Chapter 023

I stirred in my sleep, a soft rustle echoing through the silence of my room. The air shifted heavier, colder and even before I opened my eyes, I knew someone was here. My body froze, my heart pounding hard enough to drown out the sound of my breath.

A shadow moved from the corner, slow and deliberate. The faint light from the moon caught his profile. Daemon.

He didn’t speak. Just sat there, half-bathed in silver light, watching me. His elbows rested on his knees, head tilted slightly like he was studying something he couldn’t quite figure out.

For a long time, he didn’t move. The room was filled with his scent sharp, masculine, wild. It wrapped around me until my body reacted before my mind could. My skin prickled, warmth pooling deep in my stomach.

Then he rose. The bed dipped slightly under his weight.

I felt fingers trace the side of my thigh, slow, almost tender, sliding upward in a way that made my breath hitch. I jerked awake, eyes wide and when I opened my mouth to scream, his hand clamped down, firm and possessive.

“Quiet,” he murmured, voice low, almost a growl. “It’s me.”

The moment I recognized him, my muscles loosened just enough for him to feel it. His hand didn’t move from my mouth, but his thumb brushed my jaw as though testing how far I’d let him go.

“Daemon,” I whispered against his palm once he let go, breath shaky. “What are you doing here?”

He didn’t answer right away. His gaze roamed over my face, my neck, then lower. His eyes burned not with rage this time, but something rawer, darker.

“You shouldn’t look at me like that,” he said quietly, voice rough. “Not when you smell like that.”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. I wanted to speak, to demand he leave, but my words tangled with the rapid thrum of my heart. His fingers brushed higher, just enough to make my breath stutter.

“Daemon, please…”

He exhaled sharply, pulling back before his control snapped. The air between us crackled with everything unspoken, desire, danger, the kind of tension that promised nothing but ruin.

He stood, towering over me, jaw tight. “You drive me insane, little wolf,” he muttered, mostly to himself. “I should hate you for it. Making us fight and lose our minds over you yet none of us willing to give up.”

His voice was a growl against my skin, low and rough, as if it hurt him to say it.

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. The air between us was too thick charged with desire

Daemon’s hand slid up from my thigh, fingers tracing the edge of my nightdress until the thin fabric trembled against my hip. My breath caught. Every nerve in me came alive, screaming to move, to stop him, yet I didn’t. I couldn’t.

“You should,” I whispered, barely able to speak.

He leaned closer until his lips hovered near my jaw, his breath scorching me. “But I don’t.”

My body betrayed me, heat pooling deep inside, heart beating so fast it almost hurt. His thumb brushed the side of my waist, drawing slow circles that made my knees weak even though I was already sitting.

“Daemon…” It came out like a plea, a warning, a prayer. I didn’t even know which.

He looked at me then, really looked. Those dark eyes of his, usually filled with mockery and fire, had gone softer. Dangerous in a different way. “You drive me insane, little wolf,” he said. “Every damn time I try to stay away, I end up here.”

My lips parted, but he didn’t give me a chance to answer. His mouth ghosted over mine, not quite a kiss, I could feel every ragged breath he took, smell the faint hint of smoke and wine on him.

“I don’t even know what you want from me,” I murmured.

His smile was small, crooked, haunted. “That makes two of us.”

His words hung heavy in the air between us, thick enough to choke on.

I couldn’t look away.

Daemon’s chest rose and fell in slow, restrained breaths, the kind a man takes when he’s one heartbeat away from doing something reckless. His eyes flicked down to my lips, and my throat went dry.

“You don’t mean that,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

His head tilted slightly, a cruel half-smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Don’t I?”

The bed creaked as he leaned closer, the scent of smoke and pine clinging to him until it wrapped around me completely. His hand lifted, fingers tracing the side of my face, the touch rough and careful at once like he was testing the edges of his own restraint.

My pulse stuttered as his thumb brushed across my bottom lip. “I love how your body trembles for me,” he murmured.

“Please you need to stop touching me like that,” I breathed.

He chuckled a dark, low sound that curled straight through me. “And why should I?”

Before I could answer, his hand slid down my throat, the heat of his palm resting right over my racing pulse. He felt it, the quick, desperate rhythm and his eyes darkened even more.

“Every time I’m near you, it feels like I’m fighting something I can’t win,” he said, voice hoarse. “I tell myself to stay away, and then I end up here.”

“Why?” I asked softly. “Why keep coming back if you hate me so much?”

Daemon leaned in until his lips hovered just beside my ear. His breath was warm, his voice a growl. “Because even when I want to kill you, all I can think about is what you’d sound like if I made you beg.”

A shiver ran through me half fear, half lust. I imagine dragging my hands through his hair, and he pleased me with his tongue.

His hand trailed lower, stopping just above my knee. My breath caught. “Daemon…”

He froze. For a moment, I thought he’d keep going. But then his jaw tightened, and he pulled his hand away with a muttered curse, dragging it through his hair as he stood.

“This is wrong,” he muttered, more to himself than me. “You make me forget who the hell I am.”

I sat there, trying to steady my breathing, my entire body trembling from what almost happened.

At the door, he paused his back to me, shoulders tense.

“If I stay another second, I’ll do something I can’t take back,” he said. “Sleep, Rain. Before I change my mind.”

But he didn’t move right away. His hand rested on the door handle for what felt like forever. Then slowly, he opened it.

And that’s when I saw her.

Selene.

Standing outside like she’d been waiting the whole time, her eyes wide, burning with fury and disbelief. Her gaze darted from Daemon to me, and in that moment, I knew she’d seen everything she needed to.

Daemon didn’t even look at her. He just stepped past, shoulders rigid, his expression unreadable.

The door closed behind him with a soft click, leaving me alone, my skin still tingling where he’d touched me, and my mind reeling with one impossible truth:

It may just be harder than I thought for me to be able to escape.

Also I may have just made a much larger enemy out of Selene tonight. If she hated me before now she despises me.

Groaning I flopped back down on my pillow, it is getting worse each day I spend here and I don’t think I can control it either.

But as much as I hated the attention, I couldn’t recognize myself from few weeks ago when my heart was shattered into pieces, when I thought my life was about to end.

If Liana could see me now, she’d probably tear herself up in fits of jealousy and anger.

A small smile played in my lips as I drifted back to sleep.

Not only have I gotten the attention of the entire court present I am also freaking mated to the three most powerful of our kind.

She can have Caius for all I care, mine is fucking better!