Annika blinks at me again, her dark, long lashes fluttering out like the wings of the prettiest butterfly, making my heart skip a beat with how beautiful she is. I can’t take my eyes off her, and I’m drawn in by the sweet scent of her pulsing in the air between us as intensely as the mate bond hums beneath my skin.
She licks her lips and straightens up, even though she doesn’t remove her hand from my clutches.
“N-no…I just wanted to try out the other bathroom…” she says, and through the lie, there’s that undeniable, nearly tangible sexual tension between us.
It wasn’t missable at dinner, and it’s like it’s festered into something more in the quiet of the night, the darkness of the hallway, and the unmistakable need to be close to each other despite all our reservations.
I lean in, and Annika doesn’t recoil, allowing me to move until our faces are a mere inch apart, our breaths mingling in the air between us.
“We both know there’s no good reason for not using the one in your bedroom,” I drawl, and I feel her soften in my touch. “Tell me, Annika, what you really wanted down this side of the cabin…”
“Nothing…” she purrs, her voice as seductive as if she just ran her fingers across my bare chest.
Something between us shifts, and there’s no need for any explanations or excuses anymore when our lips collide in a kiss that’s equally fiery from both sides. She’s up against the wall in no time, one leg hooked to my waist as our tongues fight for dominance. Panting, chests heaving in unison, bodies rocking to the beat of our kisses, I barely catch the first stirrings of the mind link trying to enter my head.
“Alpha Heinrich!”
I break the kiss when Dedrick’s voice comes crashing through the heat of lewd kissing sounds.
Annika is breathless, eyes blown out and disoriented as she blinks and watches me hone my focus on the mind link.
“What is it, Dedrick?”I ask through the telepathic communication, and hear howling in the distance.
“Demons! South-bound, crossing through east territory!”
I send him the message that I’m on my way, grunting under my breath when the mind link is cut, and I’m focused on Annika’s face again.
“You have to go, don’t you?” she asks, her bottom lip swollen from the kiss but quivering now with worry.
I gulp and take a step back before nodding tersely. “I’m sorry—”
“No,” she says firmly, stepping forward and pressing a chaste kiss on my cheek before pulling back. “I know you have to go, but I want you to come back without a scratch.”
With a frown passing over my face, I nod once. “And you won’t leave the cabin.”
“I promise.”
“Then I promise, too,” I say, pressing a kiss to her forehead before turning to leave, my chest puffing out with a sense of fulfillment, knowing that things have somehow shifted between us, and the future is definitely brighter ahead, even if we have to fight the darkness that’s out there right now.
My resolve is strengthened once more, Annika’s kiss being the fuel to my fire in these dark days.
Chapter 17 - Annika
My heart pounds with discontent, hammering when I hear the thud of the door as it closes behind Heinrich.
I rush up to it, hand trembling on the handle as I fight every urge to go after him, to follow him into that fight, every instinct screaming at me that he's walking right into danger that will bring him back hurt, or worse…
Gulping hard because I refuse to think of it, all I focus on is the feeling shaking me to the core—this intense, relentless feeling that tightens my chest while my fingers tingle with sensation.
I know what this feeling is because I've felt it before, I've felt it every time Heinrich and I have touched, even briefly, or when we kiss, or when we made love…
It's the mate bond, and Sophie was right about what she said. It's why I walked down the hallway tonight, unable to fall asleep because all I could think about was Heinrich, and what it'd mean for my magic if I opened my heart to him.
Who am I kidding?
Iwantto be near him.
Not because he's my fated mate, or accepting him into my heart means that I can have proper control over my powers.
