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“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Drago’s not convinced and does something completely out of character. He lowers his gaze to me. A tiny omega. “Do… do you regret being with me?”
The question knocks the air out of my chest. How could he even think that? “What? No. Absolutely not.” I waste no time hopping back on the bed to make my point that much clearer. I nestle my head in the hollow of his shoulder, drape an arm and leg over his body, and give him a full body squeeze. “Huh, you know I expected cuddling wouldn’t be very comfy with all these muscles, but…” I squeeze him again, breathing in his sharp, ozone scent. “But you’re surprisingly comfy.”
He grunts an affirmation of sorts, but remains silent.
I take another breath and try to put myself in his shoes. Not that long ago, I all but rejected him. It’s reasonable that he’s wary of my attitude change and expecting the other shoe to fall.
A mindset I’m all too familiar with.
So, I make it my job to fix it. I sit up and stare down into his face. His handsome, deadly, scarred face. “You listen good, Alpha. I don’t regret any part of what we just did. Not one bit of it. In fact, I’m looking forward to doing it again.” And again and again and again…
I pause, searching his face, his eyes, for any sign that I’ve made it through to him. His gaze remains dark and expressionless, and I debate whether telling him what I was truly worried about is a good idea.
He searches me in return, looking for the truth for some time. I’m about ready to get up and show him the sheet when he finally opens his mouth to speak.
“I scent the truth in your words. And I look forward to our next encounter as well.”
Drago’s gaze softens at my smile, and I’m overcome with the need to kiss him.
So I do.
Without warning or wasted motion, I lean over and plant one right on his plush lips. He doesn’t move, doesn’t dare breathe, as I gently press my lips to his. I pull his bottom lip between my teeth and give it a quick, sharp bite.
Drago finally comes to his senses and starts kissing me back, bringing his hand to the back of my head and pressing me to him tighter.
“Mmm, you even taste like caramel,” he murmurs against my lips.
When I finally pull away, head spinning and breathless, words just start falling out of my mouth. “I’m so sorry I misjudged you. I decided who and what you were before I asked, and that was really stupid and selfish. I’m sorry I caused you so much pain when I sent you away.”
Drago pushes a strand of hair from my eyes. “You’ve already apologized and I’ve already forgiven you. There’s no need to bring it up again.”
I nod, but words keep coming. “Why do you freeze up sometimes? Just now, when I kissed you, and before, a bunch of times, you looked like you were willing yourself not to move too much. Do you still think you’ll scare me off because—”
“I do worry about that, yes. But that’s not what I’m doing, Willa.”
I meet his dark brown eyes, which I’m just noticing have a gray ring around the iris. Not steely, like when everything about him changes, just a gray border instead of black. “What then?” I ask.
“I’m fighting for dominance of my body,” he says solemnly. “Something you’ve made much easier without even realizing it.”
I sit up, and Drago follows suit, although he doesn’t bother trying to sit cross-legged like me. As big as his tree-trunk thighs and calves are, I doubted he even could. “What do you mean?”
Drago stares at me for several minutes and I give him the time and space to figure out his next words. “Sometimes, when I take an alpha’s power, a bit of him remains.”
A shudder of dread runs up my back at the macabre notion. Are those alphas locked in his being somehow? Is Drago battling for dominance of his body with disembodied zombie alpha souls? OK, even I had to admit that sounds ridiculous.
“What do you mean, remains?”
“Remains within me. A bit of their personality, linked to the magic they sacrificed, stays within me. I’ve been dealing with it for years, ever since the first alpha I killed.”
My stomach dips to the floor as his words sink in. Yup. Zombie alpha souls. “So you’ve got all the wolves you’ve killed in there with you?” I could hardly imagine…
“Yes and no. It’s only the very strongest of them, and only sometimes. Those times usually occur when I’m distracted, and lately, that happens most often around you.”
“So they’re not in there constantly yammering away?”
Drago rewards me with a small smile. “No, thank the stars.”
