Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Ivan decided he didn’t understand cats. “It’s the only viable option.”
She sniffed, tapped her foot. “I need to be with the cubs and Yariela tonight, but this conversation isn’t over. I’ll find you tomorrow.”
Ivan wasn’t a good man. He knew that about himself. For one, he had no trouble putting a bullet into the head of those who took advantage of the weak, then dumping their bodies where no one would ever find them.
But he had never been a liar. “We met before I found you in the snow,” he said coldly, knowing he had to snap the thread between them while he still could. “You saw the monster in me and chose to walk away.”
Instead of flinching at the bomb he’d dropped without warning, Soleil cupped one side of his face, tilting her head in a quintessentially feline way. “I figured that out already, beautiful.” A slow smile. “My cat isn’t in the habit of marking strangers—and as for the walking-away part, no.”
“No?”
“I don’t need my memories to tell me that I would’ve never just walked away from you. You’re too important to me, Ivan Mercant.”
Ivan was lost. That was when Soleil wrapped her arms around him, her cheek pressed to his chest.
Ivan didn’t know what to do, where to put his hands.
“Hold me back,” she ordered.
No more walls left, he enclosed her body in the circle of his arms. For a long, silent moment filled with the scent of her, the warmth of her, he could almost pretend that he was normal, that he could be like Silver, like Canto, even like Arwen. That he could love, and be loved in turn, and have a person who was his own.
Then crystalline sparks flared against his irises, and he knew his thoughts for a delusion. He’d been damaged long before he could protect himself. And the damage would hurt everyone with whom he came into contact. Sooner or later, he’d self-destruct—but before he did, he would steal pieces of anyone close to him.
It was wired into his brain.
Breaking away from Soleil, he took a jagged step back. “I can’t find the psychic thread that connects us. When I do, I’ll cut it.”
Soleil folded her arms again, raised an eyebrow. “Did you feel my blood bond with Lucas?”
Ivan thought of the jolt of primal energy that had prickled over his skin, raised the tiny hairs on his nape. “Yes.”
“That’s a changeling thing, not Psy. You won’t find a link to cut.” Leaning in, she put a hand on his shoulder, her lips close to his ear. “And my cat is supremely possessive of you.” A pause. “Do you want out of this?”
He wanted to lie, wanted to tell her to set him free. “I’m not normal, Soleil. Not any kind of normal. Even among Psy, I’m not normal. And you have other priorities. Focus on them.” Turning before she could respond, he walked away.
SOLEIL stood there for the longest time, staring after the beautiful, deadly man who’d vanished into the dark, her soul stretched in two. Her cat wanted to chase him until he told her what haunted him. It was convinced that he needed her—and the human side of her agreed.
His loneliness and hurt was a knot in her heart, a thing old and scarred.
Yet she also needed as much to be with Yariela and the cubs, their need as potent.
“Soleil, sweetheart.” Tamsyn’s voice. “Come inside. I’ve made up a room for you.”
The cubs’ warily hopeful faces in her mind, Soleil made herself move her feet and walk into the house, where Lucas now lounged on the cozy kitchen sofa, under “attack” by four cubs. Two ocelots and two leopards. Growling, he gripped Natal by the ruff of his neck, only to let go when Razi and one of the twins pounced to rescue their friend. It was obvious all five were having a grand old time.
Had Ivan ever played this way, so young and carefree?
A whisper of skirts against her legs, her laughter floating in the air as she turned to look back at the man who chased her. Fleeting glimpses of a face in shadow, of eyes of striking predator blue.
Oh. Oh. We played.
She clutched at the memory, fought desperately to unravel all the pieces of it, but it floated away, lost in the mists inside her mind—just as Yariela tucked her arm through Soleil’s, the scent of her a piercing symbol of hope.
“It’s something, isn’t it?” her mentor murmured. “To see an alpha be so with the smallest of hearts?”
Chest tight, Soleil nodded. “Where’s Nathan?”
“Tracking your Ivan out of the territory.” She patted Soleil’s arm when Soleil jerked toward the door. “Don’t worry, Leilei, they know he’s yours. I think they’re tracking him more to make sure he’s safe than because they’re worried about trusting him.” Soft eyes. “The way that man looks at you, mi ángel. He’d cut off his arm if you asked.”