Chapter 7 #2
“Little wolf.” I lifted my finger to capture them, but she turned her face from me and scrubbed them away with the heels of her hands.
And kept her eyes averted from me, as if she could not bear to look at me.
No.
Because she hated that she had let her emotions get the better of her.
I did not.
Wrench at me as the sight of those tears glistening in her eyes might, I cherished them nonetheless, for they revealed so much to me. Things I knew she would not admit, because she was not ready yet.
Neither of us were.
This thing between us, whatever it was, still felt too fragile and vulnerable to me. As if the slightest breeze or mistake could break it irreparably.
“I’m just tired. It was a long run… and I’m worried about my pack and my parents…
and everything just feels as if it’s piling up on top of me, and…
and I was worried about the Shadow Court too.
” She loosed a long sigh, her shoulders heaving with it.
“And maybe now I know the Shadow Court is fine, my emotions just… I don’t know. Welled up.”
“And maybe you were worried about a charming, rather handsome Shadow King?” I ventured, pulse quickening as I studied her, watching for even the slightest shift in her emotions that would reveal whether she really had been worried about me too.
“And now you know he is still as charming and handsome as ever, you are relieved.”
“You’re neither charming, nor handsome,” she muttered, gaze shifting to my chest.
It was a start.
“My mistake.” I grinned slowly. “I believe the words you used were ‘stupidly beautiful’, were they not?”
She rolled her eyes.
Then hesitated.
“Speak,” I commanded.
She arched an eyebrow. “You do remember you ripped up that contract, right? You don’t get to order me around anymore. You don’t own me now.”
“I never did own you,” I countered.
But she owned me.
Every inch of me.
“Speak.” I regally waved my hand, my look expectant.
Met with another eye roll.
One that did not conceal the sombreness slowly stealing through her.
She looked away from me, her features pinched, and then she tilted her head up and looked me in the eye.
“Do you have to go?” She shook her head the moment she voiced that question, waving a hand before her as if she could waft the words away before I heard them. “Forget I asked that. Of course you have to go. I’m being selfish again.”
Selfish.
She seemed to feel that way about anything she desired.
When she had admitted she was enjoying her time in my court, she had called herself selfish for doing so.
She had believed she was selfish for taking time for herself, to pursue the things that brought her joy, rather than fighting her way back to her pack.
A pack that had all but caged her.
Denying her the things she desired. Craved.
Even things as basic as adventure, as seeing more of this world, and learning to protect herself.
They had denied her the ability to discover who she truly was, caging her with duty, with the sense of loyalty they had drummed into her so fiercely that it had left a permanent mark on her.
“Do you wish for me to be here?” I canted my head, lowering it enough that I could see her face. “You only need to say the word, Saphira. Say it and I will find a way.”
Her lips flattened.
Holding back what I knew she wanted to say.
“It is not selfish to desire to be with someone you… like.” The other word that had risen to my tongue had felt too powerful—too dangerous—to voice.
Not yet. I sighed and claimed her shoulders, holding her gently, wanting her to look at me.
Wanting her to give me a sign that I was not alone in my feelings, even when I was so uncertain of them.
“It is not selfish to desire to have a strong, powerful warrior at your side either when you are potentially facing a battle.”
I made a big show of looking around the forest.
“It would appear I am the only qualified male here with you and I would be more than happy to assist you in carving the alpha wolf to pieces.”
She shot me a black look, but it was progress.
“The logistics of it might prove difficult, but… if you are amenable… I could travel with you. The time difference between our two worlds would allow it, I believe. When it is night here, and we have made camp, I will return to my court to oversee the battle for the Wastes. During the day, I will travel with you as your protector. Your knight in shining armour, as it were.”
“A black knight.” She pursed her lips, wriggled them, and then said, “Fine. But less of the sole protector, sole warrior, most powerful guy in the world talk. I don’t want you and Morden bickering all the time.
Imagine Riordan and Vyr. Turn them up a few notches.
That’s how annoying you and Morden would be. And one of you would get the boot.”
“The wolf, of course,” I put in.
She gave me a look that said it would be me.
“You would not.” I swept her into my arms, pulling a squeak from her as I lifted her boots from the ground, and grinned wickedly at her. “You enjoy my company far too much to dismiss me.”
“You’re incorrigible.” She tried to push out of my arms, but I tightened them around her, my gaze dropping to her lips, growing hooded as I thought about kissing her again.
Her struggles slowed and then ceased, her breaths coming faster and faster the longer I gazed at her mouth, and her fingertips dug into my shoulders as the scent of her desire perfumed the air around us. “Shut up and kiss me. That’s an order.”
“So bossy.”
I did as she commanded anyway, capturing her lips in another searing kiss that stamped her name on my soul and made it hard to release her even when I knew I needed to. My sister would be worried about me, and my court needed me.
“I. Will. Return. As. Quickly. As. Possible.” I peppered her lips with a kiss between each word, earning a chuckle from her, and then a shiver as I growled against her mouth, “Do not dare finish what you started without me.”
And with that I was gone, her startled gasp as her boots suddenly hit the dirt ringing around me in the swirling darkness of the teleport.
I had wanted to take her with me, if only to make the wolf fear he had lost her again, but my court was no place for her right now. As much as I hated it, she was safer with him. For now. I would make my court safe for her again.
I sensed the barrier around my court as I passed through it, felt the embrace of Lucia once more, and welcomed her in return.
Until I landed in my war room.
In the middle of pandemonium.