Page 117 of When Ashes Fall

“Is that a challenge?”

She knew better than to challenge a shifter, especially an alpha, but she resented having to back down.

My stubborn little thorn.

“No, it’s a promise,” she stated.

“Is it now?”

When I rose, Briar stepped toward the hallway. The open door half obscured her.

“Shifters love a chase,” I reminded her before she could run.

I would gladly hunt her down; the possibility excited the beast so much it salivated. Rage simmered in her eyes when Briar resumed her previous position, and a glowing spell formed in her palm.

I glanced nonchalantly at the spell she’d created; I’d been hit with one before and could withstand it, but she wouldn’t unleash it on me. She wanted to, I had no doubt, but she’d never purposely harm me.

I’d hurt her over and over again; she wouldn’t do the same. We were very different in that way.

When I prowled out of my bedroom and into the sitting room with its red leather couches, gold table, and bookshelves filled with tomes, she backed toward the door. She lifted her hand, and the green spell danced across her fingers.

I’d never seen a spell that color from a caster before; they were normally black or a deep, violent shade of purple, but Briar wasn’t like the others. Unfortunately, it had taken me far too much time to fully accept that.

It was her connection to nature, her love of all things living, that made the spell a pretty shade of emerald. When we were younger, her spells were white in color; that must have changed after her Needing, when she gained more power.

“Stay back,” she cautioned.

“Would you really hurt me, Briar?”

“Why wouldn’t I? You already think I’m a monster.”

“Opinions can change.”

“You do realize it’s my fault you were in the harem, right?”

“How is that?” I asked as I stopped in front of her.

“My mother must have found out I was sneaking away. She saw me leaving, or someone else did, and that was why she had a gorman follow me into No Man’s Land. That was how she learned about our plan to leave the kingdoms.”

When I rested my hand on the doorway beside her head, her breasts rose as she took a deep breath and her heart sped up. She didn’t back away, and when her fingers fisted, the spell she’d created vanished.

“That is how she learned our plan,” I agreed. “But we both knew the risks we were taking to see each other, and I missed the gorman arrival too… back then and now.”

“Did you even know about gorman until recently?”

“I didn’t.”

“Well, I did. It should have occurred to me sooner what she’d done.”

“Even if it had occurred to you sooner, she still would have captured me. She already knew everything.”

“Maybe so, but I’m still the monster who got you locked away.”

I quirked an eyebrow at her. “But you’re my monster.”

“I’m not your anything.”

A small ringlet of hair had fallen free to straggle around her shoulders. Grasping it, I twirled it around my finger while I marveled at its silken texture and crisp, eucalyptus scent.