Page 5 of Shifting Desire
I think of my own father and how his death broke something unfixable in me.For years it was just the two of us and then he was gone in the blink of an eye.I miss him every single day and can’t fathom anyone feeling about their father the way Malichai just described.
“One day, little fae, I will tell you the whole story,” he says.“But rest assured, I mean every word.”
I roll my eyes so hard I almost see stars.“You’re exhausting,” I say.He always promises to tell me the whole story but never does.Ever the mystery.
“You’re glowing.”His words stop me dead in my tracks, instantly changing our topic of conversation.He’s good at doing that too.
The words hit me in the chest, sharp and sudden.I blink at him, and he just tilts his head again as he studies me, all dragon and arrogance.My skin heats under his gaze, and it takes everything I have not to touch my cheeks.
“You should leave.”
“Would you miss me if I did?”
I look him dead in the eyes as the lie slips from my lips.“Not even a little.”
I’m a dirty fucking liar.He knows it.I know it.Hell, even the damn bouncers—the minotaur twins Knox and Cruz—at the door probably know it.But I won’t give him an inch.I’ve worked too hard to survive in this world.To be seen as more than just a fucking half breed.I’m not going to fall for a dragon who looks at me like I’m gold he can hoard.
No matter how good he smells, or how his voice makes my knees weak, or how my dreams have started to fill with flames and clawed hands and a pair of dark eyes that burn right through me.
No matter that every night, I wake up needing someone I shouldn’t want.Especially not someone who looks at me like he already owns me.Because that would mean something I’m not ready to face.
And I’ve never been good at losing.
Chapter Two
Malichai
No One Burns Like Her
There’s something exquisitelycruel about wanting someone who looks at you like you’re the enemy.She hates me or she thinks she does.Actually, I am damn sure that she really wants to but can’t seem to make herself actual feel it.
It’s not real ...not her hate, not the distance she continually puts between us, not the disgust in her voice when she says my name.None of it is real.Not to me.And not to the mate bond pulsing beneath my skin, buried under layers of magic and my father’s rot.
I know what it should feel like.I am feeling it...But my mate is unaware.
I’ve seen mates.I’ve seen how the world shifts when they touch.When their eyes meet.When they know.That jolt of power, that tether, that fire that burns through them and cleanses them of any disillusion.
