Bitten

23 #2

But who would he replace out of his pack?

And for me ? He won’t speak to me in classes.

He won’t be seen with me in public. Oh god.

I’d known… all this time, I realized that Sin couldn’t associate with me, but I hadn’t thought about what the consequences would mean for my future.

I—I hadn’t even thought about my future at all.

Where do I go after this? After I expose the murderer, the werewolves who ruined my life? If Sin doesn’t choose me, I’ll have… I’ll be… nothing. No— worse —I’ll be dead.

“Vanessa, please,” Oona murmurs. “You must focus. You must try.”

I glance at her, at the round Cupid’s bow of her lips. The freckles dusting her nose and cheeks and forehead. She’s the only piece of home I feel I have left.

“I wanted to be a marine biologist,” I admit softly, though the dream sounds ridiculous in this room.

In this castle. Shared as a secret between two werewolves while the snakes on the stained-glass window slither across a garden of roses and stars twinkle and dart across my mirror.

“I always liked science. Facts and figures can be challenged. Hypotheses can be questioned. But the truth will always out with them. It’s like math with more freedom, and the beach…

It was my home away from home. Celeste and I used to spend every summer on our backs in the sand.

” I swallow my tears, smothering my sadness with a cough. “I don’t want to be this.”

“You don’t have to be—that is what I’m telling you.

Your future can be whatever you make it once you’ve finished the Ascension Rite.

” She cups my chin with a delicate touch.

“So long as you serve the prince, you can waste your days away patrolling the beach or studying alchemy with Instructor Bhat. You can create potions or hypothesize about the disappearance of faeries or chart the stars. The world is yours , Vanessa. Even as a werewolf.”

“But my home, my dad —”

“Do you think he will not be welcomed to the castle if his daughter is the king’s third-or fourth-or fifth-in-command?”

My heart begins pounding again, but it’s different this time. It feels like a fluttering of wings. A candle blown out atop a mud pie.

“And Evie?”

“She will not ascend to the throne for years. You have time before her coronation. And if you become part of her pack, she will come to trust you. The point of forming packs this young in life is to establish those bonds and build your strength.”

Am I just supposed to pretend she didn’t murder my best friend? I want to ask. But I don’t. My future is tied to the very woman who ruined my past.

I gnaw on my lip until Oona flicks me on the nose.

“It… it just sounds too good to be true.”

She huffs. “It’s not. It’s merely the first you’ve been able to hope in weeks. The Ascension Rite will happen, regardless of your decisions. The most powerful pack in the world will be formed. You can make history or become history. It’s simple as that.”

It is, and it isn’t.

Every part of my brain doesn’t care about this court or werewolf laws. It only cares about my past and what I’ve lost. But… I don’t want to die. I can admit that much.

Oona slides away from the bed with a bow of her head. “I will give you the space and time to think.” She gestures to the journal on the ground. “In the meantime, collect your thoughts. Write what you need to remember. Erase what you don’t.”

“Thank you, Oona.” I move off the bed and pick up the notebook. On the cover, a VH is engraved in beautiful calligraphy, adorned with roses and vines. “For the gift, and for not chasing me out when I almost burned us to the ground.”

She pauses at the doorway, her gaze softening so much that she almost looks younger than me.

“I am a maid to many in this castle. None of them maintain the heart that you do. Don’t lose that, Vanessa, regardless of your choice.

” The scent of salty tears and cinnamon drifts from her person.

It smells like sadness. “You… you are a good friend.”

With that, she leaves, and I hide the journal under my mattress, trying desperately not to cry.

I still hate the color red.

Even as I step into the lush, cascading gown of scarlet and black silk, I can hardly stand to look at it.

But Oona was right. And after another night of tossing and turning, I realize I do have a choice here.

I can embed myself in this court enough that I can uncover the murderer and find closure.

I don’t need to die at the end of this story.

I just need Evie to be brought to justice.

Queen Sybil chased out her own sister in the name of the law—that’s what Calix implied. She would chase Evie out too, then.

I need to find proof and establish loyalty, and in order to do that, I need to become part of this court.

I need Sin to trust me. I need Calix to stop watching me.

And, more than anything, I need to become a force to be reckoned with.

So I pull up the new dress to my chest and hold it in place, waiting.

Oona left fifteen minutes ago after brushing through my thick waves. Breakfast started ten minutes ago. I suck in a breath and wait some more.

I know it makes me evil and wretched and reprehensible—but I also know he’ll come. I hope he’ll always come. I have two people in this court whom I can trust. Oona—and the boy knocking on my door.

Get it together. You can do this.

“C-come in,” I call, my voice far shriller than I’d like.

Not my best work.

Clearing my throat, I try to deepen it to a seductive lilt. “ Please. ”

“Sounds like a damsel needs saving,” Sin says, cracking open my door. He stills instantly at the sight of me. Slightly disheveled, the sultry, sheer gown sliding precariously low on my cleavage, with rumpled stockings visible through the high slit of the dress.

Unfortunately, he’s not alone.

Shit.

I did not account for his protector. Of course Calix would be suspicious of me after everything that happened. Of course he’d come with Sin to check on my tardiness. I should have planned for this, but I’ve been so anxious that my brain is really only running at half capacity.

Sin doesn’t stop staring, and it’s oddly Calix who pushes into the room first. “You’re late,” he declares with palpable apathy. I glare at him. My confidence falters even further. Thankfully, Sin follows and immediately comes to my aid.

“Bodice problems?” he asks, tone deep but steady.

I nod—try to nod, but it comes out jerky and awkward. “Queen Sybil has… chosen the most complicated dress in existence for me.”

Sin tugs on the first row of ribbon, so hard I lose whatever bit of my breath remains. “Let’s not discuss her when you look like this, Vanessa.”

Calix taps his foot impatiently on the floor.

Sin ignores it. His fingers tickle the bare of my back.

Heat pools low in my stomach from his touch, and I arch into it, surprised by my body’s immediate reaction to his nearness.

All the tension left unresolved from our time in his secret alcove has returned, tripled , and I can’t think with the sound of his heart beating against me.

His hands, rough with calluses and hard against my skin, drag down my spine.

I shiver from the sudden jolt of pleasure.

Though Calix ruins that too.

“You’re late,” he repeats.

Another tug from Sin, and it pulls me further into him. If I close my eyes, I can almost forget Calix is here. Can almost pretend Sin and I are back in that closet, with his lips nearly on mine. God, I want him. Such a foolish thing to admit, but I do. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone.

“Working as fast as I can,” Sin says darkly, his lips near my ear. His cool breath ruffles my hair, and I shiver again. Maybe I’m not so in control of this plan as I thought. “Lest you wish to step in and take over for me, Cousin, do feel free to shut the hell up.”

Calix rolls his eyes. “Wouldn’t dream of it.

” But that golden gaze finds mine and seems to harden as it runs down the length of me.

Slowly. Almost as slowly as Sin knots my bodice.

Minutes pass. Calix doesn’t look away. Sin doesn’t stop touching me.

He brushes my hair from my nape. A sinful brush that I feel in my toes.

“Almost there, darling,” Sin whispers, words even hotter than his hands. “If you want me to finish, that is.”

I don’t know whether to laugh, whimper, or moan. And it’s not lost on him. He chuckles softly, and the feel of it sweeps through me. No. I have no control left here. If he asked me to turn around, to kiss him or do anything right now, I think I would. I would, and I would be happy about it.

“That’s my good girl,” he murmurs. He knows. He knows. He knows.

Calix growls, and my gaze shoots back to his. My cheeks flush, redder by the second as he watches me. His arms remain crossed, his muscles tense and his spine stiff, as if he’s afraid to move. “At this rate, we’ll be here for a century. Your stockings aren’t even tied.”

“So tie them,” Sin says with an air of annoyance.

“I… no …” Calix scoffs, and it sounds… it sounds a lot like a laugh of disgust.

I hate him. Rage rises in the heat of my belly, and it takes everything in me to stifle it.

Why does he have to ruin everything ? Why can’t he just leave me alone?

I lick my lips, and—and he tracks the movement.

He stares. My stomach flips. I’ve forgotten about the one power I have here.

I’ve forgotten that Calix isn’t the only one who can ruin things.

Though it’s risky and potentially humiliating, I force myself to dangle my leg out of the slit, wagging my slippered foot in his direction. “Do you not want to tie it, Calix?”

Sin chuckles again, taking his sweet time with my corset.

Trailing his fingers up the bare expanse of my back.

This is it—all we might ever have—and if Calix wants to stand here, he can at least admit that he’s choosing to do so.

He could have left minutes ago, when he realized I wasn’t doing anything wrong.

Calix glares at me. His arms fall to his sides.

He won’t answer. He can’t. Because some part of him does want to fix my stockings to my garter, and I’ll know if he lies about it.

Maybe it’s so we can leave this room faster, or maybe he’s attracted to me.

And would that be such a bad thing to admit?

Calix is handsome. Gorgeous in a brutal sort of way.

I hate him and his rude, brash behavior, but even I can objectively say that he’s devastatingly handsome.

“Go on,” I tease, nervous and angry and… so much more. “I… I won’t bite.”

I almost don’t think he’ll do it. Seconds pass, and he stands as still as a statue.

But his resolve cracks like marble, and he moves toward me with lethal speed and drops to his knees.

Keeping his gaze on my face, he looks up at me through thick lashes, those golden eyes blazing.

It’s no expression I’ve ever seen from him before.

As if he’s unleashing the full force of his power—a deadly mixture of seduction and fury—and it’s directed solely at me.

This has become a challenge, and he’s determined to win.

I tremble as he gently takes my ankle in hand. I never thought Calix could be gentle, but his thumb traces my skin, his fingers tangling with the mess of my stocking and pulling it up slowly. So deliciously slowly that I’ve forgotten how to breathe. He exhales hotly and grins.

Oh god.

Calix’s smile is beyond anything I’ve seen before. Hands burning on my inner thigh, so close to the center of my desire, Calix ties the left stocking in place. Sinclair’s free hand curls around my waist. I fall back against him for support, and his hand moves over my belly, anchoring me.

Oh god oh god oh god.

I’m… I… This is not what I planned. This is nothing like what I’d planned. And I can’t… I shouldn’t… oh god .

Calix ties the right stocking, fingers lingering between my thighs, but I can’t meet his gaze anymore. It feels so good. They both feel so good.

“You like that?” Calix asks, though it doesn’t sound earnest or genuine. It sounds like victory.

“Don’t answer him,” Sin says. “Or I might become horribly jealous.”

Calix grunts. “Don’t worry. I don’t require an answer.” His hands fall from my skin, and an icy chill sweeps through me at his absence.

He stands with a smirk, and then he leans close, flicking a curl from my shoulder, his finger barely grazing my collarbone but still sending another rush of heady longing through me.

Or maybe that’s from Sin, his fingers pressing so deliciously into my skin.

I don’t know. I can’t tell anymore. I can hardly remember my own name.

Calix licks his lips, and I can almost imagine them against my own. Can almost taste them—sweet like oranges, salty like the sea. He exhales faintly. “I told you to leave us alone, Vanessa.” Pivoting on his heel, Calix marches from the room. “Don’t be late to breakfast again.”

I gape at his swift exit, the sound of my name on his tongue still ringing between my ears, nearly louder than the humiliation that follows. Stupid fucking Calix.

Sin trails a hand up my nape, and now I do whine.

An indelicate, embarrassing moan. Sin laughs.

“Darling, darling, Vanessa.” He spins me around quickly, and I stumble into his arms. “Next time, we’ll be alone .

” He drags my sleeves upward, the sensation too much against my sensitive skin, and then he kisses my cheek.

A soft kiss. Almost nonexistent. But my toes curl, and my breath hitches.

Sin.

I’m attracted to him too much for my own good. For our own good.

“Next time,” he promises, and he leads me from the room. The honesty buried within his words sinks into my bones.