“You,” she huffed, “are full of shit!”Feeling emboldened by the fact that there was an entire bed between us, I stuck out my tongue. “Says the woman whose dripping wet because a man was finally mean to her!”“Oh, you little—”We wrestled back and forth for a few minutes before collapsing onto the b
AnastasiaI followed Caius to my bedroom. My pulse jumped when he shut the door behind us. Needing something to do, something to put my attention on that wasn’t my sinfully attractive husband, I waltzed over to where my suitcase lay on the bed.“What is it you needed to talk to me about, Caius?” I b
I could see him warring with the decision to drop the matter or press it further. Thankfully, he chose the latter.“That’s exactly what I think,” he nodded, “Does your father know about your enhanced speed?”For a split second I was tempted to tell him the truth about my ability. My mother had ingra
AnastasiaEvangeline returned a few minutes after Caius’s departure. She was unnaturally quiet about what happened in the bathroom. One thing about Evangeline was that she participated fully in gossip, even if said gossip was about herself.“Something happened back there,” I pointed out, still shimm
Once inside the nightclub we were swallowed up by the crowd. That didn’t stop Maverick and the handful of guys he’d brought along with us. The old warrior expressed his concerns about us going out tonight very boldly, but much to my own surprise, Caius had taken my side and agreed we needed a night
I took a swig from the bottle and winced as the tequila burned a path down into my belly. “I forgot you could read lips.”“I had to living with my mother and sister. Ugh, I clearly haven’t had enough tequila if I’m still thinking about them. Pass it over!” She accepted the bottle from my hand and to
AnastasiaSuddenly everything that had happened in the past several months came rushing back. All those insignificant little moments I had written off, too absorbed in my own troubles to look any deeper than the surface, played on a loop in my head.Caius claiming Damon hadn’t slept with a woman in
Oh, Goddess…“Mmm, funny finding you here.” Caius’s voice trickled down the mind-link. “Watching my brother and Ghost during one of their late-night trysts. Are you enjoying yourself, Anastasia?” His free hand, the one that wasn’t clasped over my mouth, flattened against my stomach. I jolted, press
The healer arrived then, knocking softly on the door. I didn’t pay them any mind as they entered, or as they touched around my forehead with cold fingers. My mind was lost, replaying Caius’s words.Once the healer left, taking with them my throbbing headache, I took a slow, steady breath and looked
AnastasiaCaius’s jaw clenched, his eyes flashing dangerously. A crack of thunder sounded from outside. “I should have torn them apart,” he growled, his voice low and menacing.I shrugged, trying to maintain my nonchalant facade. Caius’s rage was like being swept away in a storm. “You didn’t know. B
I watched in utter bewilderment as his face slowly transformed into a grin.“You steal my shirt, interrupt my hangover, and now you’re making jokes?”At some point we must’ve made it to his office, because he nudged open the door and stepped inside all without jostling my coffee. The retort died in
AnastasiaI had done an excellent job of avoiding Caius all morning. Or so I thought.Once Evangeline went home, I froze time long enough to make a mad dash downstairs. The throbbing in my head was relentless. Every werewolf knew magic and alcohol did not mix, but most of us were too stubborn to lis
“I’m doing this because I’m a good person,” I announced, purely because I was becoming more and more intoxicated, and I needed to remind myself why I shouldn’t go through with Evangeline’s revenge plot. This felt like the simplest reason. “Hype me up before I do something I’ll regret, and we both kn
AnastasiaEvangeline’s eyes shimmered with mischief. “I have a fun fact for you. The Windsor family spent upwards of 1.4 million dollars in PR firms, cybersecurity experts, and legal teams. They staged a scrub that spanned the globe, Ana. That takes money and power. It’s like CIA level shit. I’m tal
“Blackwell adventures.” As we descended into laughter, neither of us commented on the undertone of sadness in our voices, or how it fell upon the room like a dark shroud.I leaned back against the headboard and searched through the snippets of my memory. “There was something else. At one point the h
Anastasia“I’m a coward, aren’t I?” I brought my knees up to my chest with a huff. The bruises peppered along my body had healed long ago, but still I felt the phantom ache, the incessant reminder, of what had happened between Caius and I in that forest.I swore it was the mark playing tricks on me,
“This entire thing is incredibly barbaric,” I whisper-hissed. “They didn’t let me clean myself, as I’m sure you and everyone else know.”Radiating an air of pure smugness, Caius leaned down and murmured in my ear. “Because I ordered them not to.”As if on cue, an upbeat melody drifted through the ai