Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 48827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
“No, I'm good, thank you,” I say unable to resist her bubbly and infectious attitude. She really is the perfect mate for Ajax, her playfulness matching his despite his terrifying giant demeanor.
“Have you visited the human donors, yet?” Lyric asks me.
“I haven't,” I say, taking a sip from my water. “Though I do appreciate the offer.”
“Do you enjoy the canned stuff?” Jocelyn asks me, her nose scrunching slightly to indicate her distaste of the blood.
I smile and shrug. “I don't think anyone actually enjoys that taste,” I say, thinking of the coppery, bland taste of the canned stuff. “But I'm used to it,” I continue. “My missions take me all over the world, and I don't always have time to locate acceptable and volunteering human donors.”
“So, you never stay in one place very long?” Annika asks.
“No,” I admit. “Especially when I'm on a hunt.”
Something pricks the center of my chest at the thought.
At the way I've stayed here longer than I have anywhere else in a century.
I try to chalk it up to the king ordering me to, and the fact that we haven't found Conrad or Samuel, and both of them seem to have a particular investment in Edgemont, but it also feels like something else.
“Tell me about Ajax from the early days,” Grace says, being the beautiful creature that she is to change the subject.
I lean back in my chair, the tension draining out of me at the question.
It's hard not to smile when thinking about Ajax all those years ago. “You wouldn't believe the stunts he would pull,” I say, shaking my head as memories bubble up to the surface. “I was intimidated enough by Zachariah’s hunter brothers—anyone would be. They’re a formidable unit. But Ajax? That brute would pause time in the middle of my family's grand balls, rearrange all my mother's flower into vulgar shapes. No one but us ever knew it was him, and oh, how my mother would be infuriated at the mystery.”
Grace's laughter fills the space, and we all join in. “That definitely sounds like him,” she says, her eyes filled with nothing but love for her mate.
I remember that look, that feeling.
“Of course, I would do my best to use my powers and set things right, but sometimes it truly was fun seeing the look on my mother's face. My parents were always so formal and always so focused on class manners, it was fun to shake things up. Sometimes Zachariah would get me to join in on the antics, encouraging me to tip a vase here or snuff out the lights there. Then we’d sneak off while the candles were being relit in the ballroom, and leave the finery behind us and spend the rest of the evening talking and walking along the beach that my family's estate rests on. Zachariah can certainly talk for hours, not that I ever minded. His voice just might be my favorite sound in the entire world—”
The meaning of the words catch up with me and I abruptly cut them off, my heart clenching in my chest as I come back to reality.
The mood shifts from whimsy to sadness, and I shake my head, unable to take back my slip of the tongue.
“Is it true that your mark faded?” Annika asks gently.
I shift up the fabric of the long sleeve cotton shirt I wear, exposing my bare wrist where my mating mark once set. “Centuries ago,” I say, doing my best to keep the pain of that reality out of my voice. I pull down my sleeve again. “I think it's because I'm no longer the female I once was. Maybe we just don't fit anymore.”
“I bet parts of him would fit,” Jocelyn says, nothing but mischief on her face.
A raw, unfiltered laugh rips from my lips, my head rocking back with the force of it. God, it feels good to laugh again, feels good to have friends again. It's been so long... too long.
“That, I wouldn't know,” I say once I reel in my laughter. I’m met with wide eyes and gasps from the girls.
“Wait, you're saying you had his mark and you both abstained?” Jocelyn asks, looking just as unbelieving as the rest of them.
“Things weren't as progressive back then as they are now,” I explain. “We were going to be married first. There was an almost ritualistic feel around completing the mating bond following the wedding. Especially for aristocratic families like mine.”
“Damn,” Jocelyn says, shaking her head.
“I'm sorry,” Lyric offers.
I swallow hard. “It's in the past,” I say, trying to convince myself.
It genuinely is in the past, but ever since I found him in that cave, alive and well, my past and my present have been clashing together in a storm I'm not sure I'll survive.
“If you want us to make him pay,” Jocelyn says, a smirk on her lips. “We can arrange that.”