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Istared at Briar, unsure of how to react to the display. My physical initial reaction to her hadn’t worn off, the flesh still raised on arms, hairs standing at the base of my neck, and now my emotional side was trying to keep up.
A rabbit shifter. I expected someone small and weak—someone who cowered at the sight of me. Instead, she was wild, fierce and alert, and yet somehow inviting. Her nervousness was obvious, though. Her jokes she used as a defense mechanism were terrible. Even so, I had to hold back from smiling.
She was refreshing, like a welcoming fire in a cold, dark room. There was a connection I didn’t fully understand, a thread that flowed between us, binding our souls.
I was used to people being terrified of me; I was an immortal Original. But she didn’t cower, and to my utter shock, she didn’t even seem to know who I was. I ruled MacShire with legendary fierceness, but had her father kept her so sheltered that she didn’t recognize the face of danger when it was standing right in front of her?
Holy hell, Ash. Get your shit together!
I refocused on her face, trying to understand what it was about her that was completely befuddling my senses.
It wasn’t just that she was so much smaller than I had expected, her tiny rabbit form in dire need of protection, that gorgeous face terrified beneath the hysterical giggles. I suppose I had anticipated that of a rabbit shifter on some level, but this hiccupping mass was something else. She was the polar opposite of everything I stood for in a trembling, tittering pile of sexiness, and I couldn’t stop gaping at her, even if my face didn’t display an iota of how I was feeling within.
Every part of me wanted to wrap my arms around her and hide her from the next three weeks, to tell her everything would be okay.
“What is happening here?” I asked slowly, suddenly wishing I hadn’t sent Draven outside.
Perhaps this was some clever tactic for escape? But I didn’t think that was it, either. She was just having a breakdown in her upset.
“Hey!”
Briar buried her face in her hand, russet hair wriggling over pale fingers as she tried to shake sense into herself, but it didn’t appear to be working, and my exasperation resurfaced.
I didn’t need this. She was just supposed to sit quietly for the next twenty-one days, and then she could go home. Well, she could go home as long as her dad paid back his debt.
“Get it together,” I barked. “Stop giggling. Right now.”
My tone appeared to sober her slightly, and she straightened her body, pressing her lips together. Tears of amusement glittered in her eyes, but her body still shook as she struggled to maintain control, laughter still quivering her shoulders.
“Sorry,” she squeaked. “I can’t help it.”
“You need to stop doing that. It’s not going to help you.”
She nodded, and I read the internal battle running through her head, fingers twisting wildly through the blankets.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll try.”
I began again. “There are clothes in the armoire,” I told her flatly. “You don’t have to wear your nightclothes all the time.”
She looked down at her outfit and grimaced. “I saw that, but none of them fit,” she informed me. “And I don’t really want to wear someone else’s undies. That’s kind of weird—and unhygienic. I read about this case of someone catching a disease—”
“They’re not—” I inhaled and steeled my temper. “The clothes are new. Of course. I wouldn’t give you someone’s used underwear.”
I offered her a disgusted look. What kind of place did she think I was running?
She shrugged. “You kidnapped me. How am I supposed to know what you would and wouldn’t do? For all I know, this is your thing, kidnapping rabbits and keeping them for entertainment acts in used underwear.”
I wasn’t amused in the least.
“Do I look entertained?” I snapped, trying to dissuade her from spilling any more jokes. They were wearing on me, and she really wasn’t getting the severity of what could happen here. I needed her to pay attention.
“Not really,” Briar agreed. “But I don’t do my best work when I’m trapped in a room with a demon. Maybe you should catch my improv act at the Chuckle Hut.”
I exhaled slowly. “Do you understand what I’m telling you, Briar?”
She cocked her head to the side. “That you’re not coming to my improv show?”
I ground my teeth and studied her cobalt eyes intently.
