Chapter 37
Kaden
The small room barely holds the two cots and a cold fireplace. There’s nothing beyond a pitcher and bowl for a bath.
What I wouldn’t kill for hot water in a tub back in my private baths. I long for my home and to be done with this mission.
I hear my sister and brother bid the shifter goodbye, and I wait until his steps grow silent before moving from the door. The cabin smells like fresh cedar and something musky that reminds me of wet dog.
It smells like Wulf.
The beast growls, pulling at my control, as I strip from my tunic, and strike a match. It takes only a moment for the fire to light and to bathe the room in warmth.
Max walks up beside me, arms crossed, glaring at the fire.
She’s never had to say it, but fire scares her. I smell it on her, have seen her apprehension at the palace. She traces her scar and I know, whatever happened to earn that scar, stems from this fear.
Shuddering, she rubs her arms and I sigh. “Come here.” I pull her closer to the fire and she stiffens, frozen in my arms.
“Relax, Max. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
At my words, her shoulders ease, body melting against me. I rub my calloused hands over her back, spreading warmth along her flesh. This close I can smell her spicy violet perfume, something that clings to her even after days in the forest.
“He knows what I am.” She presses her face into my chest and I exhale, hearing the vulnerability in her voice.
She trusts me enough to show it. And I plan on tricking her.
“I think he knows you’re not entirely Human,” I answer truthfully. “And because of that, it makes him interested in you.”
“Which is dangerous.” She sighs. “If he tries to figure out what I am, he either wants to use me or he’ll tell the Humans and then I run the risk of them knowing.” Soulful eyes, so wide and brimming with emotions, stare up at me. “Men do not take well to women with uncontrollable power.”
“Weak men,” I remind her, “do not. Don’t group all males together.”
She smiles softly at me and it’s the first time I’ve seen such a beautiful picture.
It lights up her face, flushing her pale cheeks. Her oceanic eyes glow from within, the happiness sparking throughout her body like a jolt.
I’m transfixed, unable to look away, chest tight.
“You’re not a fan of him,” she comments, digging closer to my chest. The fire has turned the cool cabin into an inferno, but I refuse to move away. “Reid said you’re trade partners.”
She feels right under my hands. Like another half and I gather her close.
“We are,” I growl, hands fisting at the nape of her neck. “I know Wulf. He’s only interested in things that will give him more power. Similar to my father.”
I don’t know why I brought him up. Maybe because I need to talk to someone, not my siblings, and Max sees something in me others don’t. She’s the first to do so and amazingly, I trust her.
I trust her not to hurt me. I trust her to choose me.
Nodding, her hands grip my belt, and I have to bite back a curse. With her so close, my body is reacting violently.
My cock strains against my leathers, remembering the last time I was this close to her. How badly I wanted her, how I would have prayed to whatever God for her.
“Your father sounds like a real piece of work.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Something like that.”
Her body shakes, skin still chilled in the suffocating heat.
Licking my lips, I rub her arms. “You’re cold.”
“I’m always cold.” She shrugs.
Half of me is excited, the other side terrified as I suggest, “You should strip and use a blanket to sit by the fire. That way you can warm up.”
Soft eyes look to the thing she fears most, then to me, as if pleading for me. “Will you sit with me?”
Fuck me.
The air rushes from my lips. I need to keep my head. My entire goal was to charm her and bring her back to my father but when she looks at me like that? She rips my soul in two.
I can’t give her to him.
It feels wrong in my heart.
My mouth dries as she strips, first her boots, then her leather pants. Red twin puncture wounds on her thigh catch my attention and my cock jerks in response.
My marks. Did I bite her there? I was lost to passion, to desire that I don’t remember. But fuck, they look good on her.
Her cloak and vest drop to the floor, and she gestures to the fur blanket behind me. “Can you…?”
Jerkily, I grab it, wrapping it around her. Keeping it on her shoulders, she slips the tunic down her arms, puddling at the floor.
On Azure’s might, if this is a dream, please don’t let me wake.
“What about you?”
My body stills and breath lodges in my throat. She knows what she’s doing. She knows the pull she has over me—she has to.
I’ve had Fae, Humans, Witches in my bed. I had peasants and royalty. Never before has anyone struck me mute until this woman, standing in her bindings and panties, a gift from the Gods above.
I shuck off my leathers, completely naked, as she holds open the blanket for me to wrap around us both.
My cock juts out, uncaring of the precarious position.
From the weeks spent trying to get under her skin, inside her heart, I’ve learned that Max is a difficult person to gain access to.
She’s been hurt one too many ways from those she cares about, and with Taylay’s dismissal, her heart is shrouded behind a hard wall.
What she’s doing now, is offering me a small spot behind that wall, pass her defenses.
This is what I needed to win her over.
How could I be such a bastard to use this against her?
Tucking a strand behind her ear, I marvel at the rounded end, feeling her heart pounding into my chest.
I can’t. Because I need her. She is the air in my lungs, and has been since I laid eyes on her in Griffin’s throne room when my entire world shifted.
I step closer, engulfing her body with mine, the blanket barely covering us.
Her eyes stare at my lips and it breaks all resolve.
“Do you trust me, Max?” Because I trust her and I need her to trust me. I need her.
Timidly, she nods. “Yes. I think I have since the cliffs.”
“When I almost killed you?” I smirk, but it’s fleeting.
She smiles that gorgeous grin and I’m lost. “I knew you wouldn’t hurt me. Even as your beast tried to get me, you still had some kind of control. You didn’t want to hurt me.”
“And I don’t want to now.”
“I know.”
Her blind trust sears my gut, warming my dark heart until all I can feel is this desperate need to never hurt her. No matter the consequences.
I want her, this incredibly powerful woman, broken, jagged pieces and all. I want to wrap her into my soul and never let her ever feel alone again.
I want to claim her.
Fuck.
“Sit down, kitten. Let me see how truly wicked that inner darkness is.”