Chapter 11
“Iwant many things,” Valrek said, his voice low and hungry, and Ariella’s cheeks heated, her bioluminescent patches flickering with telltale color.
Lilani, oblivious, was busy arranging berries in a pattern on her corner of the blanket. “I’m making a flower!”
The afternoon drifted by in a haze of warmth and laughter.
Lilani told rambling stories about the sea creatures she’d seen, the games she played in the tide pools, and the imaginary kingdom she’d built in her head where she was a princess and the Star Lady was her best friend.
She listened, enchanted, while he watched them both with an expression she couldn’t quite read.
He kept finding excuses to touch her.
A brush of his fingers against her shoulder when he passed her the water skin. His knee pressing against hers as they sat side by side. His hand settling on the small of her back, warm and heavy, when she leaned forward to help Lilani with one of her berry arrangements.
And then, as the sun began its descent towards the horizon, he moved behind her, his massive body curving around hers like a shield. His nose dipped to the curve of her neck, inhaling deeply, and a low rumble vibrated through his chest.
“Papa’s sniffing you,” Lilani observed with a giggle. “Does that mean he’s going to hunt you?”
She laughed, but the sound came out breathless. His lips were brushing the sensitive skin beneath her ear, and every nerve in her body was lighting up like a signal flare.
“What does she smell like, Papa?”
His answer was a rumble against her neck. “Like the sea. Like honey. Like home.”
Home. She’d never had one—not really. All she’d ever had was a laboratory with Merrick’s looming shadow waiting to close around her.
But here, in this hidden meadow with this strange little family, she felt like she was home.
“Here.” She picked up one of the ripe purple berries, her fingers trembling slightly. “You should eat something.”
She held it up to him, and his eyes darkened. Instead of taking the berry politely, he leaned forward and caught it with his mouth—and her fingers along with it.
His tongue grazed her skin. Warm, wet, deliberately slow.
Her breath caught in her throat, and her skin blazed with light, purple swirling across her collarbones as her heart pounded in her ears. She felt the slight scrape of his teeth, the press of his lips, the rumbling purr that vibrated against her fingertips.
When he finally released her hand, his eyes were molten gold.
“Delicious,” he murmured, and she knew he wasn’t talking about the berry.
“Papa, you’re being weird again.”
“I’m being a Vultor male.”
“Same thing.”
She tried to laugh, tried to pretend her entire body wasn’t on fire, but he was already moving. His hands closed around her waist, lifting her like she weighed nothing, and then she was in his lap, her back pressed against his broad chest and his arms wrapped around her middle.
“Valrek—”
“Shh.” His palms spread warm and possessive over her hips. “Let me hold you. Just for a moment.”
“Lilani—”
“Won’t mind. She’s busy with her berries.” His lips brushed her ear again, his voice dropping to a register that made her shiver. “And I have been wanting to do this all day.”
She should protest. She should pull away, remember that she barely knew this man and that everything about this situation was complicated and dangerous and impossible.
Instead, she melted into him.
His chest was a wall of heat against her back, firm muscles shifting as he adjusted his hold on her.
She could feel the rapid thud of his heart, the restrained tension in his arms, the barely-leashed power in his massive body.
And beneath it all, a rumbling purr, vibrating through her body in waves that made her skin shimmer with light.
“You’re glowing,” he murmured against her neck. “What does that mean?”
“It means…” She swallowed hard. “It means you’re affecting me.”
“Good.”
His hands tightened on her hips, and his breath went ragged. The beast was close to the surface—she could sense it in the tension of his body, the way his claws kept extending and retracting against her skin, the low growls that rumbled through his chest like distant thunder.
“I’m struggling to keep control,” he admitted, the words rough and raw. “My beast wants—” He broke off, jaw clenching.
“What does it want?”
“Things I shouldn’t say. Shouldn’t even think.” His forehead dropped to rest against her shoulder, and she felt the hot puff of his breath through the thin fabric of her tunic. “You make me want things I thought I’d buried, Ariella. Things I told myself I didn’t deserve.”
“What if you do deserve them?”
He went very still.
“You don’t know what you’re offering.”
“Maybe not.” She turned in his arms, just enough to meet his eyes.
The gold was blazing now, barely contained fire, and she could see the effort it was costing him to hold back.
“But I know how you make me feel. I know that I’ve never felt wanted before.
Not like this. Not like I’m something worth keeping. ”
“You are.” The words came out like a vow. “You are worth everything.”
Lilani chose that moment to finish her berry arrangement and look up, demanding their attention. The spell broke—but not entirely. His arms stayed around her as they admired the child’s creation, his chin resting on her shoulder, his warmth surrounding her like a cocoon.
She thought of her father’s lab, sterile and cold, smelling of chemicals and disappointment.
She thought of Merrick Bane’s calculating eyes, the way he looked at her like property to be acquired.
She thought of Port Cantor, a glittering spaceport where wealthy men kept their exotic pets in gilded cages.
Then she looked at the simple meadow around her. The worn blanket. The remnants of their humble meal. The massive, scarred warrior who held her like she was precious, and the wild-haired child who had claimed her as family from the first moment they’d met.
I’d rather live in a cave with them than a palace in Port Cantor.
The thought settled into her bones like truth.
“We should head back soon,” he said reluctantly, his voice rumbling against her ear. “The light will fade, and the cliff path is treacherous in the dark.”
“Can the Star Lady stay for dinner, Papa?” Lilani asked eagerly. “Please, Papa? Please, please, please?”
His arms tightened around her. “That’s up to her.”
“Yes,” she said, before she could second-guess herself. “I’ll come.”
The smile that spread across Lilani’s face could have lit up the entire coastline. And when she glanced up at Valrek, she saw the same expression mirrored in his golden eyes—hope and hunger and a fierce, protective joy that made her heart ache.
This is where I belong, she thought as they packed up the blanket and began the walk back towards the cliffs. But can I stay?
Lilani fell asleep almost as soon as she finished eating, worn out by the day’s adventures.
“She’s out,” she whispered, turning to face him.
“I’m not surprised. She exhausted herself with the tracking games.”
“She did well.”
“She had a good teacher.”
He was watching her with that warm, hungry look again, but she managed to keep her voice calm. “You taught her. I just… helped.”
“You did more than help.” He moved closer to her, the heat from his big body washing over her. “You made her feel special. Not strange or broken, but special.”
“She’s not broken, Valrek. She’s wonderful.”
“I know,” he said roughly. “But the world hasn’t always agreed.”
She reached out and put her hand on his arm.
“Then the world is wrong. And more importantly, she’s happy, because you love her and because you know how special she is.”
Unlike my father.
Perhaps he saw the change in her expression because he rose to his feet and held out his hand.
“Come with me. There’s something I want to show you.”