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She didn’t respond, and I knocked again, louder and with more impatience. “I really will break the door down if you don’t open it, Little Muse,” I vowed and meant it. “I need to talk to you, and I’m not leaving until I do.”
There was still no response, and I felt my blood pressure spike as I backed up, raising my hands to fire off a flash of energy and blast it away. “Last chance, Maren. I’m not joking?—”
As electricity crackled from my fingertips, the door swung inward, and a bleary-eyed Maren glared defiantly at me from the interior. Instant regret flooded me as I recognized that she must have been napping. The sight of her deepened my concern almost immediately.
She looked as though she hadn’t changed out of her nightclothes in days, her lovely, shiny hair a dull, tangled mess.
“Oh. You were sleeping,” I concluded, swallowing thickly and feeling slightly sheepish. I’d been so used to being ignored by her, I could only assume she was doing the same this time.
“Iwas,” she agreed grouchily, stepping back to turn away and wander into the bedroom.
The sitting room was in a whirlwind of chaos, her movements only enhancing the mess, garments falling to the floor around her, the darkness of her mood creating chaos in her wake.
I followed and closed the door, but not before I caught the bemused smirks of the two guards on the door.
“Is something amusing?” I challenged them. Immediately, they lost their smiles.
“No, Alpha!” they sputtered in unison, straightening. Almost slamming the door behind me, I checked my temper as I took in Maren’s svelte body under her nightdress. She seemed to have lost weight in the past couple of days, another alarming detail.
She’s resigning to this isolation. Shit. What have I done to her?
“Are you all right?” I asked worriedly.
She shrugged, not bothering to look at me.
“I don’t want you sleeping here another night,” I told her as she climbed back into the bed, turning her back to me as if she meant to go back to sleep.
“I don’t want to share a room with you right now,” she mumbled. “I’m not very good company, anyway.”
“You are to me,” I insisted, another wave of annoyance bubbling inside me, but I stifled it. “No matter what kind of mood you’re in, Maren. We’re partners. We work through things together, not like this. We’re going to be raising a baby together. Is this how we’re going to parent?”
She grunted without turning around, my impassioned speech not moving her in the least. “You’re not treating me like a partner. You’re treating me like a criminal.”
Defiance flared inside me, but I smothered the desire to argue. Instead, I stopped and inhaled. “I know.”
My admission appeared to shock her, and she flipped around, eying me suspiciously. “You know?” she echoed. “Which part?”
“I know you see it that way,” I sighed, drawing closer. “Can I sit?”
She sat up and propped a pillow behind her back, hazel eyes narrowing speculatively as she studied my face. “That depends on what you have to say.”
I grimaced. “I don’t do well with ultimatums, Maren.”
“I don’t do well with being confined, Nyx,” she shot back.
“Fair enough.” I sat on the side of the bed, even though she didn’t concede my request. “How about a compromise? I’ve been working all day on an idea that may suit us both.”
Her skepticism didn’t falter. “Does it involve me leaving the castle?” I shook my head, and she turned again, setting her back to me. “Then I’m not interested.”
“But it does involve you getting back to work,” I offered. “And seeing your friends.”
Once more, she turned back, her plump mouth a firm line. “Nyx, I don’t think you understand?—”
“I do!” I promised her. “I get it.” I faltered at offering her an apology, my eyes shifting away. “You’re feeling restricted here, cut off. I should have seen that earlier. But I think I know how to fix it.”
Maren cocked her head and sat up, folding her arms under her full breasts. “I’m listening.”
“It would be easier if I showed you,” I said. “Can you get dressed?”
