Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
ROGUE
I woke to what I thought was a dream.
Only because every morning since I’d seen Thistle on that stage, I’d dreamed of frosted moonflower. Except this time, the dream didn’t feel like a dream.
I blinked bleary eyes open in my lounge. I’d passed out on the couch with the TV running. I reached up to my face, rubbing the sore spot on my jaw still recovering from the metal of the muzzle I’d removed yesterday, then frowned.
Something was… different.
There was a weight on my chest, warm and… and shifting?
I looked down, seeing a bulge in my shirt through sleepy eyes, and at the top, near my collar, spilled out glossy black hair.
I froze, heart pounding a million miles a minute.
What?
She was here .
On pure instinct, I glanced around the room, expecting Knox to be waiting, a smug smile on his face before he revealed this was a game.
Something to torture me.
But Knox wasn’t there.
Just my room filled with the faint sound of voices from a TV show…
What was going on?
There were pillows, cushions, and blankets tucked about me—and all of them were doused in frosted moonflower.
With a strange feeling that resembled fear, (despite how irrational that would be right now) I shifted a hand, gently resting it on my shirt that covered the warm Omega sleeping on my chest.
Real.
Definitely fucking real.
My low growl of approval rumbled in the air, and she stirred.
Ah. Shit.
I hadn’t intended to wake her. I needed more time to figure out what the fuck was going on.
And what I was going to do.
She went rigid, and after a second, I felt petite hands patting my chest, like she was confused as to where she was. Next thing, I heard a squeak of delight, and she tried to scramble up before getting trapped in my shirt.
She was stuck for a moment, a teenie, shuddering growl vibrating against my chest as she tried to push forward before realising there wasn’t room, and then backing up.
I chuckled, gifted the image of her cute ass in nothing but a thong wriggling in the air before a chaotic jumble of static hair exploded haphazardly into my vision. Then, bleary violet eyes blinked wide, peering at me as she tugged her oversized T-shirt down, and shoved her hair from her face. Plush, deep red lips parted in a perfect little ‘o’ of surprise.
For a long, long second, we stared at each other, and I couldn’t help eyeing the golden collar around her neck, connected to a thin, matching chain.
I refrained from reaching out and seizing it. Even more so as I gleaned the faintest open bite atop the faded scar of Ace’s claim.
Knox had bitten her?
Though it wasn’t deep enough to be a bonding mark. My mind flashed, pulse pounding, to the memory of her sinking her teeth into his neck while I skulked on the ballroom balcony last night. His eyes had met mine as it happened.
Had he made her do it?
He must have—she wanted me. She was here, after all.
The world shifted as I took her in, slipping from the axis it had been precariously balanced upon since the moment I’d seen her on that stage.
Every breath in which I tumbled into her eyes was like the wash of a tide, each footstep behind, the bleak journey stretching endlessly ahead, all vanishing.
The half-feral side of me was changing, evolving—becoming something new.
She was mine.
I didn’t notice I’d lifted my hand to her cheek until she sank into my touch, nuzzling it, scent changing, the tense petals of a moonflower unfurling for joy beneath.
If my sanity had been making a break for it before, it was nothing to the full meltdown that followed her skin connecting with mine like that. Not just casual sleepy contact, but something deliberate.
She was so fucking touch starved, and within me rose a desperate, urgent demand to fix.
To protect.
It was a demand that tried to choke the breath from my very lungs.
“Um…” She cocked her head, looking unsure. “Hi?” The word broke on the way up her throat like she second guessed it.
I opened my mouth, then shut it, completely lost as my reality continued rearranging to place her in the centre.
Her fingers curled around my wrist, frown on her face as she nuzzled my hand again as if it were an on switch that wasn’t working. “I… built us a nest—kind of. It’s not perfect—but I didn’t want to wake you, and I didn’t think you’d mind if I napped, too.”
Again, I opened my mouth and shut it, no words forming.
She didn’t sound like I’d imagined—but then, what business did I have, trying to imagine a goddess?
Instead of a gentle, innocent melody, her voice was lower: rough and tumble with colour to the highs and lows, and the occasional crackle like an excitable skip on a record.
“How did you get in?” I asked.
“Got a key from the East wing.”
“Those guys let you in here?” I asked, surprised.
“I don’t think they knew I wasn’t allowed.”
The half of me that felt a spark of pride at that was easily smothered by fear. That meant Knox didn’t know.
“Don’t worry,” she said, seeming to sense my concern. “I’m uh, I’m sorting Knox out.”
“Sorting him out?” I asked, eyebrows rising.
“Uh huh. You know, he’s kinda loopy but I think he’s getting to like me. And I don’t know what your thoughts were, like if we’d keep him, or?—?”
“Keep him ?” I almost choked on the words.
She twisted her fingers anxiously. “I’ve never really done the pack stuff before…” She swallowed. “But you’re my scent match, so I was gonna ask you first— obviously .”
I blinked, entirely unsure what to say to that, and she seemed to panic. “Um… I brought something for you,” she said quickly. She picked up a bundle of black T-shirt and unfolded it, tugging out a?—
Ah.
Shit.
She pressed the gun to my chest, and I took it with a sigh.
“Kitten…” I trailed off, stifling the thrill of joy I felt as her eyes lit up at the pet name. “I can’t threaten Knox.”
He must have told her about this damn death sentence lodged into my neck.
“Oh.” She perked up. “No, no, no. That’s not what it’s for.”
I frowned, glancing back down at it. “What else is a gun for?”
“Uh….” She clasped her fingers, cheeks going pink. “Knox said you… you liked the picture he sent. So, I thought…?”
There was a beat as my jaw hit the floor.
She’d brought the gun for…? My brain scrambled to process what she meant, but her scent of frosted moonflower was getting heated in the air.
Goddamn.
She brought me a gun so I could fuck her with it?
Every imagining I’d previously constructed about my sweet sunshine scent match, turned to cinders in the blink of an eye.
Still, I hadn’t said anything, and her expression crumbled a little. “Did he lie?”
“No.” Uh. “Yes.” Fuck. “I shouldn’t.”
“Like me?”
“No. I mean—just the context. You’re… Good.” Good? “Perfect, I mean—beautiful.”
Mother above, take the gun and shoot yourself now.
But her eyes shone, glittering stars among endless galaxies, and next thing I knew her little fists were balled in my shirt, and she was drawing me into a kiss.
I wasn’t expecting it, and I wasn’t prepared for it.
Years of cold, dark, emptiness weren’t ready for the feeling of her lips, soft and warm against mine.
Insistent, needy, wanting.
My hand curled around the back of her neck as I shifted forward, pinning her in place as I reacted, my tongue driving into her mouth, instincts demanding a claim as frosted moonflower swallowed me whole.
Or it did until reality slammed in.
Until I remembered everything those beautiful eyes and that alluring scent wanted me to forget.
Shit.
Shit.
She was mine. That meant I had to protect her.
“We can’t… fuck.” My voice was rough as I forced myself away.
Fuck?
Why had I said that? She’d only kissed me.
But her scent was a beast on its own, with vicious demands that were stacking in the air like a poisonous smog. Smog I was about to suffocate in.
But…
Shit.
Knox’s boundaries were in flux when it came to her, but if I claimed her…
A pillow fort and cuddles were one thing, but I couldn’t put her in more danger.
“ Technically , we wouldn’t be, if you wanted to use the?—”
I caught her cheek, sitting up. “We can’t. If he catches you down here?—”
“No, no. You don’t understand, I had to see you. He’s messing with my brain. I knew if I came, and I saw you, it would all be different.”
“Is he hurting you?” My voice was made of gravel. I shouldn’t ask.
What would I do if she said yes?
What could I do?
“He’s uh…” Her lip wobbled, eyes darting from mine uncomfortably. “Well... he hasn’t hit me. And he hasn’t fucked me.”
He uh…he hadn’t?
I blinked at that, surprised.
“But I don’t know how to survive him,” she whispered. “And I’m scared if I don’t, you’ll hate me.”
I shook my head, not totally sure what she meant by the first part, but stalled by the second. “How could I hate you?”
She ducked her head, fists closing in my shirt like she couldn’t look me in the eye.
Okay.
My mind was reeling. If he caught her down here, he would lose it.
I needed to fix this now.
Get ahead of it. Now I’d met her, I knew I couldn’t survive watching him break her. She wasn’t the sunshine scent match I’d thought she was, but she was… more than that.
So much more.
There were lines he would cross with me that he hadn’t with her. Maybe because she was lucky, but maybe because he didn’t want to.
But if his viciousness was kept to me, I might still be able to protect her today.