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Chapter 4
Ayla
I let out a comfortable yawn as I made my way down the corridor of Kai’s wing to eat, for once, in Darla’s room. Usually, she and Mad Dog would be in my room bright and early for the morning meal, but now that I was feeling much more recharged, I was up far enough ahead of schedule to be the one to pay them a visit.
I knocked on the door and took a step back, not wanting to be right in her face when she opened it. Although I couldn’t hear or smell inside due to the sound and scent proofing, I wasn’t an idiot. I figured Dara and Oren would want to spend some intimate time together before we one day returned back to the fort, where fraternization was much harder to pull off.
Sure enough, the psychic answered the door a moment later, rumpled-looking and covered in all sorts of hickeys and love bites. A tiny bit of jealousy flared through me at her dappled skin. As a shifter, I healed too fast to keep such things more than a couple of hours. What I wouldn’t give to wear Kai’s marks all over me.
Then again, if I was ever free of my curse, and if Kai and I were able to fulfill our mating bond, I’d happily wear the scar of his teeth on my mating gland, and I was sure he’d be just as pleased with my mark on him. It would be the ultimate exchange, and tangible proof that we were bound together.
“Hey there,” she said with a comfortable sigh. “Did you have a good night?”
It was nice to see my best friend so happy and sated. For all the soldiers who pined over her at the base, I was sure she mostly slept alone at night. It was all a part of her flirtatious persona.
“Did you?” I countered, sliding past her. “Is Oren around, or did he dip out early?”
“He left a little while ago,” Darla said with a dreamy look as she went over to her own table. “But I’m glad you’re here because I didn’t really want to show up to the breakfast cart with how I look.”
I nodded, understanding what she meant. She had a flirty persona and charmed people, yet there was a line between that and inviting the wrong attention most women were familiar with. Hickeys might make some a little bolder than they’d be normally otherwise and would remind the many bigoted, overly rich shifters around us that she was human. A cryptid, sure, but also a human.
That was the strange thing about so many psychics. They were among the few magical folks who were genetically identical to humans, which was fairly rare. Even witches had a different make up than a run of the mill homo sapiens. An interesting quirk of evolutionary planning that one day I’d be able to study… if I ever had the free time. It turned out being cursed with a malevolent force ended up taking a whole lot of my time.
“Don’t worry, I’ll run cover for you so you can take some foundation to all that.”
“Ugh, later. For now, I want to sit. Oren wore me out. As reserved as he is day to day, he’s not in the bedroom, and I am sore.”
“Hmm.” I wasn’t sure if that was too much information or not, but I did know I was concerned about my best friend being in pain. “Do you need some healing?”
“My first instinct is to say no, but do you know what? Let’s see how I feel after breakfast. A full stomach can do wonders, even if I don’t have the same metabolism you shifters have.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
I joined Darla at the table, thinking of my own happy tryst the night before. Although Kai and I didn’t get as much time together as I craved, we always did manage to have a good time.
Except that was putting it mildly. Kai brought things out in me I never thought were possible. Looking back at all the nights I’d spent with my hand between my legs, desperately imagining what I could do with him if I ever dared to be selfish, I had no idea of just how incredible being with Kai could be.
Not just because of the excellent sex or the way he ate me out like a man starved. It was the way he looked at me. The tender way he treated me. It was how feral he was in bed, yet how kind and protective he was in the light. and how he respected me. I never felt diminished with him, only treasured and admired. I had no idea a relationship could be so incredible and edifying, but boy, was I learning fast.
A sharp rap on the door knocked me out of my decidedly romantic thoughts as Darla sat up in excitement.
“Ooh! The food’s here?”
I took a sniff as I stood up and shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t think so.”
“Well, who else would—” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you forget to tell Mad Dogyou were coming here instead of us meeting at your room like usual?”
“Oops,” I said as I reached the door. When I opened it, there he was, looking only mildly miffed.
“Ay, did I miss the memo for a room change?” he asked, stepping right into Darla’s room, and heading over to her table. “Cozier in here.”
“Nah, I just got up early, then Darla and I started gabbing,” I said, joining them. At that, both of my friends gave me a look, but I just blinked at them. “What?”
“Nothin’,” Mad Dog answered with a smirk. Oh, I was certainly amusing him, that was for sure. “Just never thought I’d hear you describe something you were doing as gabbing.”
“Well, that’s the word, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s the word,” Darla said, her eyes twinkling. “It’s just not one that you would have ever had to use, say, six months ago.”
