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Draven’s eyesnarrowed as if processing what she’d just asked. His mouth remained in a firm line and his fists clenched at his sides. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he was angered by her request, which didn’t bode well for her.
She parted her lips to plead her case, but before she let out a sound, Draven tipped his head back and a guttural laugh echoed through the basement. It was the absolute last thing she expected from him, and contradicted every nonverbal cue he’d given. But she couldn’t deny the way his laugh struck her and for a moment she forgot to be mad, captivated by the boyish grin and deep dimple on his left cheek that made him seem lighter, younger. But then the moment passed; Draven stopped laughing and opened his damn mouth.
“I will not be turning you, Flora.”
“Why not?”
Draven leaned back into the corner of the sectional, draping his arms on the tops of the pillows. “Callum may be gung ho about turning you Culling women, but there’s not a chance in hell you’ll get me to do so.”
“And why is that?” she scoffed, “Do you somehow think you’re better than them?”
“Darlin’,” he tipped his head toward her like a perfect southern gentleman, and Flora nearly swooned despite the fact that she wanted to smack him. “I know I’m better than my asshole brother. You’re freshly out of a relationship that you have been in since you were born.”
“Since I was five,” she corrected. If he was going to insult her he might as well get the facts right.
“That’s exactly my point. You haven’t lived. There is so much life for you to experience before you go and alter who you are forever.”
“But—”
“And don’t let those royals tell you that it doesn’t alter you. It does. Your instincts are no longer your own. They are that of a monster. You are what, twenty?”
“A gentleman doesn’t ask a lady’s age.”
Draven let out a deep chuckle. “I’m no gentleman, Flora. I thought we had established that. I’m the thing that looks pretty on paper but damn well goes bump in the night. My point is, you're a child in the grand scheme of things. If I turn you, you’ll miss out on the best parts of being human.”
Flora pressed her lips together, and inhaled a grounding breath. Not that it did her any good. She may not be hundreds of years old like he was, but she was not a child. In fact, she’d been through more before her time in the Culling than many of the women there had faced in their entire lives. She may have been treated like a princess but she was the furthest thing from one at her core.
“You don’t know a single thing about me or the life I have or haven’t lived. You say I couldn’t possibly know what I want. That I’m going to miss being human, but in my experience, being human is overrated.”
“How could you possibly know that? You know nothing of the world outside your prim and proper castle. You’ve never slept under the stars or watched the sunrise over the ocean. I’d bet you’ve never gotten shitfaced drunk, made questionable decisions and then sopped up what’s left of your dignity with shitty diner food. For fuck’s sake you’ve probably never even slept with a man, much less fucked one.”
She was going to enjoy wiping the smug smile off his face when he inevitably unraveled her past, because there was little doubt he would. If she was forced to go home, to step foot in the town that nearly broke her time and time again, there was a good chance she wouldn’t survive. She didn’t need all the things he’d listed to experience humanity; they were the light and fluffy parts, the emotional parts she’d only dreamed of. They were the happily-ever-afters she’d watched Emery find with August before it all went to shit. Which only further proved her point. Happy moments weren’t real life. Life wasn’t made up of just those incredible moments of humanity.
But that didn’t stop her from wanting them. She just didn’t think she’d ever have them.
Flora swallowed hard and tried to hide the way she shifted in her seat, clenching her thighs together. She opened her mouth to berate Draven, but a split moment of insanity changed her course. “Convince me I need all those things.”
Heat filled her cheeks as the realization of what she’d just said hit her. She’d been flustered by his accusations. How spot on they were and how much she wanted to experience those things. Not just one of them, but every single one.
Draven’s gaze narrowed, his lips tipped in a wicked grin. “You want me to fuck you?”
Did she? She couldn’t deny the instant attraction she’d had to him from the moment she’d entered The Howler. He wasn’t her enemy, and he wasn’t altogether a terrible person as far as she could tell. But the biggest check in the Allow Draven to Ravage Her column was she might not live long enough to meet another man who made her tummy flutter and vagina clench. And wasn’t Emery always saying to take life and make it her bitch?
Flora tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, and hoped he couldn’t sense how nervous she was. “And if I said yes?”
Her truth hung between them and though her cheeks heated with embarrassment, the shock on Draven’s face made it almost worth it.
“Do you really want me to fuck you, Flora?”
“Yes.” She whispered past the nervousness that he would reject her again. “I’ll never understand why I need to be human for any of the things you mentioned. Mortality isn’t always a gift to be treasured. But that doesn't mean that I don’t want to live before I die. It just wasn’t an option for me before.”
“Some of us weren't given the choice in our mortality.”
Flora studied the way Draven’s gaze fell with his words. This may not have been about her mortality in the way he expected, but for him, mortality and staying human were important, and she had to know why. “Do you regret being born a hybrid?”
“It doesn’t matter what I feel. I have had nearly a century to come to terms with it and make up for that piece of my soul I never recieved."
“And if that piece of my soul was lost long ago?”
