Chapter 4 #2
“It’s funny, you know,” Morgan sighs as she gets up. She steps toward me, but then slips forward.
A growl rips from my throat as I lunge, catching her before she hits the checkered floors. She still manages to knock her knee against it.
“Ow,” she yelps.
I flinch as something sharp bites into my knee. I hold her tight and put her back on her feet, not releasing her. She struggles against me, but I refuse to let her go.
“Why are you clumsy?” I growl. “What did you even slip on?”
Her cheeks burn red, the blush creeping down to her collarbone. Her silk shirt dips low, and at this angle, at my height—I can see the valley between her breasts. Freckles sprinkle her skin, a trail going down.
Morgan shoves me as hard as she can. I release her, putting three feet of space between us. It’s not enough. But at this point, there isn’t a place that will be far enough from her. Raspberry and sugar-dipped violets permeates everything around me, sinking so deep that she’s in my pores.
“Sometimes I’m clumsy. Okay? Deal with it.”
I scowl. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” She runs her hands over her hips. Fuck, her hips. And fuck, her breasts. They’re perfect and full. Does she not realize I can see everything? Is she doing this on purpose to taunt me? She doesn’t even know me, and yet she was walking around barely clothed. She might as well be naked.
My wolf hums in agreement. She should be naked.
I pack all those thoughts away. This is just the full moon talking, not me. Certainly not me.
She focuses on the calendar, flipping the pages until she comes to the date in red. “Anyway. I was saying. It’s funny because that’s the day of the Wolf Moon.”
I don’t care about the calendar. All I can think about is how she just nearly wiped out in the kitchen. There’s no water on the floor. What the fuck did she slip on? I can guard her from anyone who might want to harm her, yes. But how the fuck am I supposed to guard her from herself?
She makes me uneasy.
“It’s the first full moon of the year,” she continues.
It's the strongest moon of the year too.
Morgan shrugs her shoulders. “It feels like Maeve planned this. I just don’t know why.”
While I’ve been prone to disagree with her, I can’t now. This is either a coincidence that should be studied by the goddess herself, or Maeve timed her death and this contract and . . .
“The why is your curse,” I say. “And the fact that she thinks you’ll be in danger. And maybe you are, considering you nearly just died.”
“You mean thought. She’s dead. She can’t think anymore. And don’t be so dramatic, I didn’t almost just die. I just slipped.”
“Slipped on what, exactly? Air? Your sassy attitude?”
“Fuck you, Sylvan.”
I like hearing my name after a curse on her tongue a little too much. “How have you made any friends with that cheery attitude, Morgan?”
“I haven’t. What about you? I’m sure you have so many.”
Her sarcasm pleases me. “None.”
“Wonderful. That’ll make this easy, then.”
Nothing about any of this will be easy.
I face her, but I’m all too aware of how close she stands to me. How easy it would be to press my nose against the curve of her neck and inhale her like oxygen. To lick that curve all the way down to her breasts, then down her soft stomach to the honey between her thighs.
Sometimes I really hate how horny the full moon makes me.
“If you don’t tell me when you plan to leave the house so that I can go with you, I will mark you and track you,” I say.
Her brows knit together. “You’ll do no such thing.”
“I will.”
“I’ll never let you mark me. Never.”
It’s an empty threat. I can never mark her, but I don’t tell her that. The more she doesn’t know about me, the better.
“Okay, well, I’m being paid a ridiculous amount of money to keep you safe, and even if you think it is too much, I will do my job. I’m your bodyguard, Morgan. Let me guard you.”
She rolls her eyes. “I don’t know you. I don’t know anything about you. Like first of all, where is your pack? Why are you not leading—”
“You don’t need to know anything about me other than I’m here to keep you safe. That’s it.”
Morgan smirks. She knows she just poked my wound.
She smells blood in the water, like a little blue-haired shark.
Goddess, the witch was sent to punish me.
“So, a packless alpha. That doesn’t happen very often, does it?
Byrne seemed to think you don’t like the Council.
Does that mean there’s something wrong? Should I be worried?
Did you murder someone? Did you kill your beta?
Oh my god, did you sleep with someone’s fated mate—”
My voice drops down into a snarl. “Stop. There’s nothing wrong. I’d never do such a dishonorable thing.”
“I don’t know. If you’re packless—”
“I can choose to be packless.”
“No wolf chooses that. So where are they? What happened—”
“They’re dead. All of them were killed.” She pales as I keep going.
“Every single member of my pack was slaughtered and the only reason I’m alive is because my mother hid me.
I will never take a pack. I will never subject myself to that sort of loss again.
Hence why I’m here, now bound to the most useless witch in our entire world.
Does that satisfy your curiosity, witch? ”
“Sylvan—”
“Leave it.” I stalk away from her, needing to put distance between us. I pause in the doorway, gripping the wooden frame hard enough, it splinters. I wince, pulling my hand away. “Sorry, house,” I whisper.
It’s already patching itself back up.
With a grunt, I glance back over my shoulder at her. Fuck me.
Morgan is standing in a patch of sunlight. Rays drifting in through the windows create a halo around her. It’s magical, really, how the sunlight touches her. For a moment, I wonder if Morgan is causing this. It’s like it’s responding to her, gleaming around her in a way that’s unnatural.
Maybe Morgan has more magic than she believes.
The sunlight turns her clothing sheer and I can see almost every inch of her.
My cock hardens, my knot swelling to a painful degree. Blood roars in my ears as I growl at her. “If you leave the house without me, there will be hell to pay. Do you understand me, witch?”
“Fuck you.”
“You wish.”
Her scoff follows me as I stomp away from the kitchen. I need to get as far away from her as possible.
It’s not enough. The distance won’t be enough.
Tonight, I’ll chain myself during my rut.
Otherwise, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stay away from the wicked witch.