Felix did his best to play the part of a helpless house cat. Including widening his eyes and tilting his head so they twinkled in the starlight. This would be a memory he would never forget; it would haunt him when he tried to sleep at night. How low he had fallen.
This is the part where you leave me alone now.
“Aww.”
He reached out slowly.Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, don’t—no! No!
The enforcer scooped him up. Felix twisted, squirmed, made himself as inconvenient as physically possible, but he only held tighter. Every instinct screamed at him to shift, to kill this fucking witch and his fucking grabby hands.
“Come on, buddy, let’s get you back to your witch.”
There was nothing Felix could do but dangle helplessly like a furry potato sack in his arms as the enforcer carried him upstairs back to the dorm where he had just been ten minutes ago. There had to be a better way to move around than parading as a lost familiar. If he wanted to go anywhere on this Island, he couldn’t risk being caught so far from his witch.
The enforcer talked at him while he climbed the stairs. “You know, I’m glad Avery finally got a familiar. I was worried about her. We all were, after what she went through last year.”
Felix’s ears perked up.
“She tried to stay strong after her dad passed, but anyway, I’m glad she has you now. She needs someone she can trust.”
A wheezing cough escaped Felix. He truly had no idea.
“Can you do me a favor?” he said, scratching Felix’s head. He gritted his teeth so hard he thought they might snap. “Can you convince Avery to go on a date with me soon?”
That was it. He had to kill him. Absolutely the fuck not. He would not watch his witch go on a date with him;she is mine. She is?—
A knock at the door interrupted his spiraling thoughts. They both waited for a moment. But there was only silence from the other side. “Guess she’s asleep, huh, buddy?”
Hewas not his buddy.
The enforcer grabbed a bunch of keys from his belt and found the one to her door far too easily. The enforcer creaked the door open and put him down at the threshold. Felix turned around and glared at him from the ground. It wasn’t threatening by any means, but it made him feel better. That was positively the worst thing to ever happen to him. He wouldn’t let anyone manhandle him again. An idea formed in his mind as he stepped through the door.
The enforcer lingered in the doorway for a moment, his gaze catching on the little witch longer than he could tolerate. “Sleep well, Avery,” he said.
God,he was creepy. Felix didn’t like the protective feeling swelling in his chest. He wanted to remove the enforcer’s eyes for looking at her like that. Just before he was going to hiss and scratch him, the enforcer moved away, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Felix listened as the footsteps faded away and then shifted back into his human form. He ran a hand through his hair, looking at the witch who was blissfully ignorant of what had just occurred.
For a moment, he just stood near the bed, watching the rise and fall of her shoulders. The dappled silver moon threw light over her freckled skin, enticing him closer and closer.
It was a terrible idea, but he did it anyway.
He crawled into the bed with her, lying down carefully so he didn’t wake her. The scent of cinnamon reached him. He hated that it was actually comforting to him now.
Unconsciously, she turned around. He stiffened. He shouldn’t be doing this; he should shift back into a cat. But as he watched her, her lips parted, he had the strange urge to kiss her again. To fill the space between her lips with his own. Instead, he just let the warmth of her breath against his shoulder be enough. Because that was all it could be. Because that had to be enough. Their bond would be broken, and he would be free to go back to…however he had been before.
Gently, he shook his head. That was all this was, just the bond calling out for its other half. It wasn’t really him. For a few minutes, he would indulge it. He would shift back into a cat when he was about to fall asleep. Just a few minutes. Something spread within his chest, a foreign feeling. Whether it was the bond or not at that moment, he didn’t care.
She shifted again, this time her hand finding his wrist. Instinctively, he wanted to rip it away. For a few moments, he did nothing but let it linger. Feeling the gentle touch of another that wasn’t during sex. When was the last time someone had touched him like this? When was the last time he had let someone touch him in such a way?It means nothing. I just don’t want to wake her.He told himself. Even while his thumb started to trace hers. Even when he moved so close that there was hardly any space between them.
Just a few more minutes.
Eighteen
Avery
Avery woketo something hard poking into her back, and a heavy pressure draped around her body; even her legs were cocooned in a soft, silky fur. Her eyes fluttered open, and the morning light poured through the curtains as dust danced around. Despite the dead fire, she was pleasantly warm and surrounded by the rich scent of pines and winter. It would have been easy to go back to sleep, just a few more minutes.
A hand flexed in front of her, one that was not her own. She stilled.Felix was wrapped around her.She held her breath in case any movement disrupted the shifter—one wrong move and his claws could find her jugular. She looked down as his tail curled in and out of her legs like it had a mind of its own and was stroking her for its own pleasure.
