Page 122

Kade

Outside, the sun shone over Callum on the first wintry day. Frost embedded in corners of the windows, and the fire blazed with extra strength against the cold.

Tangled in their half-nakedness, Kade and Evelyn had explored every inch of each other the last two days as they came down from their victorious triumph. He trailed her spine with his fingers as she slept. She released a sigh at his touch, and Kade couldn’t get enough of how responsive she was. Her sounds. Her cries.

The way she said his name before she fell off the edge of sexual bliss.

He also loved how she drove him mad with need. Her touches. Her kisses. Stars above, the way she worked him.

They’d yet to lie together and complete their fated mates bond. The way their eyes met during passion, the question brewing between them. Where Kade would be over her, so close to her entrance, or when Evelyn would straddle him, her wetness coating his length, and evidently ready for him.

Physically, they were both ready.

Yet, Kade wanted to know if she was with him. She’d promised, but he wanted to be sure. Storm season was over. Ships were coming and going from the harbor. Before they shared that depth of intimacy, before they fully bonded with the flesh, Kade needed to hear Evelyn was with him. That they’d leave Callum and travel home to Sorin together.

They’d solved the murders. They’d defeated the White Lady.

He felt selfish. Horrid, even. Her feelings for him vibrated through their bond. He knew her intentions, knew her truth, and yet he feared his desire to fulfill their duty would drive her away.

You’re staring again, Evelyn said through their mind-linking.

He smiled, impressed that his mate had mastered a werewolf ability so quickly. It had come in quite handy in the sheets when they were too breathy to manage words. As she turned, he stared at the ceiling instead of her nipples pressing against her tunic, ready for him. If he wasn’t careful, he’d go against what he wanted.

“Kade,” Evelyn said with concern in her tone. She reached over and drew her fingers through his beard. He turned to face her.

She lay on her stomach, leaning on her forearms. Her dark hair spilled over her shoulder. Sleepiness still rimmed her silvery gray eyes, but moons, they were ethereal, ensnaring Kade like the first day they’d met.

“Come home with me,” he whispered. The words fell from his mouth in far more of a plea than he’d anticipated.

For a moment, Evelyn said nothing. Moved nothing. Her breath stopped. Her hesitation pushed Kade into a spiral of disappointment, until Evelyn rose, draping her leg over his hips and sitting atop him in a glorious straddle.

Ever so slightly, she rolled her hips over him, and stars above, he wanted to take her right then and there. His earlier goal to wait be damned.

“And why should I do that?” she whispered, cupping his cheek.

Though there was a little playfulness in her tone, Kade knew what she wanted to hear. Not because it was their duty. Not because she was Daughter of the Goddess. And not because they had vampyrs to defeat.

Because I love you.

Kade did not say the words or mind-link them. No. He stared at her, at her beauty, at her ability, at the sheer force of this woman and what she could do to him. And then she smiled. Wide and happy.

“Because I need you,” he said, running his hands up her thighs. She shut her eyes at his touch. “Because I’ve never wanted anything more in life.”

It was the truth. He wanted her more than defeating the vampyr. He wanted her more than fulfilling his duty.

“I know your sisters and coven—”

“No,” Evelyn said with a shaky breath. “I may be afraid of what they’ll say and think. Goddess knows I’m more petrified of what your pack will think of me, too. But”—she paused, staring so deeply into his eyes, she may as well have been talking to his soul—“I will not let that stop me from being by your side. It’s what I want, too, Kade. Us. I promised after we found justice for Aster that I would come with you, so I am ready when you are.”

Relief rushed through Kade, and he kissed her. Fervent and happy. She wanted to be with him, to go home and stay at his side. He broke their kiss and held Evelyn to him as he leaned over the side of the bed. She squealed as they moved as one, laughing into the nape of his neck.

“Kade, what in the world are you doing?”

He rummaged in his sack, feeling what he’d been looking for. He tipped them back upright, holding Evelyn to him with one hand and clutching a necklace with the other.

A white, pearly stone that shimmered with the colors of a rainbow hung in the center of the chain, the winter sun illuminating it like the moon.

“Blair told me to give this to you when you were ready,” he said. “I figured now felt like a good time.”