Page 49 of Veil of Shadows

He didn’t hesitate.Understood, Alpha.

Good.

Then, I headed toward the bath house. I hadn’t seen Bexley all morning, which meant that Merida probably pulled her into the wooden lodge to get ready for today’s festivities.

I wanted to lay my eyes on the outfit I’d snatch off her body with my bare fucking teeth.

“Knock, knock,” I said as I eased the bath house door open. “Bexley? You in here?”

The sounds of giggling filtered through the crack in the door, and I had to step inside and close it behind me before the laughter ceased and the girls looked at me.

“Oh, God!” Bexley exclaimed before she clapped her hand over her mouth again.

“It’s Voss. Shit,” Merida snickered as she laughed so hard she wheezed.

My eyes volleyed between the two of them. “Someone’s having a little too much fun in here.”

Bexley’s face turned red with her laughter. “Oh God. My tummy. Stop. Merida, you can’t look at me like that.”

“It’s not my fault we were just?—”

“Sh!” Bexley hissed.

I furrowed my brow. “Anyway, Bexley. I was wondering if I could have a word.”

The girls stopped laughing and looked over at me before they spittled all over themselves busting out laughing again. I rolled my eyes as Bexley sat down in a chair in the corner, wiping away the sweat on her brow. Merida snorted with her laughter as she turned back to some kind of concoction she had going on at her science table set or whatever the fuck she used to create the potions she did.

“Merida,” I warned.

“I’m going, I’m going,” she said through her giggling as she wiped her hands off and turned to face me. “But, don’t be too long. I still have wine to finish.”

She took one last look at Bexley before the two of them roared with laughter.

“Gods,” I groaned as their cackling struck back up.

“I’ll just be outside,” Merida said through her laughter.

Bexley waved her hand in the air. “See you soon.”

And when Merida finally exited the bath house behind me, the smile Bexley graced me with stopped my heart in my chest. Her face was flushed with happiness. Her brown stare, sparkling like an amber twilight as sun poured through the windows of the bath house. Her lightly tanned skin became darker with each passing week beneath the sun with us, and the way Merida had her hair braided around a crown of wildflowers struck me with such beauty in my gut that my groin fucking hurt.

“Dog got your tongue?” Bexley asked.

Merida howled outside in laughter before I reached back and slammed my fist against the door, causing Merida to yelp and scurry off.

“Did you really have to do that?” Bexley asked before she curled her lips over her teeth.

I tilted my head to the side as I clasped my hands behind my back. “So. The two of you sounded like you were having a bit of fun.”

She smiled at me as she bit her tongue playfully between her teeth. I couldn’t wait to suck on that tongue after the celebration.

Then, she crossed her legs in the floral autumn dress they had her in and I swear to hell on high, it took every ounce of self-respect as an Alpha to not get down onto my knees and worship her like the dog I had become for her.

“Care to indulge an old man?” I asked.

She snickered and waved her hand in the air dismissively. “You’re hardly old, Voss.”

“The gray at my temples says otherwise.”