Page 69 of Fate Unchained

“You’re getting soft old wolf. You would have beaten me down for that a few weeks ago.” He looked at the door into the suite again. “Or maybe there are other reasons you’re tame tonight.”

Kyril swore at him, and Finn laughed, then bounded over the wall.

Protect Lilah out here or … go inside?

He stepped inside.

The room lay in shadow, only one lamp guttering on the table near the window. Lilah’s buttercup scent filled the suite, and he inhaled deeply. His shoulders relaxed. Even when he returned to his den after a long time away, he never felt this sense of … home. And he didn’t like this hotel.

With silent steps, he walked into the bedroom. Just to check on her.

Her upper body propped against the headboard, Lilah lay with a pillow in her lap as she read a book. A lamp blazed next to her, casting the room in a warm haze and highlighting her golden hair as it lay unbound, fanning over her shoulders. Her arms were bare, but otherwise, it looked like she’d put on a loose, white dress. He scanned the room. Parcels lay on a small loveseat near the window, half-open to reveal the fabric inside. Good. She’d bought clothes for herself.

She looked up, smiled, and his heart tripped.

“I thought I heard the door.”

“What are you still doing awake?”

She closed her book but put her finger between the pages, holding her place. “I worked on the grimoire for a while and tried to go to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I found a book in the suite, and I hoped it might help. Did you discover anything?”

He shook his head and went to the empty side of the bed. Instead of lying properly, he flopped across the bed, placing his head in her lap. “Zann and Finn are searching, so I’m back for a bit.”

She quirked a brow at him. “I thought you weren’t joining me in my room. I should kick you out of here.”

He growled. “I changed my mind. Read to me.” It popped out, but after he said it, he liked the idea. He’d get to lie here with nothing to do but watch her.

“Well, I can’t say no to that, I suppose.”

“You are a librarian, so you have an obligation to show me how to love books like you do. What are you reading?”

“It’s considered a silly tale.”

“Why?”

She stared down at the cover. “Oh, you know. It focuses on regular people put in extraordinary situations, and all this drama happens. It’s not a very serious book.”

His leg hung off the bed, and he lazily swung it back and forth. “So? My pack brother is a bard, and he tells all kinds of stories. Some are for fun. I like the long ballads about fighting for honor or winning a lady, best.”

She opened the book back up. “Well, you might like this after all. Do you remember his stories? Could you tell them to me? We can trade.”

“Yes.” He reached up and tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear. “I remember them.”

Lilah started to read. Her voice was soft, and she liked to stroke her thumb across the page with each line. Maybe it was to help her keep her place, or maybe it was a habit, but he didn’t think she knew she was doing it. Her lips rounded and opened with the words, and he couldn’t look away.

He had no idea how long he lay on the bed, listening to her, but after she yawned a few times in a row, he sat up and took the book from her. When he folded down the corner of the page to keep her place, she gasped. “Don’t do that!” She snatched it back and smoothed the fold away. “There’s a ribbon in the back to hold my place.” A thin purple piece of fabric was attached to the binding, and she placed it in the book, then laid it down on the side table next to the bed. With a few turns of the burner, she dimmed the lantern until it was only a tiny flicker, leaving the room in shadow. “I guess it’s bedtime now.”

He reached for her, unable to stop himself. It was a bad idea, he shouldn’t get used to her like this, but he had to touch her again.

This time he didn’t take her like he had on the library floor. He remained in his vulk form and mounted her from behind. If he faced her, he knew he’d feel what he felt in the library again—that somehow she’d become his entire world.

He couldn’t have that.

27

Several weeks later.

She and Kyril had pushed several of her library tables together, forming one larger one, and she sat at the head. The three vulk sitting alongside the table stared at her, their faces impassive. Hazel, the last member of the group, sat at the far end across from Lilah. They’d formed this emergency meeting because the full moons were only a couple days away. They were running out of time.

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