Chapter 20
Twenty
Avery
The sun was setting as the dreary day drew to a close.
Fog swallowed the spires in the distance, and the lamps created a blurry mirage of light.
Felix walked beside her, puddles splashing under their feet as they climbed the long stairs.
Halfheartedly, she held a hand above her face to shield herself from the rain, but the drops still battered it.
Felix especially had a displeased look on his face, which only brought a smile to hers.
A cat that hated water. At least he was consistent.
Even his shadow familiars looked unhappy, though she couldn’t help feeling sorry for them and their sad little faces.
Blood still dripped from her jacket, leaving a pitiful trail that washed away with the rain.
Only now had she gotten around to the brilliant idea of putting pressure on it.
She dropped back a step, carefully placing a hand over her sleeve where the wound was, wincing as she clamped down around it.
The sound was enough to stop Felix in his tracks.
Hands in his pockets, he turned from a couple of stairs above, looking down.
From down here, he looked almost otherworldly against the darkening sky. Even when he pretended to be normal, his features were unsettling—like those of a deadly yet beautiful predator. And when he looked at her, she didn’t know whether to run or get on her knees and accept her fate.
Her instinct told her to apologize for the holdup. She told her instinct to shut up. He’d caused the goddess-forsaken wound, so he could wait while she tried to stop it from bleeding. Holding his gaze, she gritted her teeth and clamped tighter.
Rolling his eyes, he descended until he stood one step above her.
The rain had drenched him, his white school shirt completely see-through, the fabric clinging to his muscles.
Where he had undone some buttons, his bare skin steamed when a drop of rain found itself on his chest. Never in her life had Avery been jealous of a drop of water.
“You need to heal that,” he deadpanned, cocking his head as his pupils constricted to slits. The feline manner of him was something his human form couldn’t shed.
Lips trembling from the cold, she tried to make a sassy retort. “Don’t you think if I could have done that, I would have already?”
The corner of his mouth lifted as he shook his head. “Follow me.”
This wasn’t a brilliant time to refuse help, but somewhere in Avery’s mind, it was the perfect time to throw a tantrum.
“No. I’m sick of following everything you say. I’m not your dog.”
His smile only grew. “Are you disobeying me, pet?”
“Ugh, gross, I’m not your pet.”
“Are you not?”
She took a step closer, the rage building enough to take a daring poke into his chest with her good hand. But being the wall of muscle he was, he didn’t move an inch.
“Listen here, you overgrown furball, I am not your anything, and I’m not going anywhere with you.
” She jabbed his chest again for dramatic effect, but this time he caught it.
His large hand wrapped around her finger and pulled her closer.
So close that his warm breath fanned her face.
The bond purred in her chest. She didn’t dare look up, her sudden confidence already halfway out the window.
A blinding pain overtook her as Felix wrapped his hand around her forearm and squeezed. The pain made her dizzy, but unfortunately for her, her body had other plans. Part of her liked it. Some sick, masochistic side of her sparked to life between her legs.
Felix went still. Without releasing her, he raised his free hand next to Avery’s head.
She flinched at the sudden movement, and a flicker of hurt ran down the bond, so quick she thought she might have imagined it.
But Felix didn’t stop, eyes darkening as he pushed strands of wet hair out of her face, with such a gentle movement she hadn’t thought him capable of.
Her lips parted at the contact, the touch sending an electrifying ripple through her body, masking the pain he was causing her wounded arm.
“If you won’t follow me, I will take you anyway.” Felix threw her over his shoulder like a sack of kitty litter.
The world tilted as her stomach pressed against his shoulder, and he carried her to goddess knew where.
“Put me down, you Neanderthal!” she yelled, pounding on his back. At least there was no one around to witness the sheer embarrassment of being manhandled. Was this how he felt when he was a cat? No wonder he had shifted when she dumped him in the bath.
A chuckle rumbled through him, the sound vibrating through her and spreading warmth into her core.
“Not until I take a look at that wound.” Felix took the stairs two at a time before rounding the railing and taking the path down to the lake.
He didn’t listen to her protests. He didn’t even put her down until he went between the curtain of a willow tree.
The fog was so dense, the floating lilies were barely visible.
The canopy of the willow was thick, a green wall between them and everything else. Avery swallowed.
He threw her from his shoulder, and she felt her back hit the tree. Before her head could crack against it, his hand moved behind her so that it cushioned the impact.
Her heart beat wildly against her chest. Despite the cold, her body burned; her trembling had nothing to do with the temperature. Fear? Anticipation? She couldn’t pinpoint what was happening to her. But this time, she didn’t want to run.
“Wha—” she started, the words dying on her tongue.
“Take off your blazer, little witch.” Hand leaving her head, he crossed his arms.
She furrowed her brows. She wanted to obey, oh goddess, how every part of her wanted to obey.
But the word that came out was, “No.”
His grin went feral, fangs elongating as he ran his tongue across them. “Take. Off. Your. Fucking. Blazer.”
She shuddered at the power in his voice.
This time, she didn’t protest. Slowly, she took off her blazer, watching him as he watched her strip it off her wet body.
Her breathing quickened, and she told herself it was her body’s way of compensating for the cold.
Looking down, she could see her shirt was see-through, the black bralette she had decided to wear this morning completely on display, the white sleeve red now.
Felix didn’t break eye contact with her, even as she heard students hollering close by.
“Shirt. Off,” he bit out. It almost sounded painful for him to talk right now.
She shook her head, mouth gaping at the brazen request. “Make me.”
Too fast for her to react, his hand shot out and grabbed her face, squeezing her cheeks. Using his pinky, he traced the line of her bottom lip, a growl rumbling from his throat.
She inhaled sharply, the ache between her thighs growing.
He spoke low. Almost low enough that she couldn’t make out what he said through the rain. “It’s almost like you were created to torture me, Avery.”
The sound of her name tumbling from his lips had every nerve coming alive just to respond to his voice.
She didn’t move. Felix’s pupils dilated, wide, then narrow, as if he were fighting against his own nature.
Claws extending, he ripped a line down the front of her shirt while she held her breath so her skin didn’t catch the tip of it.
Her nipples puckered through the bralette, displaying her body’s betrayal to the beast in front of her.
But he didn’t stop with the shirt. He tore through the bralette like paper, exposing her breasts to the cool air, breath hitching at the sight of her bare skin. The illusion he had flickered, his ears and tail slipping through. His tail wrapped around her leg as his shadows came out.
“Put your hands up.”
“What are you going to do?”
He didn’t wait to answer; he grabbed her arms and pinned them above her head as shadows followed, wrapping themselves around the tree like a rope, securing her to it.
They even plastered themselves to her ankles, spreading her legs just a bit further as Felix let out a dark chuckle, her wound long forgotten.
She expected it to scream in pain, but instead it started to hum, the pain subsiding into a delightful warmth.
He moved closer, his body almost close enough to press against her. And shamelessly, she wanted the pressure, wanted him to fill the aching space between them. She tried to move against the shadows, bucking her hips as she did.
“So eager,” he said, a tsk-tsk sound reverberating through her mind.
Shadows pulsed against her, as Felix’s grip burned against her still-wet skin.
Her heart quickened as the air thickened between them, his face so close that she thought he might kiss her again.
Instead, his mouth found her neck, and he inhaled deeply, his broad shoulders expanding with the movement before he ran his tongue up the column of her throat, sending an exquisite wave of shivers down her body.
The bond sang between them, until the edges blurred, until she couldn’t say where she stopped and he started.
It felt so right. If it was forbidden, if it was wrong.
Why did it feel so fucking good? She didn’t want to question it anymore; she wanted to succumb to it, to let him pull her into the depths of his depravity, wherever this level of pleasure lay.
Fangs grazed the sensitive spot on her neck, pulling a soft moan from her lips.
She wanted him to bite her, to feel those fangs on her, and the tension in her body coiled even tighter as she arched against his mouth.
He bit down hungrily, his fangs sinking in.
Pain and pleasure bled into one, setting her nerves alight.
It would leave a mark, but she didn’t care.
She wanted so much fucking more. It was like he was injecting poison into her veins, corrupting her every cell to want him.
But it didn’t matter; her body was alive.
The bond thrummed in answer, a drumbeat in her chest that spread through her ribs, her arms, her fingertips, as if whispers of magic roared to life.
A gasp tore from her as he palmed her breast with his massive hands, his claws like knives, threatening to cut.
“No,” she whined as he moved his mouth away from her neck.
But it didn’t last long. He took his hand and guided her nipple into his mouth as he sucked, the cold no longer a problem.
She burned at his touch, her body running a sick fever for this shifter.
He pulled back for only a second before she watched him using his fangs to pierce a hole through her nipple.
She jerked at the sharp pain before he took it into his mouth again, ravishing it like it was his last meal.
The tension in her core wound higher and higher as he lapped at her breast. Was she going to come just from him touching her?
He moved onto the other nipple as she watched a shadow weave its way into the hole he had left with his fangs, creating a solid bar. She bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood, to keep from crying out. She shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as she was.
“Look at you.” His voice roughened. “Just begging for someone to put you in your place, little witch.”
“Felix,” she breathed out. She was, for one merciful moment, completely empty of everything. Nothing else mattered but the two of them below this willow tree.
His body stiffened. As if she had just reminded him of whose nipples he was sucking on.
The cold rushed between them as Felix took a step back, shaking his head out of the spell she must have put him under.
His tail lashed behind him, chest heaving to catch a breath.
Shame scalded Avery’s cheek as she watched the man who devoured her turn away in anguish, his jaw clenching.
The shadows fell away gently like tattered ribbons; the only one to stay was her new piercing. Her breath rose and fell in time with his, their heartbeat still synce through the bond. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she folded her arms over her chest, the cold seeping into her bones.
Yet there was no pain where she expected it to be. She pulled her arm out, and where there should be a cut, there was nothing, not even a scar.
“Did you…heal me?”
Felix whipped his head toward her, his brows knitting as he looked. Taking a step toward her, he grabbed her arm and then looked up at her, a rare look of surprise flickering over his face. “Shifters cannot heal others, witch.”
Understanding settled over her, tingling her skin. “Holy fuck, I have magic.”