Page 88 of Elven Throne

Then everything stopped. The heat, the yearning, everything Maxwell felt for her stoking everything she felt for him, all of it feeding on itself.

Like a door of finality had been slammed shut between them, cutting them off.

It all stopped.

Maxwell still hovered over her on the bed, muscles taut and tensed but in a way that was the exact opposite of everything they’d just been.

Then he pulled slightly away from her and snarled, his eyes flashing in warning as they stared blankly at something on the mattress just beside her head.

With her chest heaving as she lay there beneath him, their bodies painfully separated again, Rebecca studied him in alarm and could hardly find her ability to speak. “What’s wrong?”

His growl vibrated through her chest despite the fact that his flesh no longer seared against hers. “I smell a rat.”

“What?”

His gaze flickered violently toward her, every bit of him seething with a territorial rage that made no fucking sense.

“A reallybigrat,” he growled.

What the fuck?

All the heat rushed out of her, and her blood ran cold as they stared at each other.

Those had been her words, once.“A really big rat.”

Was this abouther? Had he felt something through their connection that shattered everything between them, just like that?

Nothing came to mind. She’d already told him everything she’d held back for so long. Everything he needed to know.

What in the Blue Hells had shedone?

He cocked his head and snarled again before springing off the bed and whirling away from her.

The suddenness of it left her reeling and breathless. The pain hardly registered anymore because now she was just fucking pissed.

“Arat?” she snapped. “What the fuck isthatsupposed to mean?”

Maxwell paced once across the room, then froze and sniffed at the air. When he whirled to face her again, her next thought was that this was the face of death staring her down, merciless and brutal and for no fucking reason.

His eyes flashed once more, his teeth glinting in the semi-darkness within a cruel snarl.

“Blackmoon.”

25

Blackmoon?Blackmoon?

Of all the shitty excuses ever given at all the worst times,thiswas what Maxwell chose now to ruin the perfection of what had been such a long time coming?

With a growl of her own, Rebecca pushed herself up to sit on the bed, her loose hair plastered to her face and neck, and hissed, “If you don’twantthis, Hannigan, all you have to do is—”

A harsh, deafening knock at the door made her freeze.

Maxwell whirled in that direction.

“Rebecca! Guess who? It’sme…”

Oh fucking hell.

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