Page 35 of Semi-Reckless

Her chin came up of its own volition. “What am I supposed to think? I’ve been correctly predicting events since I was three, and still everyone questions me. I ask for more responsibility; I never get it.”

“Your powers—and I’m not even talking about the new one—are unbelievable.” He tightened his grip on her shoulders. “Psychics, empaths, pyrokinetics, people like Seven who can move things with their minds…that’s all pretty common in our world. But the things you can do, the things you know? Not even the most open-minded people can understand it. They respect it, but they don’t get it. And not understanding it makes it hard for people to fully embrace it or trust it.” He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “It’s not that they don’t trust you. They’re just struggling to understand.”

She blinked up at him. “How do you know?” she asked quietly.

The smile he gave her was so warm it felt like the sun on her skin after a long, cold winter. “Because I’ve been struggling to understand it for quite some time. I’m getting there, though.”

“You trust me?”

“Implicitly,” he answered without hesitation.

She grabbed him, dragged him down to her level, and kissed the ever-loving crap out of him.

“What was that for?” he asked gruffly when she released him.

“Trying to calm my mind. I thought maybe if you take me home and just wear me out that it might satisfy my chaos monster.”

“Well, in that case…”

She squealed as he threw her over his shoulder, caveman style, and marched out of the training room.

Two hours and many, many orgasms later, her chaos monster was delightfully, blessedly silent.

CHAPTER 17

The next five days were the best—and worst—of Roan’s life.

Finally being with Haven the way he’d wanted to for so long, sharing her life, sharing her bed, made him feel…complete. He’d never felt the kind of acceptance and comfort and warmth that he felt in her arms.

Even doing mundane tasks with her—cooking, training, running errands, watching the stupid television shows she loved so much—was enjoyable. If he was bathed in her light, he was a happy man. That’s all it took.

But, as good as he was feeling, knowing there was a demon out there who wanted to drag her to another dimension for some reason, a demon that was, for all intents and purposes, indestructible, definitely cast a large shadow on his comfort. That was the problem with finally getting everything he’d ever wanted.

He had more to lose.

And if there was anything at all he could count on in this world, it was that things could always get worse.

Day six was when they officially got worse.

Roan watched Haven take the phone call. It started off innocently enough. She greeted her mother, her expression warm and open. Then, as her mother spoke, Haven’s smile dropped, and the color drained from her face.

When she disconnected the call, he braced himself and asked, “What is it?”

“It’s Levi. He found the demon. He’s in our infirmary.”

He frowned. “The demon, or Levi?”

“The demon got away. Levi wasn’t so lucky.”

As they made their way to the infirmary, Roan couldn’t hold back a snarky, “Sure would be nice if I could teleport us there.”

“Oh, shut up,” Haven muttered.

He smirked at that. She screwed up so rarely that he fully intended to lord this one mistake over her head for the rest of their lives.

Hopefully, he’d have a long, long time to do it, too. But given their current state of affairs, who the fuck knew?

Roan wasn’t sure what they’d see when they got to the infirmary. Somewhere in his mind, though, he figured it wouldn’t be that bad. Werewolves had healing abilities that were similar to a demon’s. So, even if the Kurgan had burned him, Levi’s lycanthropy could heal it.

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