Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
I rested my cheek against his chest, sighing heavily. “When we get off this island,” I said. “I think I’d like to go to a cabin somewhere, surrounded by mountains and forests, not another soul for miles.”
“That sounds divine,” he said. “Am I invited?”
I shifted my head to look up at him. “Do you want to be?”
He smoothed some of my hair back and nodded.
“I suppose we'll both have to survive this war first,” I said.
“I've survived many wars,” he responded. “I have no intention of dying in this one.”
“So, a cabin in the woods? It's a date?”
“It's a date,” he said, and then bent down to seal the promise with a kiss.
CHAPTER 13
Talon
My skin itched like a thousand ants were crawling over every inch of it.
My muscles clenched and unclenched in my panther form as I wandered through the estate while Cassandra took a much-needed bath. We were both going absolutely stir-crazy having been here well over a month. Under any other circumstances, the island that came alive at night might’ve been a welcomed retreat. I might’ve enjoyed shifting into various animalistic forms and exploring more of the lush vegetation that decorated the island, or hell, even taking nightly moonlit dips in the ocean with Cassandra.
But this wasn't some fantasy vacation I’d dreamed up while in stasis.
This was a mission.
A mission I was failing.
We'd gleaned some information, but not nearly enough, so of course I was pouncing on the opportunity to wander the estate while Cassandra indulged in some much-needed self-care. I’d encouraged it, and she'd finally relented, promising she would get into the oversized tub in her bedroom and not come out for at least an hour.
The female was like a shaken bottle of champagne, and I worried one more pulled trigger would make her pop.
The toxicity between her and her mother was clear, but her mother was oblivious to Cassandra’s true feelings. She seemed so used to treating her like shit and Cassandra taking it, that she thought nothing was amiss.
But I could see it in Cassandra’s eyes, in the weariness that resided there, in the way she would flinch sometimes when she didn't hear me approach. After everything she'd revealed to me about her upbringing, I knew exactly why those reactions happened. The female was traumatized, and I hated her entire family because of it.
I hated even more that I couldn't do anything about it.
And something equally terrifying was the fact that I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to eradicate the Zorins who’d harmed her for centuries, not because of the mission or the ongoing battle in which my king had been in before he'd even woken us up.
But because they hurt her.
Some deep, throbbing instinct inside me screamed to enact justice for the wrongs that she'd been delivered. I was tired of trying to define it. Tired of trying to analyze it.
From the beginning, I thought it was nothing more than me being physically attracted to the gorgeous female who offered me blood and sex. But now I knew it was more than that. I just didn't know how much more.
And she called me on it last night, especially after my conversation with Zachariah, which she’d easily ascertained. He'd warned me again after I’d defended her character over the phone.
Warned me not to trust her. Told me to be careful with that heart of mine. The one I'd never given away before.
And I’d felt split down the middle. I knew he wasn't wrong for advising me to be careful, but the idea of her betraying me just didn't make sense anymore.
But who was I to really know?
We hadn't known each other that long, and she was a brilliant, cunning vampire. Her reaction to my lack of trust yesterday put something in perspective though. Shifted something in me. She’d been so desperate for somebody, anybody, to trust her, that she’d asked if she needed to have the king rifle through her mind, if she needed to open herself up to him completely, to give him access to every horrible memory she’d shared with me in confidence in order to earn my trust.
It was a sad statement, a terrible offer that she should never have had to make.
And I hated myself for not being able to open myself up that last bit with her.
Especially when she'd been so understanding after I explained why I had trust issues, not just from a life of living with aristocratic families like her origins, but because of Samuel.
Because of what Samuel continued to do and how if any one of us would’ve taken a better look at him, if we hadn't trusted him so blindly, we could’ve saved thousands of innocent lives.
“Yes of course that's a C”, Cassandra’s mother spoke harshly into her phone, the sound of her voice stopping me before I rounded a corner where she’d left the study door open.