Page 53 of The Wolf's Bullied Pregnant Mate
Adalyn hesitated. “No, Zephyr, I—”
She trailed off.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she finished.
“Pretend we’re still enemies,” I purred.
But then I hesitated. Were we still enemies? Is that how she still saw me?
I shook off the doubts and continued. “Either way, I want you to do it when I’m in this form, as I am, and then, with your permission, I want to shift in front of you and have you practice aiming when I’m moving with a bigger body. The demons will be fast and smart, able to move between portals, as you know. You need to be twice as fast and three times as ready.”
She braced herself in the middle of the room. I didn’t exactly have portals, but once she got the hang of speed and perception then, I knew another cavern I would lead her to that had a few archways connecting to one another, all returning to the same, open cave. I would imitate the demons disappearing and reappearing in the portals.
But for now, I wanted her to work on protecting herself.
Can you bear the thought of not being at her side when she does this? I asked myself.Can you bear the thought of her being alone? What will happen when you don’t have a permanent place in Azure Cove, but she does?
I shoved those thoughts away.
“Okay, you see those marks lines on the walls? The circles? That’s where I want you to aim at first. Then I’ll come after that.”
“Okay,” she answered, nodding.
“I saw those blasts of power you exhibited at the party,” I said. “Think of that. Channel that but in a thinner blast with more focus and less chaos around you.”
She closed her eyes, and I stood behind her. I couldn’t not hold her hips.
It’s to keep her steady, that’s all.
“Zephyr?”
“Hmm?”
“I can’t concentrate when you’re this close to me.”
“Try,” I murmured, pressing my mouth to the back of her neck. “There’ll be distractions out there during a fight. Ones that don’t feel good like I do.” I smothered a smile against her skin.
That was all I kept convincing myself.It’s to steady her; it’s to test her ability to not give in to distractions. But I knew it wasn’t only that as I ached to let my hands wander over her body. Once, I had told her never to touch me, to keep her witch powers out of my sight.
But now, as Adalyn took deep breaths, closed her eyes, and found that place where she could conjure up blasts of magic, I found myself aroused by her ability.
Focus, I chided myself.Goddamn it.
Sharp blasts of wind hit my face as Adalyn focused her magic. One by one, she aimed at the targets. Six out of ten landed, but the other four were wildly off. Scuffs of white were left behind by her blasts.
“Good,” I praised. “Good first go.”
“Is it your turn now?” she asked sweetly.
“What happened to not wanting to hurt me?”
She grinned. “I changed my mind.”
I laughed. “Uh, no. You’re not practicing on me,justyet until you get at least eight out of ten targets.”
Adalyn’s eyes narrowed as she braced herself again. The magic came from an aura surrounding her hands in a glow of violet. Her body twisted and pivoted as she aimed, her facescrunched in concentration. Her dark hair billowed around her shoulders as pants and little noises of effort escaped her.
My hand glided along the exposed skin of her lower back, where she wore joggers and a cropped t-shirt.
