登入THEODOSA. Nala settled deeper into the armchair and a small cloud of dust lifted around her. She scrunched her nose at it, looked around at the murky interior of the cabin like she was taking stock of it, and then seemed to decide she had bigger problems. Her fingers found one of the tattoos on her upper arm and traced over it slowly, absentmindedly, while she let out a long breath. "Well." She paused for a moment. "Where do I begin?”I pulled my knees up and waited. I was good at waiting when I needed to be.She shrugged, shifting in the chair. "From what I know, when he got his gift, he used his shadows to barricade this whole territory from the rest of the northern realm." She looked at me. "That's how he protects his people. Against ferals."I held back a shiver at that.Ferals. Monstrous, humanless rabid things. Whatever had once made them wolves was long gone. They lived down in the Unders, in the toxic lower levels of the northern realm where nothing grew and no one with any
THEODOSA. Nala had been staring out the same window for ten minutes. I watched her from the armchair, picking at the edge of my thumbnail, tracking the way her eyes moved across whatever was outside without her expression giving anything away. The cabin was small and smelled like old wood and dust and nothing else. No one had been here in a while. I wasn't sure if that was comforting or not. "Are we safe here?" I asked. Nala didn't turn around. "We're not safe anywhere." I stopped picking at my nail. She turned then, and looked at me the way she sometimes did, like she was taking stock of something. Then she crossed the room, moved a pile of folded cloth off the worn armchair across from mine, and sat down. "What happened," she said, and it didn’t come out like a question. So I told her. From seeing the eye at the window. Climbing out into the dark. The wolf backing up when I told it to, like it understood me, and then dropping its whole head into my lap like that was ju
THEODOSA.The first thing I registered was that I couldn't breathe.My chest was compressed and there was heat everywhere, pressing me into the ground from above, and my lungs were working against it absentmindedly.My mouth was dry.The back of my neck was damp. And the smell hit me before anything else did… It was dark, earthy, warm and familiar in a way that made my heart rate pick up before I was even fully awake.I lay there in confusion for a moment, trying to place myself.There was grass under me, and the cold morning air on my legs.And then my heart slammed with one hard lurch, straight up my throat as I remembered last night.I blinked my eyes open fast.The black curls were the first thing I saw.A full, thick mop of them, right there, buried in the center of my chest. I stared down at them without moving. The weight compressing my ribcage resolved itself into a broad back, tattoos I recognized without wanting to, muscles I could count from here. Xahen’s arms were wrap
THEODOSA.My brain was still trying to catch up to what had just happened. It had understood me…It had actually understood me and proven it, and now it was sitting at my window looking at me like it was waiting to see what I did next.The question came out before I could stop it, as I shook my head in wonder, "How different are you from him?"The wolf snorted.I drew back from the glass in surprise. It had heard me. And from the sound it made, it had thoughts about what I'd asked.I stared at it.It stared right back.Slowly, I glanced over my shoulder at my bedroom door.Nala was right there. Twenty feet away. She would know what to do with this. She always knew what to do.A soft whine reached my ears and I snapped my head back to the window fast.The wolf had its paw on the glass. It wasn't pounding this time. It was just pressing there, slow and steady against the surface.It felt like it was reaching for me.I stood there and tried to think clearly about this.The last time I'd
THEODOSA.I was still working the towel through my wet hair when I stepped out of my bedroom.The shirt Nala had given me hit mid-thigh and my feet were bare and I was in the middle of trying to detangle a section of curls at the back of my neck when something settled on my chest like something had reached in and grabbed it.I went still.My blood was pulsing in a way that had nothing to do with my heartbeat, and my hackles rose before I'd fully registered what I was feeling. My eyes went straight to the door.Xahen was close.A sound at my window made me turn my head.The gasp came before I could stop it.A single golden eye blinked through the glass of my window. It blinked at me again, focusing on me more with every second that passed.My heart stopped completely.I stood there. That was Xahen's wolf outside my window. I couldn't work out what in the realm he was doing there and my hands were already shaking when the towel hit the floor.The wolf's face disappeared from the glass.
XAHEN.My sedatives rattled in their tin as I turned it over in my hands.Nala had dropped it off and left without a word, which was how she handled things when she didn't want a conversation. She came here now because she wasn't about to find me anywhere near her cabin.I ran my tongue over my teeth and told myself not to think about why.That lasted about as long as it always lasted.I hadn't stopped thinking about Theodosa since she'd grabbed my cock and made use of me like I was there for her convenience.I still couldn't fully work out what to do with that. Theodosa moved around me like she was scared of me half the time, and then she did what she did in that bedroom and I didn't know what to make of her anymore. A woman who was genuinely frightened of a man didn't close her eyes and take what she wanted from him without asking.I pressed a hand to my mouth.I was pacing my cabin again, thinking about that fucking bitch.Every day since she'd stood in my bathroom doorway. Every
XAHEN.The Eastern Realm smelled like someone had burned down a perfume factory and decided the ashes were an improvement.I stood in Arrett's distillery while he poured whiskey that cost more than most people's annual income into a glass that looked older than even me.Outside, something screamed
THEODOSA.The building was bigger than the others around it, with wide windows showing the packed crowd inside.Music poured out every time the door opened, bass-heavy and loud enough to feel in my chest.Nala led me straight to the entrance. The bouncer took one look at her and stepped aside.We w
THEODOSA.The fourth shot went down like liquid courage with a side of bad decisions.I slammed the glass on the table hard enough that Beanne jumped."Easy," she said, grinning. "You trying to break my table?""Your table can handle it." I reached for the next glass Base was sliding toward me. "Un
THEODOSA."Yes," I said. "I drink."Nala's grin spread across her face. "Perfect. Get dressed. We're going out.""Out?" I blinked. "Where?""To a bar." She was already at the chest in the corner, pulling out clothes. "You've had the worst few days of your life. You deserve to let loose."Guilt twis







