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This one made me ache.
“Did I behave?” Her eyelids weighed heavy while a sheepish grin appeared on her lips. “Can I see you again?”
“You can see me tomorrow.”
It wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the truth either. I couldn’t muster up the strength to explain how complicated it would get if we were involved. She was a keeper of an inn. I was a lone wolf living in the mountains avoiding vampires who seemed hellbent on my destruction. We weren’t a good match. Far from it.
That didn’t matter an hour ago. I rolled my eyes while ignoring my wolf that urgently yelped for me to drag her back into the room and to the bed.She needs to be protected.
I blinked away the thought.
The danger was gone. Whoever saw fit to attack me in the open like that wasn’t going to do it again, not tonight. The sun would be rising too soon for them to catch me off-guard.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered as though it were the most hopeful thing she had heard in ages. “I’ll hold you to it, Matéo.”
The softness of her voice lured me in.
Kiss her, my wolf urged.No one else can have her.
I frowned while bowing my head to Rose. “Goodnight,fleur.”
“Goodnight.”
Every molecule in my body screamed for me to keep the door open. Pushing through that singular desire hurt more than forcing myself to run with bone-deep wounds. The resolute sound of the door clicking shut pinched my eardrums, sending me marching to the bed where I nuzzled into the sheets.
Cotton candy. Brown sugar. Bubbles.
Such an exquisite aroma trickled from the fabric and surrounded me. A memory of my mother slithered into my mind, luring me into a meditative state.
You’ll know when you meet your mate, my mother claimed.Whoever it is will feel like the most comfortable blanket in the world. They’ll smell like home. They’ll make you want to do nothing else except lay with them.
And then she would smile at my father with this look on her face like nothing would ever harm her again.
Fury boiled inside me as I dug my fingers into the mattress.
Something did harm her again, I reflected.And she never had a fighting chance to survive it either.
The bed rumbled, vibrated, buzzed with the weight of that memory on my shoulders. Screams crowded my ears and launched me out of my comfortable nest, causing me to pace around the room. Six feet to the door. Seven feet to the bathroom. Four to the bed. The suite was compact but cozy enough for the likes of me.
My cabin was better, preferable, but it didn’t smell likeher.
I scrubbed my head, feeling the hair growing back in from my most recent buzz. My heart rattled my sternum and made it difficult to breathe, to think, to consider any of my options. Were there any options left other than sleep?
I closed my eyes. I pictured my mother with her hands buried in the dough. I listened for her voice, that silky sound lacing its way through years of heartache.
The songs she would sing in the morning always drew me out of my bed.
Until the songs stopped.
I opened my eyes, the quietness of the suite alarming me. After locating the remote, I turned on the television and plopped into the sheets, the scent of sweet, succulent sugar assaulting my senses. Nothing made sense. But she made sense.
And thattrulydidn’t make any sense at all.
***
Leaving the warmth of the Orchid Suite made me question whether or not it was necessary to get back to my cabin. Of all the things I could have considered in that moment—food, gas, a brand-new silver dagger—staying wasn’t one of them. What would the Sunrise Mill Inn be able to offer me that I couldn’t find in the land surrounding my cabin on the mountain?
Besides, the altitude bothered vamps. No idea why. They just didn’t appreciate the thinner quality of the air like wolves did. And with the ranch within the eye line of the porch, I could keep tabs on the pesky pricks who continuously harmed that pack.
