Page 18 of Nightshade

Leo nodded. “Mama made it.”

My brow furrowed. “For you?” My hand flexed, fingers sinking into the space between the stitching. My stomach flipped over. Was Leo trusting me with something of his own? Something that had meaning to him?

That was absurd. He shouldn’t.

Did he have no sense of self-preservation at all?

I withdrew my hand and stared up at him as he shook his head.

“She just makes them. It’s a way to pass the time, I guess, but also something she can do for the pack, and there are plenty who need⁠—”

Warmth. Comfort.

Vampires, when they lived together, were called a coven. Most were built around a single sire, who ruled mind and body over his progeny. There wasn’t⁠—

Well, having a pack must be very different. From what Leo had told me, it wasn’t all good, but even between progeny, there was infighting and a struggle for scarce resources. There wasn’t . . . this.

No one had been making blankets, much less to share them.

I felt Leo’s gaze on me again, but I was staring down at the blanket. Instead, I snatched the soap.

“Well, I should bathe before I dirty up your linens, so⁠—”

“Right,” he chirped. “I’ll—I’ll leave you to it then, and, um, check in on you tomorrow night? Is that okay?” His gaze drifted toward the window and the fall leaves hanging on the tree outside. “Will you be warm enough?”

If I said no, what would he do? Would he stay and crawl under that damnably sweet blanket with me? I could do with a furnace.

But he didn’t want his pack to know I was nearby, and already, he’d gone out of his way to see me comfortable.

I waved my hand through the air. “I’ll be fine, darling. This is more than enough, really.” I gathered the large towel in my arms and flounced toward the door, throwing back over my shoulder, “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

I found the river curving not far away, and took my time to lather the soap and rinse all the long-neglected parts of me. With the towel wrapped around me and the boots on my feet, I made my way back to the cabin to find it empty.

Which was just perfect.

I dressed in his strange, stretchy clothes, enveloped in a sea of softness, and left my boots by the door. Before he’d left, Leo had put the sheets on the bed and spread the blanket out on top of it. I crawled beneath it and laid on my back to stare at the ceiling.

I wasn’t running. All I was going to do was stay right there and enjoy the fullness of my belly. I twisted my fingers in the blanket on top of me. Though it had little spaces between the stitches, it held warmth quite well.

Likely would’ve held it better if I had a wolf beside me or proper body heat of my own, but it was nice nonetheless.

When the sun rose, I curled up facing away from the window and pulled the blanket over my head.

I slept fitfully, waking with a jerk when I was convinced the witches had found me, only to find the sounds outside nothing more than scampering squirrels or birds high in the trees above the cabin.

If I could say one thing for captivity—it was easier to rest, knowing you were already doomed.

At the sound of a knock, I jerked upright. As soon as I was awake, I realized the sound was too soft, too tentative, to be any kind of threat. But beyond the window, the sky was still the powdery purplish that said the sun had just set.

Leo, outside, waited until I opened the door before coming in, though this was more his cabin than mine. His eyes scanned the space to see if anything had changed before his shoulders relaxed and he smiled at me.

“Good day?”

“Lovely day,” I said, because who wanted to hear about someone struggling to sleep, fretting about every sound, or considering whether or not they were a fool for not taking off across the desert when they had the chance? “Yours?”

Leo nodded. “We’re working on the big house. Since Aleks is the alpha now, and he doesn’t want it, it’ll be for the women and children of the pack who want to stay together, you know . . . after . . . ”

I hummed. After they’d been harassed and abused by the pack for so long. It sounded like Leo and his brothers had gotten rid of the culprits, but that didn’t dissolve years of fear and harm.