LOGINChapter 032CECILIA My eyes stayed locked on his cock even after he spoke. It looked impossibly thick, the veins standing out like cords under the skin, the head flushed dark and slick with those small beads of pre-cum that caught the moonlight. It was beautiful in a raw, intimidating way. And magnificent and scary at the same time. My stomach flipped with nerves and something hotter.“Are you going to keep staring at it, or are you going to come take it?” he asked, voice low and rough.I leaned in closer on my knees. My fingers trembled a little as I reached out and traced the length from base to tip.When I circled the head with my fingertips he groaned, the sound vibrating through me.I looked up. “What exactly am I supposed to do?”He raised a brow. “You haven’t done this before?”I glared, heat rushing to my face. “Shouldn’t you already know that from the part where I said I’ve never kissed anyone? How can a woman know about sex if she hasn’t even kissed before?”He chuckled, t
Chapter 031CASSIAN She shook her head slowly. “No,” she said. “I’m not going to do it.”I sat back on my heels in the sand. “Why not?”She raised her voice straight away. “Just pick something else. Anything else.”I felt my jaw tighten. “That’s not fair. I asked for a simple run. You’re the one who made the deal. You set every term. I won, and now you don’t want to honour what you agreed?”She pressed her lips together. I looked away towards the far end of the river where the water disappeared into darkness. Regret sat heavy in my chest. I should never have asked. Should have kept my mouth shut from the beginning. Should have let the win stay a win without turning it into this awkward mess.After a long quiet she spoke again, voice smaller. “Are you mad at me?”I turned my head back to her. “No.”She swallowed. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”“It’s fine.” I lay back flat on the sand, arms behind my head, eyes on the stars. I wasn’t sleepy. Just tired of pushing. “If you’re done starin
Chapter 030CECILIAWe stood side by side on the line he marked in the sand."On your mark." He looked sideways at me with that expression, the one that was already too pleased with itself. "Get set.""Go." I took off before he finished the word.The sand pushed under my feet and the night air hit my face and for about ten seconds it felt good. Fast and free and like something I had not felt in weeks.Then my side reminded me it existed.The pain pulled through my ribs like a thread being yanked and my pace dropped and I gritted my teeth and pushed through it anyway because I was not stopping. I refused to stop.I glanced back.Cassian had started running and he was not even trying. Long easy strides eating up the ground between us like the distance was nothing. Like he was out for a gentle evening stroll and simply happened to be moving at an unreasonable speed."Stop running so fast!" I yelled."Run faster then." He was barely breathing hard. "Or I am going to catch up."I added mor
Chapter 029CASSIANDarcy was standing near the garden entrance when I found her."Where is she?""She said she needed space." Darcy looked at me carefully. "I have not seen her since.""How long ago?""Twenty minutes. Maybe more."I turned toward the garden immediately."She usually goes there when she needs to breathe," Darcy called after me. "Check the chambers first in case she went back."I checked the chambers. It's empty. I came back out and moved down the hallway toward the garden path and that was when I saw her.She was coming from the direction of the far hedge, walking steadily, and Louis was one step behind her. Not close. Just behind, like he had been walking with her and was now giving her the natural distance of someone who understood the conversation was finished.He saw me coming, gave a short nod and turned and walked back toward the party without a word.I stopped in front of Cecilia.I pulled her gently off the main path, into the quieter stretch beside the hedge,
Chapter 028CECILIAFive hundred pairs of eyes turned to me at the same time after the toast.I felt it before I saw it. My face stayed exactly where I had put it. Every muscle in it is doing exactly what I told it to do.What is she doing?Marcella was still smiling from the platform, glass raised, eyes on me, and I looked back at her and thought about every way this woman had found to make my life difficult since the day I arrived in this pack and I added this to the list and filed it and kept my face still.She planned this. This whole party was for this.The celebration of the rogue defeat was real enough. But this, the toast, the heir, the deliberate look aimed at me in front of every wolf in the grounds and every visiting Alpha who had come tonight, this was not a celebration. This was a message.I was still working out what to do with it when the voice came from somewhere in the crowd behind me."An heir requires a proper wolf." A woman said loud enough for everyone to hear h
Chapter 027CASSIANHe changed direction.One moment Alpha Louis was moving toward me the way a visiting Alpha should, head dipped in acknowledgment, hand ready to extend. The next he had pivoted completely and was cutting through the crowd toward Cecilia like I was not standing right there.Who is this man to her?I watched him close the distance. Watching his face change the moment he saw her properly, something lighting up in it that was too genuine to be performed. He knew her. Not in passing. In the way that meant time and familiarity and things I did not have the full picture of yet.Cecilia's expression shifted when she saw him coming. Not alarm. She knew him too.He reached her and his arms opened.She stepped back immediately and gave him a look that would have stopped most men cold.It did not stop Louis. He laughed instead, dropping his arms, completely unbothered.I thought they clearly knew each other from before but from where? He thought about countless places Alphas







