Dinner at the tower tomorrow, 6 p.m.
The bottom of the page had her mother’s councilor stamp, as cold and impersonal as she was. Why she still sent pigeons when there were phones, or even her sister and that dragon, was beyond her. A simple text would have sufficed.
But where would that have gone if that bird hadn’t startled them?She sighed and chucked the letter on top of the desk. Her mother had definitely heard about her getting a familiar, and she had yet to present him to her. It had been something she had been actively avoiding. Something in her told her that her mother would know immediately that Felix was a shifter. Avery was a terrible liar. She rubbed her hand against her head, the cool of her fingers a slight respite to the giant headache that was forming.
The headache spoke. “Where are you sleeping tonight, witch?”
Her face fell flat, any remaining warmth flapping, just like that pigeon off, into the aether. Fluttering her eyes shut, she prayed to the goddess for a modicum of strength to get through this hell she had found herself in. She just wanted to graduate. She just wanted to be normal. Why had she been handed this difficult life?
“On my bed, shifter. Where are you sleeping?” she said.
“On your bed.”
The audacity of males. Of any species, apparently.
“We’re not sleeping together.”
His fangs showed through when he smiled. “Yet.”
Another flood of heat went through her. Absolutely the fuck not. Over her dead body would she share a bed with a shifter. Especially after that little moment they had.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she hissed, the pink of her cheeks a dead giveaway.
“But you thought of it, didn’t you?” He took a step toward her, somehow making the small room around them even smaller. “Now, and before.”
“That will never happen again, shifter.”
“We will see, little witch. We will see.”
He clucked his tongue. He was still on the bed and had no intention of moving anywhere.Asshole.And unfortunately for her, he had decided that the most appropriate clothing for the occasion was a pair of boxers.
“You’re not just wearing that, are you?” she said, gesturing to the boxers that moved like the shadow fabric he often tended to wear.
“Why, don’t like what you see?” A lazy grin stretched across his face.
“No.”
“Liar.” His grin never faltered. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to see me in these much longer—I sleepnaked.”
Avery closed her eyes and swallowed, trying to fight the rising desire threatening to take her over. Again. She hadn’t been this horny and repressed since, well, ever. And as much as the man was the most handsome thing she had ever seen, she did not trust herself to sleep next to him naked.
“We can share the bed—ifyou stay a cat.”
“Deal.” His smile was diabolical.
She waited for him to shift, and to his credit, he did. She crawled into bed, as he sat at the foot of it, curled up in a ball, looking like a peaceful statue; the only sign he was still alive was the gentle rise and fall of his chest and the slight jingle of a collar.
“Goodnight.”
For the first time in a while, she felt peaceful, too, as she drifted asleep.
Seventeen
Felix
The little witch’sbreathing had evened out. Felix had waited until she was asleep to shift back, and god, she had a great ass. Her ass was going to be a problem. It took everything in him not to start kneading it like it was dough and get on with the mission he had set himself.
It had been a few days since he’d disappeared from the den, and by now, his brothers would have been losing their minds. He wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t knocking at the wards already, but he hoped they weren’t dumb enough to try.
