Chapter 47
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
NELL
Rosalind Lobo's bedroom was not what I expected for such a fussy princess.
Bags — expensive, multiple, the kind that came from stores that didn't put prices on things — were stacked along one wall in various states of unpacking.
Which was to say, not unpacked. Tags still on.
Tissue paper undisturbed. The careful accumulation of a woman who had been given a great deal of beautiful things and didn't care about using them.
And then the desk. I would've expected fashion magazines.
Or at least bestsellers that readers purchased but never actually read.
The books were huge, like old research-sized books that would be found in the back room of a university library.
The Art of War. Thucydides. A thick volume on military psychology.
A more recent text on organizational behavior in hierarchical systems.
Something about Rosalind Lobo did not compute. But I couldn't spare the time to figure her out right now. Because Magnus was in the room.
He crossed it in two strides. His hands found my face. He kissed me with a full, unmanaged kind of intensity. I kissed him back with everything I had; my hands on his chest, his forehead coming down to rest against mine when we finally broke apart. We stood there, just breathing each other's air.
"I'm not marrying her," he said. Low and certain.
"I know," I agreed.
"I'll step down from Alpha. The pack can—"
"Magnus." I pulled back enough to look at him. "If that's what you want, I'm cool with it. But don't do it on my account. I'm sure as hell not giving up my career when we get married."
He looked at me. Opened his mouth. Closed it. In the end, he just pulled me closer. "What exactly happened out there?"
"I got you out of a marriage you didn't want. Now you can make a decision about what you actually want to do with your life."
"I decided what I wanted to do with my life the moment I picked you up and held you in my arms. That's what I want to do."
"Rescue me? I don't make a lot of mistakes to need rescuing."
In answer, he pulled me close, resting his nostrils against my forehead and inhaling deeply.
"The holding part? We can do that; we can do that a lot."
"You're mine."
"I'm yours," I agreed.
"You'll marry me."
"I will."
"You'll stand beside me as my alpha female."
"I need to see that job description in writing."
"You'll be amazing at it."
"No doubt. I still want to review the Standard Operating Procedures."
He chuckled. "Pups?"
"I'm still deciding," I said. "For the record.
I'm still figuring out what I want my life to look like.
I'm not sure what it looks like for a panther princess and a wolf Alpha to run parallel operations across two different pack structures without either of them losing their minds or their independence.
But we can tell everyone we're engaged. And then we can take our time and work it out for ourselves — what being together looks like, what our future looks like, how to do this without either of us becoming something we're not. "
Magnus looked at me for a long moment. Then he smiled.
A full one. A surprised, complete, unmanaged version that threatened my heart.
I was within his reach, but he prowled. The slow, deliberate approach of a wolf who had decided on a direction and was taking it.
"One question," he said.
"What," I said.
"What are we going to tell Rosalind?"
I looked at him. "About what?"
His eyes went to the bed behind me.
"About her sheets," he said.
And then he picked me up and tossed me onto them. But I wasn't about to be edged. I had decided that I wanted all of him.
I managed to twist in mid-air. Magnus landed on his front. He rose on his forearms, eyes wide, brows high, amber eyes flashing back, canines bared.
I was not intimidated. Something in me rose to the surface. The scene before me shifted. Everything appeared sharper. The light shifted, sharpened; the low lamp suddenly unnecessary because everything was clear in a way it hadn't been a second ago, every line and shadow resolved into sharp lines.
Magnus's eyes were no longer amber but a luminous yellow-gold, brighter than I'd ever seen. His tanned skin shifted to the same golden hue.
I blinked. My gaze fixed on his collar bone. His unmarked collar bone. My mouth watered, gums aching, mouth feeling too full of teeth. Instinct rose, urging me to put my claim there.
"Nell?" His voice was filled with wonder.
I pounced.