Page 84 of Wolfsbane

I was using a lot of magic, but Mother seemed to have been right—I didn’t tire like a mage or witch normally would. There wasn’t a limit from the magic I could use while I still had that tie between Viktor and me to draw on.

I tried not to latch onto his wolf and take it back, but when I got freaked out and was doubting myself, it darted in and out of my consciousness to assure me that I was doing the right thing.

It was getting easier every time, and I didn’t need the reassurance quite so often as I got used to the wolf just encouraging me to go along with what I already knew to do.

Still, the best times were when Viktor and I were close, and the wolf and magic flowed freely between us both. As I figured out magic, Viktor came along. Whenever I was worried about something being too much, he’d just . . . do it. Seeing him succeed with magic that was ours was the most confidence-building thing I could imagine.

But I realized one Thursday evening when the house was empty and I’d been left to light the candles alone—meaning yes, with magic, because matches seemed a lot more likely to singe my fingers—that I’d never asked Viktor if it drained him.

I wasn’t worn out by my magic, but he could be, and I doubted he’d just come out and tell me if it was a strain.

I could hear him upstairs in our room, so I bounded up two at a time.

“Hey, I was wondering, are you okay with⁠—”

At the door to our bedroom, I came to a stop. There was Viktor, in a clean black shirt and jeans, stretching over the bed to lay out rose petals in a messy but balanced spray.

There were candles lit that my magic hadn’t brought to life.

And yeah, no one was in the house with us. At this time of night, that was . . . weird.

“Where is everyone?” I asked as he stood up and looked at me.

“Dinner at Henry’s. Did you want to go?”

I looked around, taking in the sweet scene and the flickering lights and⁠—

“Is this . . . for me?”

It certainly wasn’t for Viktor alone. He didn’t tend to care for this sort of stuff.

He cleared his throat, scratching the back of his neck. “I thought you deserved . . . ”

I stepped toward him, and he let me take his hand, slip my fingers between his.

That seemed to clear his head, because he met my eye and nodded. “I know our first time wasn’t the way you’d imagined your awakening. We can’t go back and do it again, but I wanted to give you something . . . closer.”

I stared up at him, my eyes stinging a little for just the right reasons. When I tugged on his hand, he came down easily, and I pressed forward to catch his lips. “It’s perfect.”

CHAPTER 47

Viktor

It was ridiculous, of course.

If there was a single wolf in the pack who was incapable of romance, that wolf was me. But that was an excuse, and I didn’t want to be the kind of person who made excuses for my poor behavior.

If I was lacking in some way, I wanted to fix that.

Buying a replacement for the destroyed bunny had been good, but also, Drew had led me to it. That meant it wasn’t really a gift from me, but the thoughtful young raccoon.

I had wanted to give Daire something from me. Something that could only be from me. And since I was the only one he was sleeping with, well . . .

The first time we’d had sex had seemed pretty bad to even me.

Not the sex itself, which I thought had been great, but the filthy cave and the “we’re going to die if we don’t fuck” part of it.

The whole time I was lighting candles and laying out blankets and then the freaking rose petals, I was telling myself that it was ridiculous. That Daire might not even notice, and if he did, it would make things awkward.