He shakes his head, his jaw setting stubbornly. “I’ll find the perfect gift. I’ll get it right this time.”
I grab his face with both hands. “Ask your feral form what I want most.”
He snorts a laugh. “He thinks he just gave it to you.”
“Well, what can I say?” I shrug, giggling and blushing. “He knows his mate.”
“Fuck,” he murmurs helplessly, eyes glowing, and then he kisses me. It’s a wild devouring, half curses and half tongue. When he comes up for air, he says, “I won’t wait on the alokim, then. I see you, Cari. I feel your flame. You are known to me.”
I feel a fluttering inside me too big to be a butterfly. I think my heart might fly away, it’s so happy. I’m really his mate. We get to be together forever.
Too exhausted to move to the bedroom, we fall asleep on the couch and don’t wake up until Radar’s cold, wet nose nudgesinto my palm in the morning, letting me know it’s time for his breakfast.
“I’ll feed him,” Zed says, scooting his arm out from under me. “I need to go get you a gift, anyway. I’ll pick up some breakfast for us while I’m out.”
“You don’t have to,” I protest, laughing and hanging onto him so he can’t leave. “I’d rather stay in bed with you.”
“Yesss,” he hisses with feral intensity, stealing another kiss from me. “All day and all night, too. But when my mother asks what I got you for your alokoi gift, I refuse to tell her that I fucked you in the ass.”
I burst out laughing at the idea. “Okay, okay, probably not a good plan,” I concede. “You have one hour to procure breakfast and a gift. That’s it. And for the record, breakfast is the important part. I don’t care if all you get me for a gift is the free breath mints from the restaurant.”
“You got it. One hour. Not a second longer.” He kisses me again before feeding Radar and rushing out.
I flop back on the sofa cushions, luxuriating in their soft embrace as I replay our evening, how thoroughly he filled me up and worked me over. I hope he enjoyed it half as much as I did.
My phone buzzes on a side table, and Radar lifts one ear. How he heard that quiet notification but didn’t wake up while I was getting absolutely railed by a dragon last night, I have no idea, but it makes me smile. My little old man’s still got it.
I sit up and grab the phone in case it’s a message from Zed asking about breakfast, but it’s a text from a number I don’t recognize. A little cold bubble of fear forms in my belly. I get that feeling every time an unknown number messages or calls me, because it could always behim.My stalker.
I shouldn’t let it scare me. I haven’t heard from him in years. It’s probably just random spam or a package delivery notification. I tap on it and the message opens.
Unknown Number
Thought you should see this.
A second message comes through. It looks like a link to a spreadsheet. I don’t click on it. I’m not an idiot. It’s obviously some scammer trying to trick me into downloading something.
Then a third message vibrates my hand.
Unknown Number
Zed isn’t who you think he is.
The bubble in my stomach bursts, flooding me with adrenaline. This isn’t a scammer. This is…something else. I just don’t know what.
Maybe I am stupid, because I open the spreadsheet link.
Chapter 24
Zed
Iknow exactly what I’m going to get her. I noticed it in the vintage shop when I was there getting my tux.
Thankfully, the place is open on Sundays, and the item’s still there: a cute gold bracelet with a little dachshund charm on it. It might not be one of the things Cari wants most in the world, butI know how important Radar is to her. Plus, he’s the reason we met, so the bracelet symbolizes our connection from day one.
“The eyes are real diamond chips,” the shop owner tells me as she wraps it up. Fitting, since Radar’s eyes are special, too.
A text message comes in just as I’m checking out. I swipe it open absentmindedly, expecting something about work from Gabe. But it’s from Cari.
