I couldn’t sleep and figured you might want the bed and I could stay with her.Colton shifts in his seat and turns so he faces my way and hauls over another stool off to the side to beside him and pats it for me to sit.“I don’t want to leave her just yet, sit with me. Keep me company.” He locks a look on my face, that half smile, the one that melts me, with those excruciating dimples which set my belly alight. I slide onto the seat immediately, too swayed by that face, and hating myself for the obedience, knowing it’s probably stupid to cozy beside him in the middle of the night given the last time we got so close in here, but something inside of me is urging me to stay with him. The desire is stronger than my will, and even though I try to sit away slightly, once he turns back to his mom, his shoulder and arm fit snugly against me and make me tremble with the effects of his touch. That hyperawareness zooming back in, and every inch of my ski

I sigh heavily, letting out a tiny noise, but Sierra is making sure I keep my eyes closed and I picture such a pretty girl with white hair, saddened with little pangs in my heart, that she was ended in such a cruel way. In wonder that a wolf can be both like me, and one of those creatures out there, mommy is fighting. I wonder if this story could be a little bit true and wouldn’t it be sad that all these wars were because a bad man killed a little girl, because he was afraid she would take his crown away. What a silly man.“Stories told are a funny thing, as they change and grow, and details are forgotten, or exaggerated, and soon that story of years gone by are lost among the wolves, visionaries too afraid to correct the tellers. We witches became enemies, because we held truth and sight, as alphas removed traces from our history and beheaded witches who spoke out. The wars raged on, decade after decade, for hundreds of years, until no wolf or vampire knew anymore

“Fine…. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that, but what I felt was real. You obviously just screwed her then. Either way… this will never happen; the bond is marred, and damaged, and you did this to us.” I cross my arms across my chest, my fight dying because I was so sure, and yet I’m wrong. My heart pounding like a war drum within and my body, is beginning to tremble with the excessive amount of pain, and energy, coursing through me. Colton looks like he might explode, standing menacingly close, a new rage ignited in that angular face as he tenses his jaw and grits his teeth.“I DID NOT fuck her!! What is wrong with you? All this cryptic bullshit since I came for you…. The refusal to let me touch you, all this. You think I cheated on you? That’s what all of this was about? Because…. You felt it? No, Lorey, what you felt around four days after the mess hall conversation was me finding you gone. Was me coming back from fou

“I want to hear that multiple times a day, for the rest of my life. I’m crazy in love with you. I’ll never let you down again, ever, I swear. You’re my priority. The Luna the people need, the Luna I need. I’ll never doubt us or put you second again. I needed to lose you to realize how stupid that was, how fucked up my priorities were, because your mate should always come first. You will always come first.” Colton kisses me on the forehead, a grazing light tenderness that makes me feel delicate, and special, igniting the butterflies inside of me, and the softer side that is not consumed by lust.“Unless you turn into a power crazed psychopath!” I point out in quiet humor and get a white flash of gorgeous smile for my efforts, even if it was a tongue in cheek remark that might upset him. A lightness of the intense heavy moment.“In that case I give you permission to taser my ass and keep me shackled to the bed, for your p

“Such threats should be punished, Mr. Santo. I might just go to sleep.” I smile as wickedly as I can at him and cast him a raised eyebrow smirk. Warm and cozy in the security that this is real, and he’s mine.“Go ahead, I’m kinda beat. I could use the sleep.” He folds his arms behind his head casually, as though he really doesn’t care at all, and closes his eyes. It riles me enough to slap him on the peck with impulsive anger. Sudden fury that he might not be joking, and it ignites an internal minor temper tantrum.“Hey!!” It’s real outrage, and that chuckle he expels is an instant dampening tool. Colton opens his eyes and grins at me, chasing away any doubt that he was not playing, and he strokes his thumbs over my thighs. Cooling my fire and bringing me back to heel with a taming touch.“Stop messing and make me your bitch already. You know I love you, and this…… it’s holding up ev