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I’d thought Bruno back at the coven in Earth and Emerald was a savage beast when it came to training in the gym, but between Ryder and Grayson, I felt as if I knew nothing about my body.
Well, I’d at least felt that way when we’d first started training.
A week later, I was growing muscles in places where muscles didn’t normally belong, and the charge from my wolf energy made me feel like I was on crack at times. She was ready to claim this land. To take what my sperm donor had destroyed. To make Fire and Fluorite a House the people here could be proud of again.
Not that my wolf spoke to me with words, but her feelings were loud enough—and mostly matched my own—that it made it easy to decipher how she felt.
The only thing we didn’t agree on was Grayson.
Every time I thought about him and the connection between us, her emotions were more hesitant. I didn’t understand why, but I also didn’t let that reluctance stop me from getting closer to him.
My body and hormonesmorethan wanted our demon-wolf mate, but I wasn’t being a complete fool. We still hadn’t had sex and, while our timeline to decide what we wanted before the heat was lessening by the day, I wasn’t trying to rush anything.
Ten days weren’t that long to get to know someone, but at the same time, it had felt more like a month had already passed, given we’d spent nearly every waking moment together.
I’d also really enjoyed learning who I was, something Grayson had been overly supportive of. I thought he’d have more issue with me fighting or being put into danger, but he’d pushed me hard, something I wouldn’t soon forget and very much appreciated.
While our beginning wasn’t something that should have been easily dismissed, after getting to know Grayson better, learning about his values and the integrity he had, I knew now that Grayson hadn’t been acting cruelly when he’d come after me.
Not only had he been under a magical influence, but he’d also thought I murdered children, for fuck’s sake. A soft spot for him considering his own sister had been ruthlessly killed. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, hold those first couple of days against him.
Maybe that was why my wolf was still prickly over our mate, and if so, she’d better come to the same realizations I already had, because Grayson was ours, whether she liked it or not.
Her presence lightly bristled in my mind, then eased off when my thoughts changed from Grayson to Markus and Lia. It wasn’t that I wanted to have exactly what my brother and friend had, but I’d begun to find myself wishing that my mate bond with Grayson could have been at least half as easy as theirs seemed.
I wasn’t sure if Markus and Lia had already made things official since that was a subject I’d rather not talk about, but they were almost a little too comfortable with each other, especially around other people, making me think it was more likely they’d already solidified things.
There wasn’t a time that I’d seen them this week without witnessing soft touches, passionate kisses, and longing gazes.
But I wasn’t jealous. Not when I’d had Grayson’s brooding, flamed-filled eyes on me constantly, demanding my best when we were training.
The passion between us hadn’t come from kisses. It had come from punches thrown during workout sessions, our sweaty bodies pressed together, and it had ended with dark nights, sharing the same bed.
Even my wolf couldn’t be mad when Grayson touched me and lit my body on fire with just a stroke of his tongue or the caress of his hand.
Though those weren’t thoughts I needed to be thinking about when he wasn’t around. Well, not unless I wanted to take care of business myself.
Except time wasn’t really on my side at the moment. I was just getting cleaned up from the day’s training session, and I could smell the dinner that Lia and Markus were cooking.
By the time I was dressed in loose, black pants and a green tank top, I tossed my hair into a messy bun and headed for the kitchen, hoping Grayson was almost back from the conversation he’d gone to have with Ryder.
“Shit,” I moaned when I exited the bedroom and rubbed a hand over my growling stomach. “That smells divine.”
The scent of garlic, some sort of red meat, and potatoes wafted through the air.
Lia glanced up at me, grinning as she chopped carrots. “Of course it does. I’m an excellent cook.”
Markus kissed the side of her head as he walked by with a sizzling pan. “You’re excellent ateverything.”
I almost gagged from their sweetness. So fucking close, but I didn’t want to hurt Lia’s feelings. She was a badass, but I’d learned she was rather sensitive, especially when it came to Markus.
She’d been alone a long time. Finding me, then him, felt like her family was starting anew. I wanted to say I felt the same way, especially since I was blood-related to Markus, but…I just couldn’t.
Not yet, anyway.
He was at least trying to connect with me, which I appreciated.
“You did really good today, Kins,” Markus said once he’d put the food back on the stove. “You made taking out four of those wolves on your own seem easy.”
