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Wait.
Sheets. Bed. No mountain.
“Daisy? What’s wrong?” The concern in Orcus’ voice drags me fully back to reality. He’s guarding me on the bed and searching for any sign of threat.
My cheeks flame. It wasn’t real. I’m safe. It takes another few seconds for my heart to get the message. I scrub my hands over my face to erase the last vestiges of the cyclops nightmare. “I had a bad dream,” I say into my palms.
“You’re okay?” he half-growls the question.
I move my hands and peer up at him. He’s kneeling on the bed, hair mussed, and chest heaving. Great. My silly nightmare got him all worked up too. I smile and hold my arms out for a hug. “I’m okay.”
He yanks me from my seat and smashes me against his chest. “Thank fuck. You screamed like you were in pain.”
“Sorry,” I mumble into his chest. “A cyclops was chasing me in my dreams and it felt so real. I thought for sure I was going to die.”
“I should’ve killed him,” Orcus grouses, referring to my first encounter with the cyclops.
He doesn’t even know about the second.
“Um. About that. I kind of… maybe… ran into another, or the same, I don’t know, but what I’m trying to say is when Prometheus and I came to find you, another cyclops tried to take us out.”
Orcus goes preternaturally still. Every molecule in my body goes on high alert. A lash of rage snaps through the bond, but then like it never happened, the emotion is gone.He stonewalled me, I realize. Capped his emotions to keep me from feeling them.
“Orcus?”
“Don’t. Talk.”
“Um, ex-squeeze-me?” Right, the rational mind would be screaming that now is not the time to push the giant ogre when he’s already clearly pissed, but there’s a tiny devil inside my head who hearddon’t talkand is running full out at Orcus with both hands poised to shove him. “I know you’re my mate and all, but you can’t talk to me like that.”
“Daisy,” he growls.
“Orcus,” I growl right back and push away from his chest, grabbing hold of his tusks and attempting to use them as a pull up bar, but I have no upper body strength. I push off his arms with my feet instead. My thigh screams in protest and I wince. A deep, displeased sound rumbles inside his chest. Once we’re nearly face to face, I squint. “I’m serious, grumpy. I’m not the type of woman you tell to shut up.”
“I didn’t tell you to shut up.”
“Don’t try to semantic your way out of this argument,” I whisper though I’m anything but calm.
His navy eyes bore into me. For a moment, I think he’ll try to fight with me, but then he relents with a simple nod. “All right, little flower. I won’t tell you to shut up.”
“Good.”
A hard crease forms between his eyebrows. “I need you to tell me about the cyclops.”
“Are you going to get mad at me?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
He sighs. “I won’t be mad atyou. I’ll be mad at past you for not taking better care of yourself so future you could be here with me now.”
“I mean, I’m here, right? I think past me did pretty good.” Is there a smug grin on my face? Maybe. Does Orcus appreciate my sense of humor? Absolutely not.
“Explain. Now,” he growls.
There’s no reason not to tell him other than knowing he gets unreasonably upset when I’m any way in danger.There are worse things than having a mate who cares for you. There’s something about that protectiveness that I want to cling to. For so long, I didn’t have anyone.
“Okay, okay.” I release his tusks and a moment later my back is slamming into the mattress. I gasp in surprise as the ogre comes down on top of me, hands on either side of my head and hips pinning mine. “I thought you wanted me to talk.”
