Page 110 of Sweetheart: Part One

That was… odd. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d purred on instinct.

I held her tight against me as I walked her back to her bedroom. There, I laid her down on her bed and tucked her in, watching as she dragged a pillow into her arms in my place. A pillow that smelled like blackcurrant wine.

A part of me didn’t want her alone.

I couldn’t worry about that. If she was to survive in this pack, she had to be able to do so without me.

But when I stepped away I heard a sound that drew me short.

I spun on my heels, eyes wide.

Only…

No.

Ithadto be my imagination, but for a moment, I swear a purr had risen in the air. Only, Vex was a beta; she couldn’t purr.

I stood, absolutely fixated on her for an age. She’d drawn the pillow with blackcurrant wine closer, as if it were a lifeline.

Silence.

I waited even longer with a furrowed brow, but the room remained quiet. Finally, I shook my head, stepping toward the door, believing I must have imagined it.

TWENTY-NINE

VEX

The sun beat down, warming my body as I reclined on the deck chair, earbuds in.

I was hungover as fuck, and I’d woken up without Drake.

Pathetic as it was, that hurt more than anything. Multiple orgasms beneath the summer sun would not make up for the absence of his blackcurrant wine in my room, and his purr at my back in the morning.

I discovered a text I’d drafted to him at one point in the night, telling him Love’s night was no longer happening, and he should come over. I hadn’t sent it. He’d said he couldn’t sleep in my room anymore, and I understood why—even drunk, it seemed.

So today I was saying fuck everything and trying to claim a little something back for myself—while also trying to forget the fact that Love Hightower had caught me drunk dancing in his living room last night. I don’t totally remember what we’d discussed, but it had probably made me look like a fucking idiot.

The rooftop might have astupidsecond pool that I refused to go near, but it was pretty up here. A proxy balcony overlooking an unnamed forest—that was the only thing I’d seen of nature or the sun over the last few months.

This was freedom.

A P!nk song came on, soothing my soul. It didn’t hurt either that I’d told Alastor I’d smash any phone he gave me that didn’t have at leastonemusic app with a subscription loaded on. Slim pickings when it came to rights, but hair preference, clothing, and ten bucks worth of a music app were the kinds of win I’d have to live with.

Fuck me.

Thoughts like that were prone to spiral. I opened my eyes, as if the blaring sun above might lend me distraction. I was met by the glint of light refracting from the pool’s surface. That, at least, was a good distraction.

Seriously.

Why the fuck did they have two pools?

No one needed two pools. No one neededoneto be honest—it was a fucking hazard.

Sunbathing, though, this was freeing and comfortable. I’d never lived in a place in my life where suntanning was an option, mostly small apartments in unwelcoming parts of town without balconies or accessible rooftops.

I was pale as shit, and I didn’t really feel the need to be tanned, but I did like the feeling of the sun heating my skin. It reminded me of vacations, even if the only vacations I’d ever been able to afford were in bug-eaten motels. Those usually still had pools and deckchairs that worked well enough, though.

I was singing along to the next P!nk song, when my skin cooled. My eyes snapped open to find a great shadow looming over me.

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