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Chapter Ten
Niko hadn’t known whatto expect when she came out—hell, he hadn’t even been sure she would come out. Not willingly, at least.
He’d heard the conversation with Meridia and damn his hide, he’d known he was crossing a line by not tuning out what was meant to be private. But he’d found himself starved for the sound of her voice.
Clenching a hand into a fist when he heard the door open, he turned. He told himself he was braced to see that haunted, wounded look, braced to see her huddled in on herself yet again.
He wasn’t bracing for angry defiance.
Zennia Day stood there wearing a dress of a soft, spring-like green over a white top and tights. Boots went up to just below her knees and they were the same shade of brown as the jacket she wore. A long chain hung around her neck, a pendant the shape of a willow tree dangling from it to rest between full, sweet breasts.
She’d scraped her long, wavy hair of rich, deep brown back into a ponytail. The thick streak of rich ebony entwined with the chestnut brown was even more obvious with her hair in such a severe style, her heart-shaped face unframed.
Her mouth was naked and unsmiling.
Freckles dotted her nose and cheeks, just as they had ten years ago.
And eyes like pale green ice stared into his.
“Zee.”
She folded her arms across her chest.
Unwittingly, his eyes went to her left shoulder and he remembered that first night—the only night when he'd allowed himself to touch her as he'd wanted. Not in every way, not even close. But he'd given in to the hunger in some ways, stroking her, touching her, bringing her to a climax that had left her loose and limp, even as he'd ached to take her fully, completely claim her in every way.
He’d marked her. She’d been stunned to see the claiming mark on her shoulder when she’d gone to pull her top back on, her cheeks hotly red, chest heaving. Everybody will see, Niko!
That’s the whole point, baby. I want the world to know you’re mine.
But she hadn't been ready for anything beyond their hot, passionate make-out sessions—or that bite. If he touched her again, he'd push for more. So he hadn’t.
Did she still have the mark?
Or had it faded?
“Why are you here?” she asked in a toneless voice.
It was effective as a slap, instantly cooling his blood, chilling the heat of his brutal hunger. She wouldn’t make this easy for him.
The twin beasts inside him stirred, lips peeling back from his fangs in approval.
Good. We don’t want her broken.
He thought of Meridia’s words to her from earlier. You’re like a willow. You bend. You don’t break.
“I’ve come to take you home.” Dipping his hands into his pockets, he braced himself for... something. An explosion, a refusal. Although he’d heard her refuse the Regnar’s blatant offer of shelter, he wasn’t stupid enough to think that meant much when it came to him... to them.
“I am home.”
He battled back the anger and the protective drive that pushed him to lash out, to order her to the car so they could leave. The sooner she was back in Appalachia, the better.
But he had no right to demand anything of her, no right to command anything of her.
“This isn’t your home,” he said quietly. “You have no pack here, no family.”
“Neither my pack nor my family has ever done much of anything for me, Prime. So I found my own family.”
“And look how well they’ve cared for you,” he bit off before he could stop it. “You’re weak, hungry for touch and pack.”
