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I clung to that as the alpha stepped toward me, even if the dream turned to ash, leaving something bitter on my tongue.
“It was…” I swallowed back my nerves as Umbra and I stepped into the classroom. “It was an attempted bond,” I said, proud of how steady my voice was. “A normal bond.”
Not a dark bond and not a princess bond reserved for mates. It was supposed to be the best I’d ever be offered…
Umbra nodded, seeming to digest that, but didn’t ask anything else. I could feel him scrutinising me as we reached the booth at the back of the auditorium, his sandstorm eyes catching every part of the discomfort I was trying to hide.
The memory stuck, though, throwing me off balance.
“Why is Dusk keeping me from them?” It wasn’t the question I’d planned on asking, but it came out anyway with an undercurrent of pleading. “Why does he care?”
Of course, it was Umbra too, but I knew Dusk was at the heart of it.
Umbra cocked his head, pinning me with an intense gaze. “Because he wants you.”
Again, the answer was infuriatingly simple, and I couldn’t argue with it. Umbra’s eyes dropped to my lap where I’d balled my fists.
“You won’t hate it forever?—”
“I’m not staying forever, and if I do, I will.”
The faintest smile quirked on the edge of his lips as he tugged a textbook from his bag, even if we were early.
“He could have chosen anyone,” I hissed. “And they’d have wanted it.”
“Dusk claims almost nothing in this world, but when he does, he’ll splinter it to pieces before watching it be stolen away. You’ll never find another man as devoted as him. Scent matches—even bites, they don’t stand a chance.”
I stared at Umbra who was still casually flicking through textbook pages as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb like that on me.
“Hecan’ttouch me if they bite me.”
He just chuckled like it was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard.
“What about your next question?” I asked.
“I’m thinking about the perfect one.”
I frowned. I’d thought he would ask me again about the bite—I’d braced for it.
We sat in silence until the lecture began, and it was hard for me not to get swept away by it.
“Lap, my sweet Little Nightshade,” he said a few minutes after the lecture began.
“What?”
“Sit on my lap.”
“No.”
He looked delighted. “Is that an invitation into your nest tonight?”
I swallowed, eyes darting around the huge room before shifting toward him. Butterflies rose in my stomach as he dragged me close, fitting me between his legs. I was swallowed entirely by his crisp scent of wolfsbane and blood.
“See, that’s better,” he murmured as he tucked my hair behind my ear, touch trailing down my neck for a moment before it vanished. “Now you can study, and I won’t die of boredom—and before you start looking. Yes, they are in this class, and they’lldefinitelysee you with me.”
I tried to stifle my growl, but only half managed it, which got a snort from him. Tomorrow, I reminded myself, I had Omega Studies. The damned class might terrify me, but I would finally get some time away from them, and they wouldn’t be able to humiliate me in front of my mates.
I could feel the faintest vibration against my back as Umbra hummed contentedly, occasionally adjusting me in his lap. Every time he did, he would take me by the thighs, each hand almost enough to circle them, and shift me.
