Chapter 35
After ten minutes of trying to relax, I give up on the bath and get out. There’s just too much nervous energy buzzing inside of me, thinking about what tonight will bring. I grab my phone to turn off the music and find a bunch of texts from Sienna that immediately help calm my spiral.
Sienna:
Okay, it’s official. I need voice memos from you every day so I can hear your voice!
Mamma mia! I have so many thoughts, so let’s start with the book, because I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of the Fated.
I mean, how incredible would it be to find someone who was made just for you?
Although, there’s also the other side of it, where you could live a life forever tortured by being Soul Bound.
I can’t even imagine how awful that would be. Two of the wolves in my original pack were Love Locked, and just being around them felt like being set alight by an all-consuming love. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.
Anywho, enough of my hopeless romantic nonsense.
Let’s talk about that little brown-noser, Sophia.
I knew I didn’t like her! — Okay, maybe I didn’t, but I do now.
And why the hell does it even matter if you took the book?
I mean, if it was one of those secret folders Alpha keeps, I could understand.
But a book on the Fated seems hardly problematic.
Now that I’m typing all this out, I probably should’ve just sent a voice memo, but I’m committed, so let’s skip to the part where you and Alpha went at it in the snow.
I know you probably don’t see it yet, but I think you’re good for him.
You challenge him in a way no one else can.
Also, I know him throwing Sophia against the wall had to be so hot. I wish I could’ve been there to see it!
I have a lot more to say, but I’ll wait until I see you this weekend!
First, Kole said I was good for Thane, and now Sienna? What is it that they’re seeing? All I seem to do is piss him off. Maybe it’s just because he can’t really hurt me anymore. If it weren’t for the restrictions of the bond, I’m sure they wouldn’t be thinking that.
Me:
So… I agreed to stay the night with Thane tonight. Say a prayer that I don’t wake up chained to his bed, and he doesn’t go all psycho wolf on me.
I finish getting dressed and run a brush through my hair, trying to stall for as long as possible.
Eventually, I decide there’s nothing left for me to do and head to Thane’s room, seeing that his doors have been replaced, leaving no sign of destruction from last time.
Just as I’m about to knock, the doors swing open, and Thane appears wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. My mouth instantly goes dry as I take in the sight of his messy, wet hair and broad chest before my gaze drifts to his perfectly sculpted V, sending a wave of sinful thoughts through my head.
“Are you going to come in?” Thane asks, snapping me out of my frozen stupor.
His scent wraps around me as I pass by him, and I stop dead in my tracks, whipping around like he’s a spider that just caught me in his web. It feels like my body isn’t my own as I struggle to move or tear my eyes away from his chiseled eight-pack.
What happened to just having a six-pack?
Thane closes the gap between us and lifts my chin. “Eyes up here, Grey.”
Heat flares to life in my cheeks, and I jerk my head away.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I scoff, forcing myself to walk away.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I slip underneath the navy sheets and prop myself up on my elbow while Thane makes his way to his dresser and pulls out a pair of black sweats. All of a sudden, his towel falls to the floor, leaving me staring at his perfectly toned ass.
“What the hell?” I shout, falling back and covering my eyes with my hands.
“You’re living with wolves now. Better get used to it.”
“Ooor… better yet, you could warn a girl.”
My hands are yanked away from my eyes, and I open them to see Thane standing over me with a cocky grin. “I’d rather make you blush.”
“I don’t blush!” I retort, pulling my hands back.
“Your face says otherwise,” he taunts, heading for the bathroom.
I mutter a curse and turn my back to look out at the moon. I knew this was a bad idea.
“There’s something I can’t figure out.” I glance over my shoulder to find Thane leaning back from the sink, looking at me. “How did you survive in the woods by yourself?”
I roll over and prop myself up again as my eyes shamelessly wander over his muscles.
“Well, I had spent some time living on the streets of Seattle, so that helped prepare me.” His fists clench at his side, making me pause.
After a long moment of standing like a statue, Thane turns to me and leans up against the bathroom doorframe with his arms crossed.
“Where did you live when you were in the woods?”
“Wherever I could find some sort of shelter,” I tell him, appreciating my room here even more.
“In the early days, I would climb up in the trees and strap myself in. After that, I’d build my own shelter or find small caves and other natural shelters I could work with.
During the winters, I would sometimes risk it and hole up in one of the abandoned homes, but I tried to avoid that if possible. ”
“Did you already know how to hunt?”
“No. I had to teach myself, but I found hunting gear and a booklet on setting traps that helped.”
Thane looks down at the floor, shaking his head.
“It still doesn’t make sense. You’re just a little human girl. You should’ve been easy prey.”
“If it makes you feel better, there were several occasions where I almost didn’t make it out alive.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.” His voice is solemn, and it takes me by surprise.
“I made a set of rules for myself that I followed. Never stay in one place too long. Only take what I need. Spray myself with vampire blood every three days.”
“What?” He pushes himself off the doorframe. “How’d you get vampire blood?”
“Um, I killed them?” Thane bolts over and lies propped up next to me. “What are you doing?”
He rolls his eyes. “Relax. I’ll go to my chair when we’re done talking.”
“Fine.” I roll over to face him, inching myself as close to the edge of the bed as I can get without falling off.
“So how’d you kill them?”
“Traps. Once they were caught, I’d shoot them in the heart with an arrow. If that didn’t kill them, I’d follow it up with my hunting knife.”
“Did you like it?”
I shoot up to a sitting position, waiting for Thane to say he’s joking, but he just looks at me with a blank expression.
“No, I didn’t like it! I fucking hated it!”
“But they would’ve killed you…”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better about taking a life?” The words spew out of me with intensity, and Thane sits up.
“Why on earth would you feel bad about killing someone who wouldn’t think twice about ripping your heart out of your chest?” There’s an evenness to his voice that makes me think he’s genuinely curious.
“It’s called humanity, Thane. Something you all clearly don’t understand.”
His lips peel back in a snarl. “Where was the humanity when they were experimenting on us? When they were injecting us with poisons and electrocuting us?”
“You mean like how you electrocuted me?” I spit, as the memory of the shock collar comes flooding back.
“Stop doing that!” Thane growls, darting up from the bed.
“Doing what?”
“Reminding me of how badly I hurt you!” He begins pacing across the room with long strides, his fists balled at his sides.
“You should be reminded!” I shift to sit on my knees, watching him try to rein in his temper. “If I don’t get to forget, then you don’t either! And the only reason you even feel bad about it now is because of the mark.”
He shakes his head as he continues to pace back and forth. “That’s not true.”
“You would’ve killed me that day in the woods, only you decided you wanted me to suffer a fate worse than death, so you took me as your prisoner instead!”
Thane shoots over to the bed, leaning forward on his palms so that his face is merely inches from mine.
“There was more to it than that,” he says, his voice slightly straining.
“Meaning?” I demand with my arms crossed.
His eyes fall to my lips before he backs away, turning toward the window with his hands clasped behind his back.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
I roll my eyes and lie down with my back to him. “Right. Because I’m just a na?ve human who could never understand the mind of a monster.”
Silence descends on us, neither of us interested in what the other has to say.
Eventually, I throw the covers over my head and try to push this fight from my mind.
After a few minutes, a chill sprints down my spine, and somehow, I know Thane has moved to the chair and has his glowing eyes locked on me.
I keep the covers pulled over my head and do the best I can to ignore his suffocating presence.
Eventually, my mind begins to drift, and sleep quietly beckons me.