AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My beast growled happily at the idea of touching her in front of everyone.
“Since when have you been an exhibitionist?” I asked myself.
I flicked the turn signal before sliding into a parking lot. The neon façade of the Chinese restaurant wasn’t enough to distract me from my thoughts.
Addie wasn’t the same woman I’d met. The soft-spoken woman had grown a solid backbone since we’d met. My beast had snarled when Addie approached the witch, but that was something only Addie could do. I trusted her to put Bianca in her place.
I claimed my food order, all four bags, and carried it back to the rental car. The small sedan made me sigh sadly. Vince had ripped a tire off my brand new SUV, which had been difficult to explain at the auto-shop. They’d taken one look at the SUV and every brow in the shop rose.
The sedan did not have enough room for a wolf shifter…or for the other activities I wanted to try out with Addie.
I shook myself. The woman owned me heart and soul. It made me look back and see that I’d never been in love before. It was like I’d been waiting for Addie my whole life. There’d been an empty spot waiting to be filled. The chance encounter with Addie brought someone who fit perfectly into that aching hollow.
Now, if only I could fill this vast void inside myself. Barely a heartbeat after getting into the car, I ripped open a takeout container and shoved a steaming eggroll into my mouth. It seared my tongue, but the hunger in me cared little for my pain.
I had to fill it. I had to. The void consumed and consumed. It took everything I offered. Nothing was enough. If I wasn’t careful, I would take my fingers off, too.
Eggroll finished, I clenched my fists and pulled them away. My core clenched and demanded more. When I refused, pain rippled through my body like desperate claws trying to climb out of my body.
It wasn’t easy to ignore, but I did my best so that I didn’t devour the food I’d bought for Addie. When I returned to her, she would fill the void. Her arcana would slide into the emptiness that my soul had left when she’d taken it.
I knew I should have been upset that my soul was bound to her, but I couldn’t find it in me to care, really. Perhaps that was a side effect of the magic that’d taken my soul to begin with. If that was the case, then I was grateful. There was no point in suffering when I wasn’t going to fight this.
Addie owned me through and through.
I had no plans to change that any time soon.
The food made it back to Addie’s place nearly intact. My beast had given me the strength to keep from eating everything. I’d driven with my knee while shoveling fried rice into my face. It hadn’t been my best moment, but I was alive, and Addie’s dinner was still in one piece.
My stomach pinched and whined when I looked to the remaining bags. That feeling vanished the moment I opened the door and laid eyes on Addie.
She had her back to me, but that only highlighted the way her leggings hugged her musclebound thighs. A sliver of skin peeked out between the waistband of her leggings and the hem of her short shirt. The glimpse of her stomach had me mesmerized when she reached high overhead for a teacup. The shirt rose to reveal more skin, a soft stretch that I wanted to run my hands over.
Addie paused and glanced in my direction. As she scowled, a wave of her arcana rushed towards me. It washed through me and poured into the hollow like a waterfall. I sighed, finally satisfied—at least, in one way.
“Feel better?” she asked.
I groaned because I couldn’t speak yet.
Addie left the kitchen and came over to me to claim the bags from my hands. When she was close enough, her hands on the bags that I hadn’t yet released, I bent and stole a kiss from her. She tasted of toothpaste and mouthwash, which wasn’t unpleasant.
The sound of surprise that left her turned into a moan of pleasure. I thought about cupping the back of her head to deepen the kiss. I thought about lifting her and carrying her to the couch, so I could cover her with my body.
Addie needed food. She’d been unconscious for days, right after a difficult fight to save the world. She didn’t need me taking advantage of her right now.
I pulled back, but she lingered, her eyes closed and lips still parted like she was savoring the moment. Unable to help myself, I stole another. The empty ache in me finally subsided.
“I should be asking you if you feel better,” I whispered into her lips.
She laughed, a light giggle that betrayed her fluttering nerves. I needed to back off. If I kept pushing, I might overstep a boundary. But when I pulled away, Addie took the bags and gave me a command to follow like she couldn’t bear to be away from me, either.
I helped her up, so she could sit on the counter while she ate. Watching her delicately bite into the wontons made my stomach clench and my blood run south.
If I couldn’t find a way to live without her, then I would always be a leech on her power. I wanted to be better, for her. She deserved it. Addie had done so much. She’d made sure that she was the one to kill each time it had to happen. That wasn’t something I’d expected from her, and I had no idea how to give back other than to become a better version of myself for her.
