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He growled into my mouth and stood, lifting me with him. “Where’s your bedroom?”
“Upstairs to the right.”
He carried me up the stairs without any outward effort and laid me on my bed. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.”
I watched his bare ass as he left my room and then stretched out on my bed.
My body was sore in all the right places, and when my mind tried to interrupt, my afterglow banished all rational thought.
Nothing about what had just happened downstairs felt wrong.
CHAPTER 12
Zeke
My clothes werestill warm from the dryer when I stepped out into the frigid air. My breath came out in puffs as I jogged down the front steps. I glanced up at the light in the upstairs window, and a smile tugged at my lips just thinking about Ruby half-naked on that bed. I’d had plenty of wild nights with women over the years, but damn, I’d never been so hungry for anyone before. I couldn’t get enough of her.
I drove to the twenty-four-hour pharmacy, but with each mile, the blood flow started making its way back up to my brain, and my mind wandered back to Ruby’s vision. If it was a ritual, had they picked her because she’d be the leader of the Coven of Light? If they needed the blood of the high priestess, taking Lillian now before the transfer of power seemed easier. She was older. She’d be less likely to put up much of a struggle.
But if it wasn’t because of Ruby’s position in the coven, then why choose her?
I parked and walked into an invisible wall of heat as the glass doors slid open. I crossed the aisles until I found the one I needed while my mind chewed on the vision. Could it somehow be related to the PI who had been tailing her tonight? It couldn’t have been a coincidence that a law firm had sent him out to locate Ruby. But if it was connected, who would’ve hired him?
The ones who cut Ruby’s throat in the vision.
Just thinking it had my wolf growling in the depths of my soul. She was ours. And we’d die before we let anyone hurt her.
I made my way down the aisle of razors and shaving cream. At the end of the row, I snagged a pack of condoms from the rack and then headed for the cash register. I paid and walked back to my truck, still piecing things together.
What reason could the people have had to pick Ruby? She wasn’t one of those powerful Elemental Witches she’d told me about, and I’d already crossed off needing the high priestess because Lillian would’ve been an easier target.
Then, as I started my truck, Mathias’s words whispered through my memory.
Lillian saw you with cubs in her scrying mirror.
What if the ones searching for Ruby could use a scrying mirror to see the future, too? Maybe there was a reason they needed Ruby that the rest of us couldn’t see yet.
When I got back to Ruby’s place, my spot on the street was taken, but I found another on the other side. I parked and killed the engine, then raked both hands back through my hair. Enough thinking. I clenched my jaw, struggling to quiet my mind.
Across the street, the light was still on in Ruby’s bedroom. She was waiting for me. No pack and no coven tonight. Just us. I grabbed the condoms and got out. It wasn’t until I got up the steps that I realized a flaw in my plan. I’d locked the doorknob when I’d left.
I cursed under my breath and knocked. Nate erupted in a bout of ferocious barking. I attempted to soothe him through the door, but he wasn’t having it. Ruby had a ten-pound hellhound.
Even through the door, I had no trouble hearing the creak of the stairs as Ruby came down. Then the lock turned and my beautiful mate opened the door wearing the robe she’d tried to put on me earlier.
She smiled up at me. Her lips were still flushed and swollen from my kisses. “Locked yourself out?”
I nodded. “To be fair, other parts of me were doing all the thinking when I left.”
She laughed, and if felt almost as amazing as making her come. Seeing her happy, and knowing it was because of me, was a magic I’d never realized I’d been missing in my life. She stepped back and let me in, then locked the door behind me.
I caught her in my arms and kissed her, whispering against her lips, “That robe looks better on you than me.”
Her teeth grazed my lower lip as she smiled. “Wait ’til you see what I have underneath it.”
I arched a brow. “Is it wrong to hope you’re naked under there?”
She shrugged, the teeth catching her lower lip. “Could be.”
