Page 104 of The Puppeteer and the Poisoned Pawn

“Wow.” She shakes her head. “I always thought you were psychic. Well, I guess you kind of are.”

I chuckle.

“I’m sorry I was so angry with you when I found out who Aurick is.” She looks up at me, and I remember how much that information wounded her. I’ve never seen her that furious. Neither has Kane. “I can’t believe that was all my idea. To let Aurick think I was clueless, which I was. But it was by choice.”

“I struggled every day with that secret. I almost broke him in half at the ball. I even tried to cheat the system by giving you cryptic warnings about him.”

But Kane kept reminding me that this was Skylenna’s wish before she lost her memories. We had to respect that.

“I just thought you were kind of jealous.” She laughs.

“I was jealous he got to sleep under the same roof as you. I was territorial that he got to buy you nice things. I was angry as hell that he thought hehadyou.” My cock grows instantly. The need to claim her again is primal. To mark her. To fill her until she’s gasping for air.

Skylenna’s gaze falls to the tent in my pants, and her pupils dilate.

“I always wondered why I was so attracted to you. I never let my guard down around Aurick. But you…” She trails off, running a hand over my thigh. “I wanted you from day one, even though I knew how wrong it was. You were all I could think about.”

I am painfully hard now.

She leans down, running her bottom lip over the bulge. My chest rises and falls like a fucking animal.

“It was weird for me,” I say, snatching her chin in my hands. “I’ve always known you were important to Kane. You were his whole world, but seeing you for the first time as a grown woman…” I remember watching her take a seat in front of me while Suseas lurked like a creep. Her chest had filled out. She suddenly had these womanly curves, and those thighs no longer had a gap. She was tall and lean, and so fucking beautiful. “And on top of that, you weren’t afraid of me. I figured it had something to do with your body remembering ours. But still—you gravitated toward me, and it drove me mad.”

Her long fingers curl around my girth. She squeezes, making me writhe under her hold.

But Skylenna snaps her head up, looking out into the distance, and she releases me with a throaty gasp.

I lock my jaw and whip my head around at the distraction.

A black fluff trots into the meadow, locking eyes with my girl.

“Cockblock,” I grumble.

“DaiSzek!” Skylenna’s voice breaks, and she covers her mouth as tears spring to her eyes. She quickly throws on her clothes. My heart throbs at the sight of her running to him, falling to her knees as they embrace. DaiSzek uses his weight to topple them both to the ground as she cries, coos, and kisses him.

He stayed at my grave until I woke up. Maybe he caught the scent of my body healing, maybe it was our bond that told him to stay, either way, Warrose made sure he would so I would have a way out. But once my heart started beating, DaiSzek started digging until I could push open the casket lid. There’s a chance I would have died all over again if he didn’t wait for me. But that meant that he couldn’t be there for Skylenna while she experienced the most devastating days of her life.

I walk over to their heap of blonde hair and black fur on the ground, kneeling down to scratch DaiSzek’s belly.

And seeing her laugh through her tears, throw her head back in relief and happiness… I vow to give her this as much as I can and as long as I’m alive.

A family. A home.

32. His Wrathful Warrior

Skylenna

We eat together, reminiscing over memories of when we first met. DaiSzek sits next to us, chewing on a bone and enjoying our banter.

“What about when you poisoned the staff at the dining party?” I ask with a smirk.

“Easy. I didn’t have to open the champagne bottles at all. I just lined the bottom of each glass with the poison.”

“That doesn’t explain the photos of their families.” I make a cringing face. “How’d you really get them?”

Dessin gives DaiSzek another bone. “Exactly how you think. Before I admitted myself to the asylum, I wanted leverage. I watched them and their families, learning as much as I could.”

“Why?”

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