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“I’m so sorry, Grayson,” I said softly, squeezing his hand tighter.
His head shook gruffly. “Don’t apologize. It wasn’t your fault, and I got my revenge. A few demons at a time. Including my father.”
“Did it make you feel better?” I asked genuinely.
Grayson shrugged. “In some ways, yes. None of the demons I killed would be able to hurt anyone else. Knowing that helped, but it took years to process the real grief that I’d temporarily been able to push down while I hunted them.”
My other hand reached up and briefly stroked his cheek. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”
One side of his lip lifted slightly. “I figured you deserved that and probably more, but enough about me for now. Are you doing okay?”
“All things considered, yeah. I’ve wanted to find a life beyond Earth and Emerald for years. Sure, I could have gone without being kidnapped, but the end result is going to be the same.” I added a wink, trying to lighten the heaviness around us.
“How do you know things will be the same?” he asked with a tilt of his head.
“I just do. Something about all of this feels right.” I paused. “Not like Lia’s intuition or anything, but being here doesn’t make me nervous like I’d expected it to after everything I’d heard about this House.”
Grayson’s eyes darkened. “What do you know about your parents?”
That was a swift change in conversation.
“Nothing,” I answered. “Well, besides the fact that there was a woman I assume was my mother who left me at the coven when I was a baby.”
He looked away and nodded before turning back to me with a softer look. “About earlier. Do you know much about mates?”
I knew enough. Or at least, I had thought so before he’d asked me. Once I’d learned what I’d considered to be the basics, I’d decided I hadn’t needed to know anymore.
Well, assumed instead of decided. When I’d accepted that romance wasn’t going to be in the cards for me unless I found a way to escape my coven, my attention had shifted to fictional love stories. Fantasy and supernatural romance that I had lived vicariously through and that had helped me get through the darkest of my lonely days.
“A little bit,” I answered honestly. “It was easy to know who you were to me when I saw you. The energy that connected us didn’t seem like it would accept being ignored. I also knew about the rejection, but that was more because Sally Jones had been rejected and the whole coven felt her wrath and it was gossiped about in length.”
Grayson didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You still have the opportunity to reject me until we have sex.”
ThatI hadn’t been aware of. I mean, I should have known there was an expiration date on kicking him to the curb, but I didn’t realize there was an action associated with that.
“Oh.”
He smirked. “You say that a lot when you’re surprised.”
“Well, it’s better thanmother fucking hell, don’t you think?” I countered with a raised brow.
“No, I don’t actually.” He licked his lips, and I badly wanted to kiss him again, but this was the first time we’d actually talked without fighting. I wasn’t ready for that to be over yet.
“So that’s why you didn’t want to have sex with me?” I asked, feeling slightly better than before.
His chest rumbled. “I absolutely want to have sex with you. I just knew better than to let you do something before you were fully aware of the consequences.”
I was pretty sure I was supposed to be happy about his reply, but I wasn’t sure how I felt.
Maybe I was still on a high from leaving my coven and experiencing so much in such a short time. Maybe it was the bond or possibly even being in this House. Or maybe this was just how things were supposed to be and a part of me already knew that.
The part that was feeling extra connected to the things and people around me. That wasn’t afraid of whatever was coming next.
His eyes darkened and stared up at me. “There’s one other thing.” He paused. “When the full moon comes this weekend, you’ll have a deadline to decide about the bond. For shifter women, you go into heat after meeting your mate two weeks after the lunar cycle completes. It lasts two-to-three days, and resisting sex is rather difficult. Or so I’ve been told.”
Another “oh” was at the tip of my tongue, but honestly, the timeline wasn’t an issue. Not when I took a moment to think about how I felt and what I wanted.
I might not have known Grayson intimately, but he’d shown me enough and, as long as we could keep from fighting daily over the next three weeks, a deadline wasn’t an issue.
