Page 74 of Endless Anger (Monsters Within #1)

I lean in, noting that Noelle’s face has paled, now as moon-white as mine and Quincy’s. She blinks rapidly, then gives her head a little shake, and when I glance back over my shoulder, the professor is gone.

“Sorry,” Noelle says with a little laugh. “For a second there, I thought I’d seen a ghost.”

Her hand trembles when she tucks her hair behind her ears, but then she keeps skipping along, dragging Quincy with her, and I pretend I didn’t notice shit.

When I look back at the burning house, I swear I see the professor once again, staring up at it. Hesitating maybe. Or thinking.

But then he walks on, disappearing into the Fury Hill nighttime.

I leave my sisters on campus and head straight for Lucy’s apartment, not even bothering to knock when I skip up the steps to the front door. She, Cora, and her sister are all sitting in the living room, arguing over a dog collar.

“Oh good!” Lucy squeals, jumping to her feet with the orange fabric in hand. “Asher can help settle this.”

“Please,” Logan snorts, rolling her eyes. “He’s your boyfriend. Of course he’s going to agree with you.”

“I’m her boyfriend? I don’t remember being asked to date,” I say, my eyebrows arching as Lucy comes to a stop inches away from me.

She’s in an old T-shirt of mine and a pair of oversize sweatpants, and I want nothing more right now than to peel them off and fuck her on every surface of the apartment.

But I don’t, for obvious reasons.

“You guys have been practically married for twenty-two years,” Logan continues.

Their mother throws a small white pillow at her youngest child. “As the future mother-in-law then, I think Asher should favor my side. I changed a lot of your diapers as a baby, you know. You pissed on me many, many times.”

My nose scrunches up. “Not helping your case, I’m afraid.”

“Well, I’m also your mother’s best friend, so I can just call her?—”

Lucy glares at her mom. “Just because you’ve enjoyed kissing Elena in the past doesn’t mean he owes you anything!”

Cora laughs, twisting the piercing in her nose. “There was no kissing, my sweet child.”

Ew . I snatch the collar from Lucy’s hands, turning it over. “Whose was this?”

“A foster from right before Luce left for college,” Cora says. “Which is why I think it should stay with us. Plus, Lucy loses things.”

“Not sentimental things!”

“But I can just put it in your old room for safekeeping,” Cora continues. “And maybe if you find your way back there at some point instead of wanting to stay here?—”

“ Mom .”

I’d figured Alistair would have the harder time adjusting to the fact that Lucy wanted to finish her education at Avernia, but in truth, Cora was initially completely against it.

Even now, it’s clear the collar thing is little more than a ploy to lure Lucy back to Aplana, and I can’t say I’m against the idea.

I don’t want Lucy here either, but I refuse to make decisions for her anymore, even if they’re supposed to be in her best interest. If I want this relationship to work, the trust between us has to go both ways, and I can’t intervene every time something comes up.

Except right now.

“If we keep this thing,” I say, unhooking it, “I’m just going to want to see it on.”

Lucy blinks. “On what?”

My hands whip out, bringing the open collar around the back of Lucy’s neck. I drag her to me, grinning wolfishly. “ You , pup.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cora says, stomping over. She grabs the collar, then bends and gives her daughter a kiss on the forehead. “Logan and I are going to get out of here before things get any weirder. Love you, baby girl.”

“Love you, Mom,” Lucy mutters, shoving me back until they’re at the door.

Cora turns, pausing in the doorway as Logan slips through it. She mouths something to me, protectiveness flaring in her golden gaze, and I nod.

Keep her safe.

I’d die in order to do so.

When the two are gone, shutting Lucy and me inside the apartment alone, she slings her arms around my neck and kisses me hard.

“You’re a pervert,” she says against my lips, grinning. “My dad is going to throw a fit when Mom tells him what you said.”

“They’ll live.” I back her over to the faux-leather sofa in the living room, lowering her onto it and climbing between her legs.

“Besides, I didn’t tell them everything I would’ve done to you in that collar.

Like…I don’t know, bending you over the arm of this couch and rutting into you like a wolf in heat.

Coming deep inside your sweet, pretty little pussy until you had tears in your eyes and were begging me not to stop. ”

I nuzzle her neck, nipping at her skin, and she giggles.

“Fair,” she whispers, running her fingers through my hair. “You were a very good boy.”

“I can be even better,” I tell her in a soft voice, slipping my hand beneath her shirt, feeling her nipple pucker under my touch. “Good thing you asked me to move in, huh?”

She pauses, pulling back. Confusion blankets her beautiful glacial eyes. “Wait, what? I didn’t…” I just look at her until her jaw falls open, her entire face brightening. “You want to live here with me?”

“Do I need to beg?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be opposed…”

I kiss her again and again until we’re a dizzy, panting heap of warm, damp flesh. That isn’t something I’ll ever tire of for as long as I live.

“Does this make you my boyfriend?” she asks as I drag my teeth along her throat.

“I’ll be whatever you want me to be, baby.”

“Boyfriend it is. We can work up to other stuff maybe.” She sighs contentedly, stroking my hair as I make my way to her chest. When she feels the Saniderm on my neck, she freezes, tugging at my shirt. “What is that?”

Sitting up, I pick at the bandage until a corner comes loose, and then I tear it off the rest of the way, wincing at the slight bite of pain as dry ink and plasma are loosened.

“Is that my bite mark ?” Lucy asks, eyes wide as she smooths her fingers over the tattoo.

“You left your mark on my heart a long, long time ago,” I say, kissing her fingertips. “Just thought I’d make the impact a little more obvious.”

And when she seals our mouths once more, I really lean in to the sensation of being in her arms. Of never having to leave them.

Because when I’m here, tangled up in her moonlight, my anger doesn’t feel so endless.