couldn’t believe what Cassian had tried to do.
If he so much as looked at her wrong, I would tear his throat out.
And since Thorne and I were having a lovely evening—all things considered—I didn’t want to ruin it.
The crisp air hit us the second we hit the sidewalk, carrying the familiar scents of pine needles, damp earth from the forest surrounding the town boundary, and the moist scent of the nearby waterfalls.
Eternity Falls at night had always been my favorite.
During the day, it bustled with townspeople who loved to shove their noses into everyone’s business, but at night, the town rolled up its carpets and everyone just shut the hell up.
The cobblestone streets were empty, washed in the pale, silvery glow of the moonlight.
The storefronts were dark, their awnings pulled tight against the breeze.
Even the Moonlit Cafe and Hex Mex were nothing more than quiet, shadowed buildings.
It was peaceful. And for a moment, I couldn’t believe I was walking these old, familiar streets with my wife at my side, her hand in mine.
I kept Thorne close, smiling when she didn’t fight the contact.
In fact, she leaned into it, my arm tucked against her side, and her other hand cradling the crook of my elbow.
It was nice to see her like this. Surreal even.
Neither of us spoke as we walked, we simply listened to the sound of our quiet footsteps and the soft rustling of the trees.
It almost felt like we’d gone back in time, back before Evander. Before I ruined everything.
We turned the corner, heading into the town square, which branched off toward the condo. The massive, ancient clocktower loomed ahead of us, its stone spire stretching up toward the starry sky.
Usually, the clock face glowed with a soft, ambient magic that shifted colors to reflect the general mood of the town. Tonight, it ebbed a deep, sleepy sapphire—exactly as it should this time of night. To the untrained eye, or to a local who walked past it every day, it looked perfectly normal.
But the second we stepped into the square, my wolf bristled. A sudden, uneasy tension coiled in my gut.
The runes felt dormant. Except that didn’t make sense.
Even at the deepest part of night, the magic remained active, in order to ‘keep an eye on the town,’ so to speak.
The tower was our alarm system. When things went wrong, it told us by changing colors, by initiating an alarm and alerting the witches that something had happened.
But right now, the runes didn’t feel right. Nor did the energy surrounding the massive tower. Everything just felt muted. The color was right but the resonance behind it felt hollowed out. Paper-thin. Like someone had siphoned the power from it.
My steps slowed as I studied the Luminara.
“It feels off,” I murmured, eyes narrowing at the glowing clock face.