AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Zen
Iwaited until I was sure that Calliver had taken Mirielle out of the club and finished my drink in sulky silence, ignoring the many who approached me for my attention. I didn’t bother with the glamor spell again, and my presence made it a free-for-all with all the horny couples and females in my midst.
But I wasn’t interested in anyone but Mirielle. I wanted to finish what I’d started with her, even though it had been such a stupid idea to pursue it.
Her succulence clung to me, the whiff of her sex lingering on my lips, comingling with the drink and drawing me into an unsettling place of intoxication now.
I was trying to reconcile what had come over me—what was still overcoming me.
At first, I’d just been sitting there, watching Mirielle’s alluring movements, her hands falling over the sexy curves of her soft skin. The next thing I knew, I’d been unable to stop myself from seizing and tasting her, burying my face deep inside her. I’d never done anything like that before, not under a circumstance like this.
It wasn’t like I had found her at Harbinger’s. She was someone I had sworn to keep at arm’s length, and now…
Did she put a spell on me?
It was the only explanation I could think of for how I was so drawn toward Mirielle when I should be treating her as nothing more than an apprentice.
I shouldn’t have invited her into the castle. She shouldn’t have stayed. I need to talk to Endora about who she is and why she’s really here.
Abruptly, I stood and stalked out of Harbinger’s, my arms falling away from my body disappointedly as I moved.
I shifted and ran back to the castle from the club, Landon on my heels, but he was well in my dust before I ducked into the Bellewoods for a midnight sprint, eager to burn off the pent-up energy that threatened to consume me whole now. I also didn’t want to run the risk of encountering Mirielle, who I had a feeling might be waiting for me on the third floor of Silverhold Tower, wanting to discuss what had happened at the club.
I had no response to give her. I wanted it to happen again, and next time, I wanted to fuck her, but I also couldn’t allow it.
Rushing through the thicket of brush, the forest looked much different in the night light than that of the peace of day. A whole other atmosphere lingered over the vast space, the nocturnal creatures emerging to prowl and prey, a smell of danger that didn’t faze me but would unnerve anyone who didn’t know the place as well as I did.
At first, I wasn’t sure what had inspired me to go to the woods, but I let my senses guide me, and I inevitably found myself back at the caves where I had first found Mirielle, the pitch blackness hardly a deterrent, despite Landon’s disapproving growl from behind me. I hadn’t managed to lose the guard after all.
Ignoring my shadow, I slowed my paws to account for the rocks inside, accounting for the dewiness of night, head raised, snout sniffing.
The cold mist of the falls touched my snout, and I sniffed the air for something I had missed the last time—some clue, some understanding of how Mirielle had come to be there. It hadn’t seemed as important as it was now that she was building a home in my head—and in the castle. I didn’t want to let her in without knowing everything about her, but how could I when she didn’t know anything about herself?
“Alpha.” Landon’s tone was alarmed from the entranceway of the cavern. “It’s not safe here at night. It’s barely passable during the daylight hours.”
He knew his comment was rhetorical, and I was going to do what I desired, anyway, but standing there in the damp darkness, I knew there was very little I could do there now. Whatever evidence there had been was certainly washed away by the lagoon, and even with my stellar night vision, I wasn’t apt to find anything here, not when I’d let so much time pass. The trail was colder than the Simonian Falls themselves.
I backtracked through the woods, Landon shifting back into his mountain goat form and following behind me, his hooves cracking unevenly over the fallen branches.
The castle was half lit when I trotted across the rose gardens. No one working at this time of night. I paused to shift and change by the double glass doors, keeping a watch out for any staff, and for Mirielle, who I sensed was back. Her taste lingered on my lips, even after the whiskey and the run. But if anyone was around, they didn’t show themselves, and I made it back to my suite undetected, although I lingered outside of the closed doors of the north wing for a moment longer than necessary.
A shower will cure me of this hold she’s got on me,I told myself, but as I stole along the shadows toward my chambers, I was suddenly and vehemently opposed to washing Mirielle off me.
I wanted her smell on me… at least for that night. One night wouldn’t do any harm. I’d shower in the morning.
* * *
By morning,hints of Mirielle remained on my skin, but I found it easier to make my way into the ensuite and turn on the hot water than I had the night before, confirming my suspicions that I had been mesmerized by her.
It was a spell,I determined, scrubbing furiously with a bamboo loofa.She’s been working me somehow.
Water swirled down the drain, disappointing me as I realized what I’d done, but I silenced the sensation and forbade myself from letting my mind entertain any thought of her.
Shutting off the taps, I released a cloud of steam from the sauna shower as I emerged, wrapping a thick terrycloth towel around my waist. But as I moved to wipe a hand over the mirror, I heard a gentle knocking at the outer door, and I grimaced.
“Who is it?” I yelled, stalking across the floor, my feet leaving damp footprints against the polished wood as I ventured through the sitting room.
“It’s me, Z… Alpha. It’s Mirielle.”
