Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
“Because it was Bane. Seth was losing control because he didn’t know how to handle his anger.” I don’t tell Aurelia that his fierce need to protect her was the only reason Seth was able to overcome those emotions and keep Bane at bay. I don’t want to risk giving Aurelia a false sense of security when it comes to Bane. Keeping him from manifesting is like stopping a runaway train. It can only end with derailing.
“What are you trying to say, Thorin?”
“It was Zeke who found you in our cabin. It was Zeke who saw you first. He could have woken either alter if he thought you were a real threat, but he chose Seth. Why?”
“I thought Zeke had to be in mortal danger for Bane to wake up?”
I shake my head. “That’s how he loses control of Bane, but he can wake him up at any moment, songbird.”
“Oh.” She seems to pale a little. “Well, then I don’t know why he didn’t,” she admits in a small voice.
“Yes, you do.”
She huffs in frustration. “You’re saying Zeke somehow fell in love with me with one look but couldn’t handle it, so he used Seth to let himself feel everything he was too afraid to feel?”
“It’s possible.”
“No offense, Thorin, but that sounds like a load of baloney.”
I let out a low laugh. “Just wait. You’ll see.” I toss the bloodied gauze in a Ziploc bag, clean my hands, and pack up my first aid kit before standing.
“And in the meantime?” She speaks so quietly that I almost don’t hear the question. Aurelia’s gaze is on her lap and I lift her chin so her expressive, brown eyes are on mine. Right now, they’re full of longing, worry, and confusion. And hope. Hope that I’m right.
“In the meantime, you keep giving him hell, wolf.” I take her hand and help her stand. “Zeke already can’t take his eyes off you. Be yourself and you can be sure he won’t be able to take his mind off you either.”
“I never pegged you for a matchmaker, Thorin Thayer.”
I let my lips brush her temple. “I promised I’d take care of you.”
“I don’t want to confuse him into being with me, Thorin. Just because Seth likes me doesn’t mean Zeke has to.”
“I know that. And you won’t have to. Zeke will come running all on his own, pretty girl.”
“You promise?”
“Damn straight.” I kiss her forehead and then tip my head back to glare up at the tree she climbed. “Now tell me how you got up that tree. I didn’t teach you that.”
“No, this lovely thing called a childhood did.”
I grunt. “Smart-ass.”
“My parents actually had a tree like this one in our front yard. It was taller than our house and had branches big enough to fit a treehouse. My father started building me one before he died but never finished. He’d been working on that thing for over four years, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was too old for a treehouse by the time he was almost done.”
“Are you rambling, Aurelia?”
She makes a choking sound at being caught. “Yes.”
“What’s on your mind? Tell me.”
“You.”
Grinning, I dip my head to run my nose along her neck. Fuck, she smells good. “Me?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What are you thinking about?” I purr as she runs her hands across my stomach.
“That you look nice today.”
“Only nice?”
“Handsome,” she amends.
My hands encircle her waist while my thumbs sweep her lower belly. “How handsome?”
“Hot handsome.”
“Stop,” I plead playfully. “I’ll blush.”
“You don’t blush,” she accuses with a grumble.
“I’ll blush for you, songbird.”
“Why for me?”
“Because you are the best and most terrifying thing that’s ever happened to us.”
Aurelia grins and winks. “Back at you, Thorny baby.”
“No.”
Her brown eyes light up with delight at my horrified shudder. “Yes,” she insists sadistically.
“You are not calling me Thorny.”
She snorts. “He says thornily.”
“Wolf,” I growl in warning.
“Let’s make a deal,” she returns unperturbed. “Take me home right now so you can come for me, and I won’t call you Thorny.”
A twig snaps and my head rises. I search the direction the sound comes from for Zeke. I taught him better than that so if I’m hearing him, it’s because he wants me to. He appears in my line of sight a few seconds later, and I use the thirty feet or so that I have to kiss my girl.
Aurelia gets a little carried away though and tries to whip my damn dick out. Zeke walks up on us while Aurelia is wrist deep in my jeans and I’m half-heartedly fighting her off.
“I’m going to have to take a rain check, baby. We have company.”
“So what?” Aurelia returns as she kisses a hot trail up my neck. “He’s watched us before.”
What the fuck? My eyes travel to Zeke’s, silently asking when, but he doesn’t answer and ignores us, heading back to the riverbank to retrieve our things.