This human is the best of her species. She is brave and generous. Hazel walked into my kitchen at midnight in pajamas with a clay mask on her face, and the gods rewrote my entire life in that single breath. I am the luckiest male alive.
Yesterday morning I laid it all out for her. She understands the Blood Calling I had braced myself for her to recoil, pack her bags and tell me she would be flying back to Ohio in the morning.
She did not.
She had been about to respond when Madam Petrova knocked on the door. Then came Lily’s bedside vigil. And through all those hours, even with all of it weighing on her, I could still occasionally scent her arousal for me. Even in the worst of it, she was not afraid of me.
I think she has not been scared off. I think, possibly, she has already chosen me.
I stand and move quietly to her side and crouch in front of her chair. My arms slide beneath her knees and back, and I lift her carefully out of the chair.
She mumbles something against my shoulder that is not a word.
I carry her toward the door of the nursery.
Madam Petrova isin the corridor, in a fresh dark dress with her hair pinned up neatly, as if she has already been awake for some hours. The morning light from the high windows falls across her white braid. Her face is calm. “Sire, you have not slept in a day. Neither has she. The princess has come through. The nurse will sit with her. Cook is preparing a soft meal for when she wakes. The household will manage. I will look in on your daughter every hour myself.”
I dip my head. “Thank you, Madam Petrova.”
“Of course, sire.”
I turn left, towards my own suite. I cannot take her back to her own room, it is too late for that. Sleeping in a bed without her scent for the last ten days and it has not gone well. I need her beside me, her breath in my lungs, the slow weight of her against my body when I close my eyes, or I will not sleep at all.
My bedroom is dim. The heavy dark curtains are still drawn from when I left yesterday. The fire in the hearth has died to embers. The room smells of cedar and the faint trace of the bath oil I use.
I lay her gently on my large bed, and pull the covers over her, on the side I never sleep on. Elara and I did not share a room, she had her own suite down the hallway. But Blood Calling pairsalways share a room and a bed, due to the blood and scent exchange of the pairing.
I climb onto the bed beside her, fully clothed, on top of the coverlet. I do not undress or slide under the covers. Whatever she chooses to be to me, she has not yet chosen it out loud, and I will not crowd her in her sleep.Sleep,I tell myself.Only sleep.
I waketo gold afternoon light slanting around the edges of the curtains.
Hazel is curled against my side.
At some point in the last several hours, she has tucked herself into me without waking. Her cheek is pressed against my shoulder. Her hand is open over my heart. One of her legs has hooked across one of mine. Her hair has fallen across the front of my shirt. She is breathing slowly, evenly, deeply asleep.
I do not move. I lie still and let myself feel her weight against me. The warmth of her and the smell of her hair under my chin.
Hazel stirs. Her breath catches. “I’m in your room…How long have we been asleep?” she questions.
“Hours. Eight or nine, I think.”
“Is Lily?—”
“She is fine. Madam Petrova assured me that the staff could care for her now, and that you and I were to leave and rest for as long as we needed.”
Hazel exhales and sinks back against my chest. She does not move away from me.
“Is it okay that you are in my bedroom? Does this make you uncomfortable?”
“No. No, I like it here.”
“Good, because I’m hoping you might consider this your room too.”
She grins.
I move over, so fast I know I startle her because she not used to how fast a Krovenian can move. Now I am on top of her and she is beneath me. “Can I lay against you in this position, or does this feel too soon for you? I want your full consent before I move any further.”
She places both of her hands against the fabric on my chest. “I love this. I’ve wanted you this close, touching me, for a long time now.”
