Page 69 of Below the Shadow of the City

“Maddox, please, I need—” I whine, and he growls in reply, rumbling throughout my entire being. He moves a hand to circle a finger around my clit, and it sends me over the edge entirely. I crash over him, trembling and shaking and whining like it’s the first time he’s touched me.

“I’ll give you everything you need,” he mutters when he emerges from between my legs. “Everything you need, everything you want. Hell, I’d give up oxygen for you, Sigrid.”

I rest the back of my arm against my brow, still dripping with want and twitching from the orgasm he’s given me. “Being a little dramatic, no?” I ask.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he crawls beside me again, “Is my willingness to suffocate between your legs off limits now?”

“You know what I mean,” I trail my hand up and down his face. Spending the entire morning here, in my bed, with him, with the sunlight warming us is nothing short of a dream. But his stomach grumbles incredibly loudly, and I feel a similar hunger in my gut.

I plant a kiss on his forehead and slide out of bed. “You can grab a shower while I make breakfast, but be warned, it’s a little less spacious than yours and my products cost about a quarter of what yours do.”

“Is that a subtle way of telling me I smell?” He spreads himself across my mattress in my absence. Seeing him in my bed, in my apartment, feels so natural. Even though the bed is too small, the sheets aren’t strong enough to withstand his claws, and my door frames are barely wide enough for him.

“Like a fucking wild animal,” I tug at his ear and whisper closely, he flips me off and then raises his arm to verify my comment.

As I’m cleaning up from our late breakfast, there’s a pounding on my door. Maddox slowly raises from the couch, “should I go hide out somewhere?” He asks quietly, I nod as he crosses the living room and vanishes off somewhere.

I walk to the door to check the peephole, Margo is standing in the hallway, tapping her foot in frustration. She barges in the moment I unlock the door. “Oh so you’re not dead or dismembered, you’re just ignoring me,” she says flippantly.

My phone sits on my kitchen table, when I grab it I see countless messages and calls from Margo spread throughout the morning. “Sorry I’ve been…distracted…today. Is everything ok?”

“I mean, yes everything is fine, there’s a surprise show at the warehouse tonight and rumors that it’s going to be—wait.” She stops dead in her tracks in my living room.

“What?” I ask.

“He’s here, isn’t he?”

“Who?” I play dumb.

“The mystery guy? The one you are so coy about for whatever reason. Holy shit, you’ve been hiding out with him all day here, haven’t you?”

“No…” Something clatters in the bathroom, of all the places for Maddox to hide out he chose the tiniest.

“Oh my god, he is here,” she’s practically giddy with this information, bouncing up and down in delight nearly.

I shuffle my feet nervously, I could easily kick her out. Maybe that’s the best option here, but she’d be pissed. She’s my best friend, and the least subtle person I know. She will quite literally never let it go if I shoo her out the door now.

This meeting would be inevitable, right? I can’t keep dating Maddox without him meeting a single person in my life. And Margo may arguably be the most important one. She watched me sob at my desk for a full day after the Perrie breakup, she deserves to meet the one who’s brought me back to the version of myself I used to be.

I mean, sure, I’ve considered broaching the subject with Margo. There were a few instances where I’ve casually brought it up by saying, “remember when we talked about our ‘hear me outs’ and I named that one animated character?” Only for her to chuckle about it and mention Casper the Friendly Ghost again.

Maybe I could have shown her a picture of him and soft-launched it to her. Had I pulled her aside and flipped my phone around to show his gleaming white fangs and fur covered build would it have been easier?

None of it matters now. Because she’s in my apartment and Maddox is also in my apartment and two worlds are converging in a way that’s incredibly terrifying.

For a while I still had the benefit of playing up the anxiety of a new relationship, though this is the most secure I’d felt with anyone, ever. All the waffling, all the anxiety, poof, gone. Like it never existed to begin with.

“He is,” I inhale to prepare myself for the big reveal. “Listen, there’s something that you need to understand about him—” she’s already walking towards the bathroom, hand poised to knock.

“Margo,” I say firmly. I don’t know the protocol here, I don’t know if I should bring it all out in the open or let it come out slowly. She’s moving faster than my brain can catch up.

“Ugh, what?” She puts her hands on her hips.

“Listen to me, I need you to be really, really normal about this. And not freak out, ok?”

“Wait, oh my god, is he a celebrity?”

“No,” I anxiously rub my brows with my fingers.