Grey's POV It didn't matter that I stayed outside her apartment for another night. The guilt that remained continued well into the next day. Looking over a new case that came upon my desk early this morning, I couldn't help but reread the first sentence in repetition with my distracted thoughts. My
Elodie's POV I had every intention of walking into the day completely exiling myself from Grey Alluna. It didn't mean I kept from noticing his current visitor and the way he tensed as if the person was Lucifer himself. I'd never seen that look in his eyes before as he straightened from behind his d
"You have a choice. One of three...You can claim your pretty little Moonwhore until she's truly yours. Let one of us...Or win. What's a few more bodies on your already crimson conscience?" He looked to the floor between us, not quite able to meet my eyes as I was desperate for him to see mine. "He
Grey's POV No stranger to blood or this lifestyle I ultimately feared would be my dying destiny, I was soothed by a presence I detested. All because I didn't want her here. While the pain of the metal rod remained embedded in my shoulder, eating away my unnatural strength until I was more human tha
"They call it 'The Ropes'. It's a test to see who is strong and who isn't. Sometimes Aslan rigs it to train them and other times it's to win." "So why would you come back? I saw it on your face when you left with him that you didn't want to go." "You followed me here?" I shouldn't have been surpr
"What if I preferred the death you'd give me to theirs?" "You're saying this because of-" She silenced me with a finger to my lips, dropping it before I could continue before her interruption. "I'd like to think I make my own destiny, Grey." I hardened at the way she spoke my name as if kissing e
Elodie's POVFor the next few weeks, things became easier. The events of the intruders and the makeshift fight club faded as our connection grew. But it was also a few weeks since we shared anything remotely romantic. Flirtations came in abundance as I watched him throughout his day, but nothing cam
"Grey...""Something to think about..." He unlatched my stockings until they were a pile on the floorboard, next reaching for the edge of my panties. "Shoulders..." I wanted to shy away but I couldn't with how hungrily he looked at me. I licked my lips as I issued my ankles to either of his shoulde
Grey's POV “I had this entire plan to go to dinner and then the boardwalk. I’d even rehearsed what to say at least a thousand times today…But I realized that when you’ve lived through what we have, the promises were already there. To me, a ring a no ring, yes or a no, my heart is and always will be
Elodie's POV SIX MONTHS LATER I'd already been waiting three hours after his meeting and my patience was too thin to test. He'd been acting shifty all day, almost as if he was hiding something. In fact, I knew he had been with the way he shuffled away from me whenever I tried to look at the screen
"I swear to God if I survive this I am going to become a demanding girlfriend." I grinned at the title she gave herself that I loved hearing, even in anger. Maybe even more so. "I will do everything with a smile. Now please, baby, you have to go." She sighed before standing. Leaning over me with a
Grey's POV I wasn't lying when I told her it was a risk. Not only to dance with death but in the return. Knowing if I were to wake as a human that it would be without the strength needed to protect her from the elements now out of my control, I felt more vulnerable than being formerly encaged in si
"It was a risk, but I had a feeling it would pay off to bet on you.""What are talking about?""Kinsey explained how she was able to become a human after I killed her the first time. Tied to Aslan's line, he gave his life as Alden had done for you. Since you were the one to kill me...I was able to c
Elodie's POVI never wanted to be one of those girls dependent on anyone. But losing someone like Grey Alluna was as if the sky no longer held stars, the gravity was purposeful but hollow in my heart and my head, and the oxygen I was forced to take was more painful than needed. I took mindless step
"Now, I'm giving you your punishment." I came down on her as I had done over a decade ago, teeth sinking into her neck, as she whimpered beneath me. When she would awaken again, it would be in a transition once again. Born a wolf, she never had to feel that painful shift between human and beast, the
Grey's POV It wasn't the abrupt silence of the crowd or the taste of the blood fading from my tongue that returned me to my humanity. It wasn't even the pull of her pleas dragging that part of me to the surface in a painful lurch. It was the sound of her heart accepting death without regret. The wa
"You smell so sweet." His voice had even changed. Where a smokiness existed behind some words now came a thick brutality. It was almost demonic. "How I've never fed on you before is a wonder I won't force myself to take for much longer. But I like a chase..." He released me with my broken hand and