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I open my mouth to shoot back some witty retort, but my breath stills when I see what’s around her wrist.
A tiny knotwork flower charm on a leather thong. A witch’s mark for protection.
The gift I gave her on her sixteenth birthday.
She’s still wearing it?
Why is she wearing it when she hates me so much?
My throat closes over. I suddenly want to find that mint more than almost anything in the world. Except for pulling Lily on top of me and getting her to sit those long legs of hers on my face, but if I can’t have that, chocolate will do. Besides, I don’t particularly fancy waking up with melted chocolate all over me.
I start hunting through the sheets for it.
“Try under your T-shirt since I’m not wearing it.” Lily’s hand grazes the no-man's land between us as she gets comfortable.
Her fingers accidentally brush my chest, and it’s like someone connected my nipples to a battery with jumper cables.
“Here it is.” I draw out the little chocolate from between the sheets.
Lily’s eyes widen.
I hold it out to her. “You have it.”
“No, Brooks. It’s yours. Remember when your parents used to come back with hotel pillow mints, and you always gave themto Jackson and Orion?” She blinks. She’s so fucking beautiful that it hurts. “Now you’re old enough and ugly enough to have your own chocolates. You don’t have to look out for everyone anymore.”
“Yes, I do,” I growl.
“Besides, you’re paying seven million dollars for this room. You might as well get a free chocolate out of it.”
Fair. I unwrap my chocolate. Lily does too. I can’t stop staring at the witch’s mark charm on her wrist. We pop them in our mouths at the same time, and my gaze is captured by her lips. The corner of her mouth tugs up ever so slightly, and for a moment, just for a moment, something warm flickers in my chest. A flame, lighting my way back to her.
I snuff that shit out and roll over, kicking off the blankets. But I can’t stop the heat that blazes through my body at the knowledge of her, right here, a foot away from me, practically naked except for some bastard’s T-shirt.
The chocolate turns to dust in my mouth.
It’s going to be a long night.
11
ELEVEN: LILY
“Chase, why are we here? What’s wrong with you?”
I’m in the nurse’s office with my prom date, Chase. He dragged me here, his fingers gripping my wrist so tight that I have a red welt there. I lean against the edge of the bed while he paces back and forth, raking his fingers through his hair and shaking his head erratically.
Is it just me, or are his hands hairier than usual?
“Chase?”
“Lily, I—” He pivots towards me, but as he turns, his body twists unnaturally, muscles bulging from his torn tux, his limbs snapping and changing, his face elongating as his nose becomes a snout.
He topples forward, landing on his hands, which have become furry paws with long, violent-looking claws. The collar and tie from his tux still cling around his neck.
Chase pulls back his lips to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth and lets out a growl that chills my blood.
“Chase, I…I don’t know what’s happened to you. Did you eat the chicken at the buffet? You should never eat the chicken.” I back away as he leans on his hind legs, getting ready to pounce.
He looks…like a wolf, only he’s a wolf with Chase’s eyes, and he’s so large he wouldn’t fit through the doorway.
